Shane Van Gisbergen Wins First NASCAR Cup Series Race In Mexico City

Shane Van Gisbergen Wins First NASCAR Cup Series Race In Mexico City

by June 15, 2025 0 comments

MEXICO CITY – New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen dominated Sunday’s Viva Mexico 250 at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez to win the first-ever NASCAR Cup Series race in Mexico.

The last time Gisbergen visited Victory Lane, it was in his debut start in NASCAR’s inaugural visit to the Chicago Street Course back in 2023. On Sunday in Mexico City, Gisbergen started on the pole in the Trackhouse Racing No. 88 Safety Culture Chevrolet, battled wet and dry conditions and led a race high of 60 laps en route to the victory.

“It’s been a tough start to the year, but there’s been a lot of bright spots lately, a lot of progress, and today was — that last stint I struggled to enjoy it because I’m just praying that a yellow wouldn’t come out, but the car was just, like, unreal, just so balanced,” Gisbergen said. “And yeah, kind of took off to a lap time and thought, maybe the 48 (Alex Bowman) is cruising, maybe he’s not, and then they just blew off. Yeah, those last 10 or 15 was pretty special.”

Although Gisbergen made the day’s performance look fairly easy, he was struggling quite a good bit due to an illness.

“Yeah, yesterday after qualifying I just went really downhill and couldn’t keep anything in,” Gisbergen said. “Everything just went straight through me. I missed a lot of stuff pre-race which is a shame, so I apologize to people for missing that. They gave me a couple of whatever it was, and it took a while in the race to feel better. I felt really queasy. My mind was clear but my body, I just had so much pressure in my stomach. But yeah, crazy weekend and everyone dug deep. Everyone banded together.”

With the win, he will now compete in the NASCAR Playoffs for the first time in his career.

“Yeah, it means everything to us,” Gisbergen said about making the NASCAR Playoffs. “That’s essentially why I’m here, right? But I am getting better and more competitive on ovals. I said earlier, my average oval running position has gone from 85th to 10th to 20th or 10th to 15th on a good day.

“Like we’re really making a lot of progress and sort of not been forcing. I’ve been methodical, got better every got better every week, and it’ll been really fun working with my 88 crew all year, but the last couple of months, yeah, it’s been great to show some improvement and be competitive.”

Finishing second on Sunday was Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell. The driver of the No. 20 Mobile 1 Toyota started the race deep in the field back in 31st; however, by the end of Stage 2, he was running second. In the closing laps of the final stage, Bell made his way around Alex Bowman and attempted to chase Gisbergen down in the last 10 laps.

“I thought it was really well done,” Bell said about the first Mexico trip for the NASCAR Cup Series. “I haven’t had any bad experiences throughout either one of my trips to Mexico City. I thought the weekend was overall a success. I hope you guys enjoyed the race. For us, it was a good solid day; not good enough. I think Shane was definitely the class, but nice to get a top-three out of the weekend and go on to Pocono.”

Chase Elliott finished third in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Llumar Chevrolet. Elliott struggled in the rain but as the track dried, his car came to life, and he made his way through the field to earn his first top-five finish since Talladega back in April.

“I mean, I think the racetrack went through a little bit of a transition, obviously, after it dried out,” Elliott said. “When it was wet, it was pretty chaotic. The paint was really slick. Had to be really disciplined through some of those sections. I really struggled when it was raining. Then when it dried out, I thought our car came to us, and we started to get, I thought, competitive from that point forward.”

Bowman who had been strong all day finished fourth. Michael McDowell rounded out the top-five. Completing the top-10 was John Hunter Nemechek, Chase Briscoe, Cole Custer, William Byron and Chris Buescher.

Ryan Preece won Stage 1 and Gisbergen won the final two stages.

There were 14 lead changes among eight drivers. While Gisbergen led the most laps, Ty Gibbs was out in front of the field for 27 laps. He finished a disappointing 11th considering the strong car he was piloting.

There were six cautions for 16 laps. The largest crash of the day occurred on Lap 8, when Kyle Busch lost control in the rain and took out several drivers in Turn 1. Eight drivers were caught up in the accident. The NASCAR Cup Series will visit Pocono Raceway on Sunday, June 22 for The Great American Getaway 400. The race will broadcast live on Prime at 2 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images

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