WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. – Shane Van Gisbergen can’t be stopped on road courses. On Sunday at Watkins Glen International, the Trackhouse Racing driver won his fourth consecutive road course race this season, and once again, it was Christopher Bell finishing runner-up.

Gisbergen started the Go Bowling at The Glen outside of the pole and throughout the 90-lap race, he led three times for a race high of 38 laps. In the closing laps, he cruised to victory as he outran Bell by a dominating 11.116 seconds.

“Good to get that one back,” Van Gisbergen said in reference to coming up short to Chris Buescher last year. “Thank everyone for coming out. What an awesome race. The last stint was a bit cleared out, but the battle coming back through I had a lot of fun. Thank you to WeatherTech, Trackhouse. Car was just amazing again. To get another win, and I definitely gave that Bus Stop wall another meter on that last lap, but yeah, awesome.”

Sunday’s win was a special one for Van Gisbergen. His mother passed away last year and this weekend in New York, his father was in attendance for the first time since her passing.

“Oh, it’s just amazing to have him here,” Van Gisbergen said. “It’s been a very tough year for Dad. He hasn’t been able to travel, so to have him here for the next three weeks and share this with him, it’s amazing.”

Bell finished second in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 DeWalt Toyota. He had a ton of speed in the closing laps as he raced this way through the top-five to end the day runner-up. Finishing behind Van Gisbergen is getting old for Bell. He lost to the New Zealander back in June at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez as well.

“Happy, yeah,” Bell said. “I’m thrilled. We’ve been struggling a little bit to find a rhythm. I feel like the car has been good, but executing the races has been tough for us. Really awesome to have a good day. Frustrated to get our butts kicked by the 88 (Shane Van Gisbergen) car. He’s doing a really good job. That team has it going on. We need to find a little bit more, but certainly happy. It was a good day for DEWALT Camry.”

Chris Buescher’s third-place finish marks his first top-five since June at Pocono Raceway. He entered the race as the defending winner and once again, he had another strong run as he ran up front for a good portion of the event.

“We had a really fast race car again, just definitely took the opportunity to capitalize on some big stage points there early,” Buescher said. “Still got back up into second there and was making some pretty good headway. But just used it up really hard trying to get by a couple cars and get to that track position, and fell off pretty hard there at the end.”

William Byron and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top-five. Polesitter Ryan Blaney finished sixth, followed by Daniel Suarez, 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick, and Ross Chastain.

Buescher won Stage 1 and Blaney won Stage 2.

There were eight lead changes among six drivers.

The caution flew three times for eight laps. No caution was for an accident on the track and two were for conclusion of stages.

Following Sunday’s race, Buescher is 34 points ahead of the NASCAR Playoffs cutline. His RFK Racing teammate Ryan Preece trails, followed by Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch who is 102 points out.

Hendrick Motorsport’s William Byron leads Chase Elliott by 42 points in the Regular Season Championship standings.

The NASCAR Cup Series will visit Richmond Raceway on Saturday, Aug. 16 for the Cook Out 400. Live coverage will broadcast on USA at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Photo Credit: Chris Graythen/Getty Images