For the second time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, Shane van Gisbergen is a winner.

He started from the pole Sunday and claimed the first-ever Cup race in Mexico City at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. The 36-year-old is known as a road-course specialist. His first victory came in his debut — the 2023 Chicago Street Race.

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SVG’s margin was huge, too. No other driver finished within 16 seconds of him.

Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott also notched top-three finishes. Let’s check out the full finishing order.

NASCAR standings: Results from Cup Series race in Mexico City today

1. Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88

6. John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42

27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47

(This story was updated to add a gallery.)

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR today: Results, winner of Cup Series race at Mexico City

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Sunday in Mexico City, Shane van Gisbergen (SVG) was nearly unstoppable, driving off with the victory by almost 17 seconds. It ended up being the biggest margin of victory in any Cup race since the 2009 season. Christopher Bell finished a distant second with Chase Elliott third, but neither could even see the Trackhouse Racing Team driver at the checkered flag.

The weekend started with aircraft issues that delayed his arrival to Mexico City and on Sunday morning, he had to cancel an appearance with NASCAR on Prime as he battled an illness. But none of that would deny him the victory on Sunday in a race that even featured a stint in the rain.

“What a week,” said Van Gisbergen “I’ve really enjoyed myself here. I felt pretty rubbish today leaking out both holes. That wasn’t fun. Thank you to SafetyCulture, Trackhouse, Chevy, and ECR engines. Our car was amazing. I think the #54 [Gibbs] was close, but that last stint, man, what a pleasure just ripping lap after lap and watching them get smaller in the mirror. Unreal.”

Watch: ‘That was epic’: SVG describes how his race-winning car felt all day

On the radio communication to slow down, which SVG refused to do, he explained that “when I go slow, I just lose concentration, so I was trying to stay in a rhythm and a routine, and Josh [Williams, spotter] and Stephen [Doran, crew chief] are doing such a great job keeping me calm and focused. Man, that was epic.

The final run of the race lasted over 30 laps, but SVG managed it to perfection, ensuring no one could challenge him. The New Zealand driver now has two victories in the Cup Series with the first coming in the inaugural running of another event — the 2023 Chicago Street Course. This win vaults him from 33rd in the standings to the playoffs, joining teammate Ross Chastain, who won the Coca-Cola 600.

Behind the podium finishers,  Alex Bowman and Michael McDowell filled out the top five. John-Hunter Nemechek, Chase Briscoe, Cole Custer, William Byron, and Chris Buescher rounded out the top ten.

Stage 1

Shane van Gisbergen, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

The initial start was clean as the Trackhouse teammates worked together with SVG leading the way over Chastain. However, the caution flag flew for rain falling down on the track.

While most of the field pitted for wet-weather tires, Cindric and Buescher boldly chose to stay out on slicks. In the chaotic restart that followed, Gibbs managed to take the lead while Cindric and Buescher dropped through the pack. 

Kyle Busch lost control under braking on the approach into Turn 1, spinning wildly out of control. He slammed into Kyle Larson, Justin Haley, and A.J. Allmendinger. Both Chase Briscoe and Zane Smith were also collected.

Busch was unable to continue while Larson spent a third of the race in the garage making repairs. On the restart, it became a battle between SVG and Gibbs for the top spot with SVG prevailing, but he ultimately gave up the stage win in favor of short-pitting. 

Gibbs followed suit, allowing Ryan Preece to claim the stage win.

Stage 2

Ty Gibbs, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Photo by: Chris Graythen – Getty Images

SVG was fifth for the start of the second stage, leading those who switched back to slick drivers. The front four were all on used wets and they were not able to hang on for long. But it was all part of the plan as they planned to pit a few laps later anyway.

Halfway through the stage, Ryan Truex (filling in for Denny Hamlin) went for a spin, causing a caution. Van Gisbergen went on to win the stage as Gibbs chose to pit just before the stage break. 

Stage 3

General view

Photo by: James Gilbert / Getty Images

The beginning of the final stage was hectic, with lots of contact and several cars spinning. Chastain, Stenhouse, Hocevar, Preece, and Truex all lost ground due to spins or notable incidents. 

On Lap 62, the final round of green-flag pit stops began with Bell ducking to the pits. Van Gisbergen followed suit two laps later, but before Gibbs could pit as well, everything changed.

Hocevar went for a spin in the final corner and stalled, forcing a yellow flag that proved costly for Gibbs. SVG cycled back to the race lead and avoided the restart chaos behind him, quickly pulling away from the field. 

And while drivers fought over the lesser positions and there were some minor incidents, the caution flag never flew again. Of note, Hocevar and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. had another run-in, despite recent comments from the Spire Motorsport driver promising to back down the aggression. After the race, Stenhouse stuck his head into the window of Hocevar’s car and appeared to shout at him.

Shane van Gisbergen — winner: “What a week. I’ve really enjoyed myself. I felt pretty rubbish today. Our car was amazing. I think the 54 was close. That list stint, man, what a pleasure just ripping lap after lap. Watching them get smaller in the mirror. Unreal. I’ve been privileged to have some great (cars) in my time, but when I go slow, I just lose concentration, so I was trying to stay in a rhythm and a routine, and Josh and Stephen are doing such a great job keeping me calm and focused, and man, that was epic.”

Christopher Bell — second: “He was really good. Ultimately it was just a third-lpace day. I thought Ty was really good, the yellow flag bit him, and we walked away with second. More than anything, it was just me. I need to do a little bit more homework to figure out where I can be better to keep up with these guys. The Joe Gibbs Racing team brought an amazing Camry, and I can’t really say it was my car that was lacking. It was on me this weekend. Happy for Shane. There’s a lot of pressure for him to come out and do well in these road-course races, and he sets the bar for us.Happy for Shane. There’s a lot of pressure for him to come out and do well in these road-course races, and he sets the bar for us.”

The Trackhouse Racing driver qualifies for the 2025 playoffs with his second career victory.

Chase Elliott — third: “The restart was (chaotic) for sure. I felt we were in a really good spot. I was super excited about having tires, and we got in front of (Ty Gibbs), and I thought that was going to be the race for the win, initially. I got clear of (Ross Chastain) and (John Hunter Nemechek). I started settling in, and I didn’t have anything left. I was kind of cooked after that. I think we pressed so hard to get through traffic, when it got singled out, I didn’t have a lot of pace left. I felt I gained on them a little while, but it was pretty tough sledding to get to that point, but we pressed on. I’m proud of our group for just sticking with it. We were up and down all day. Finally got going there a few runs from the end, and Alan made a good call to get us on tires. Finally had a restart go halfway decent and got a decent top three out of it.”

Alex Bowman — fourth: “Running well probably made it easier than it could have been. Just proud of the whole team. I put us behind this week. In full transparency, I couldn’t walk on Wednesday, so I missed all my sim stuff, all my meetings. Just trying to get back going. I had a lot of help from a lot of people to fix whatever the hell was going on, and thankfully enough, I was able to run all the laps this weekend. Honestly, my goal this weekend was just to come here and run all the laps and end up with a top five. I definitely will take it. Proud of Blake and all the guys. I wish I wouldn’t’ have burned the tires off so bad at the end, but we were pretty decent. It’s been neat. I’ve never been out of the country before. Certainly, this week has been a lot. Travel for this week has been a lot with what I had going on. I wish I could have walked around the city and enjoyed it a lot more than I did because I just laid in a hotel bed all weekend. It’s a neat spot. Have to thank my girlfriend, Chloe, for picking me up off the floor and getting me some help. Yeah, it’s been a heck of a week.”

Michael McDowell — fifth: “We know we need a win to get in the playoffs. Proud of everybody at Spire Motorsports. We had an alternate strategy. Without that caution, it would have worked out pretty well. Passed a lot of cars at the end. Top five, proud of that. Not what we came here to do. We’ll build on it. We’ve got a lot of good road courses coming up, but this was an opportunity I think we let slip away.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s comments were caught by Carson Hocevar’s in-car camera after the race.

John Hunter Nemechek — sixth: ““Hats off to this whole team. PI’m super stoked on a sixth-place finish. Our road course program has not been good here, so solid run for us after the last three weeks we’ve had – two wrecks, and not so good run in Nashville – we needed this as a team to get back on track. Had a lot of text messages from my wife (Taylor) and had a lot of text messages from Jimmie (Johnson) yesterday. I was pretty down after qualifying, and beating myself up pretty bad, but we executed during the race. I got spun out a couple of times and still came home sixth. Hats off to Travis (Mack, crew chief) on the strategy. He called a really good race, and we were able to execute and come home sixth. Proud of the day.”

Chase Briscoe — seventh: “We just had a really good Toyota. It is sickening getting torn up that early, and all the aversity we had to go through because our car was really, really good. I don’t know if I would have been good enough to beat Shane (van Gisbergen) – but certainly, probably would have run better than seventh. It is a testament to my guys. They could have given up in many points during the race, and they continued to just fight. I want to say Happy Father’s Day to my dad, and congrats to Shane too. That whole team is almost the 14 group from last year.”

William Byron — ninth: “Today was hard fought for sure. We started behind where we would want to be but we were able to use strategy and make adjustments that got us good track position. I’m really proud of our team’s effort to turn things around today. We’ll take the top 10 and head to Pocono.”

Ty Gibbs — 11th: “I don’t know what they do on restarts where they check everybody up and then everyone just rails each other. That is where I got a little nose damage, unfortunately. Sometimes life just doesn’t work out for you. You just have to keep digging.”

The Trackhouse Racing driver will race for a championship despite being currently ranked outside the top 30 in the points standings.

AJ Allmendinger — 13th: “Honestly, I felt like we were going to have a really good car, even the way it felt in the rain. It’s easy to say that, but I really thought the car had a lot of speed. For as destroyed as it was, we still had decent speed and it drove well on wet and dry tires. I definitely think we could have ran top five all day, but unfortunately, we’ll never know. Just proud of the guys; from the way we started this weekend, we kept fighting and making it better. We had something there to be competitive and have a really good run. Our 16 group did everything they could to keep me out there and I’m never going to quit on them. just absolutely frustrating day, but proud of the effort for days like this, just keep fighting.”

Ryan Blaney — 14th: “Good points day for our 12 group and proud of the effort all weekend. I felt like we had a shot at a top-10 during that final run but came up a little short at the end. It was a great experience here in Mexico City and it was cool to see it all come together the way it did.”

Erik Jones — 17th: “Today was honestly a roller coaster. We had so much speed that first stage and even got bonus points. I think we could’ve worked our way back into the top-10 for the second stage if it weren’t for that flat tire. I’m still proud of my No. 43 Toyota team for giving us a fast car this weekend. We’re working on improving our road course package, and I think you’re seeing that overall.”

Austin Cindric — 18th: “All in all, it was a great experience getting to race in Mexico City for the first time, and everything about the weekend was unique. The conditions and strategy definitely made for an interesting race, but I’m proud of the effort from our No. 2 team.”

Daniel Suarez — 19th: “Our race was up and down. In the rain, we were decent, and then once the racetrack started drying out, I don’t feel like we were great, but we were still in the hunt. Unfortunately, the gamble didn’t work out. Honestly, I felt like today I gave my best, and it just wasn’t good enough. I wish I was in the mix a little bit more, fighting up front. It just wasn’t in the cards today. I’m happy with our performance, because I felt I left everything on the table. But it just wasn’t meant to be. The car was good. Not great but good, and the strategy didn’t work out. Nobody’s fault, the strategy just didn’t work out today. “It’s definitely a weekend I will remember for a very long time. I feel like everyone in NASCAR, we have a made huge impact this weekend racing in Mexico.”

Joey Logano — 21st: “Just a couple unfortunate moments early on that set back our team and forced us to flip our strategy. We never really had a chance to recover from that but still proud of the effort from the 22 team this weekend.”

Austin Dillon — 28th: “I’m proud of everyone in NASCAR for coming together to bring our sport to Mexico City. I just wish our Chevrolet team could have had a better end to the race weekend. We had some positives, such as finishing sixth in Stage 2 to earn stage points. We were just too tight for the majority of the race. Our RCR team kept fighting and put us in position to salvage a solid finish. Unfortunately, I got spun with less than 25 to go and we couldn’t make up any ground in the final stretch. That’s how these races go sometimes. We’ll take it and move on to Pocono.”

Kyle Busch — 37th: “”Just in the rain, and I went down into 11 and got on the brakes pretty hard. Everything was fine, everything was comfortable, stopped really good. And I’m like, ‘OK, I can be a little more aggressive getting into 1,” and I figured it was going to be fine, and as soon as I went to the brakes, it was like being on ice, and I was just sliding. About a second and a half or so, I was trying to figure out which direction to go, and I was like, ‘I’ve got to turn this thing around backward, because I’m going to nail some people.’ Hate it for all those involved in my mishap. Hate it for RCR, ECR. The car in qualifying was really good, and I felt we were going to be really sporty in the dry. I hate that the rain came, and now it’s nice and dry. Just have to go fight for more points in another week.”

Shane van Gisbergen qualified for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs with his second career victory on the circuit, dominating the inaugural race at Mexico City.

The Trackhouse Racing driver became the 10th driver to win in 2025 with his first top five this season (his previous best was a sixth at Circuit of the Americas).

After winning in his Cup debut on the streets of downtown Chicago in 2023, van Gisbergen earned his second victory in his 30th start. He led a race-high 60 of 100 laps to become the 33rd driver to win multiple Cup races on road courses (and the eighth to win their first two races on road courses). He also joined Fireball Roberts and Chase Elliott as the third driver with two inaugural road or street course wins.

The Trackhouse Racing driver turned in a dominant performance for his second career Cup victory.

The margin of victory was 16.567 seconds, the largest in Cup since Texas in November 2009 (25.686 seconds) and the largest on a road course since Riverside in 1979 (32.9 seconds).

Christopher Bell finished second, followed by Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman and Michael McDowell, who earned his first top-five finish since joining Spire Motorsports this season.

The win by van Gisbergen will shake up the regular-season points standings. He had entered the Mexico City race in 33rd place and 130 points below the cutline — the second-deepest deficit for a playoff driver to overcome with a win (Harrison Burton was ranked 34th before his Daytona win in 2024.

With van Gisbergen now locked into the playoffs, Chris Buescher holds the final provisional spot on points in the 16-driver field. Buescher is 19 points ahead of Roush Fenway Keselowski teammate Ryan Preece.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s comments were caught by Carson Hocevar’s in-car camera after the race.

MEXICO CITY RESULTS

1. Shane Van Gisbergen, No. 88 Chevrolet
2. Christopher Bell, No. 20 Toyota
3. Chase Elliott, No. 9 Chevrolet
4. Alex Bowman, No. 48 Chevrolet
5. Michael McDowell, No. 71 Chevrolet
6. John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Toyota
7. Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Toyota
8. Cole Custer, No. 41 Ford
9. William Byron, No. 24 Chevrolet
10. Chris Buescher, No. 17 Ford
11. Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Toyota
12. Bubba Wallace, No. 23 Toyota
13. AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Chevrolet
14. Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Ford
15. Ryan Preece, No. 60 Ford
16. Ross Chastain, No. 1 Chevrolet
17. Erik Jones, No. 43 Toyota
18. Austin Cindric, No. 2 Ford
19. Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Chevrolet
20. Tyler Reddick, No. 45 Toyota
21. Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford
22. Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Ford
23. Ryan Truex, No. 11 Toyota
24. Justin Haley, No. 7 Chevrolet
25. Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Ford
26. Josh Berry, No. 21 Ford
27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Chevrolet
28. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet
29. Riley Herbst, No. 35 Toyota
30. Noah Gragson. No. 4 Ford
31. Cody Ware, No. 51 Ford
32. Katherine Legge, No. 78 Chevrolet
33. Ty Dillon, No. 10 Chevrolet
34. Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Chevrolet
35. Zane Smith, No. 38 Ford
36. Kyle Larson, No. 5 Chevrolet
37. Kyle Busch, No. 8 Chevrolet