Shane van Gisbergen starts Watkins Glen defense with pole-winning run

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y.--The Bus Stop chicane at Watkins Glen International is designed to slow drivers down.

In Saturday's NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session, however, it was the section of the 2.45-mile road course where defending race winner Shane van Gisbergen gained light years over the competition, relatively speaking, in securing the pole for Sunday's Go Bowling at the Glen (3 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The New Zealander, celebrating his 37th birthday, navigated the seven-turn circuit in 71.165 seconds (123.937 mph) on the first of two qualifying laps to beat Spire Motorsports' Michael McDowell (123.488 mph) for the top starting spot by 0.259 seconds.

"I did nail it on my first lap," van Gisbergen said of the Bus Stop at the end of the long backstretch, where he gained more than two tenths of a second on the field. "The first half of the lap was pretty average, I thought.

"My second lap, I had less tire grip, but it was a better lap, so I think I was ahead until the Bus Stop, and then I mucked it up. My first lap was really good there--probably got it right, and maybe the others got it wrong. But generally, that is a really strong point for me."

Team Penske's Austin Cindric (123.452 mph) claimed the third starting spot, followed by van Gisbergen's teammates at Trackhouse Racing, Ross Chastain (123.445 mph) and Connor Zilisch (123.386 mph).

Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney, last year's pole winner, were sixth and seventh, giving Team Penske three of the top seven starters. The Joe Gibbs Racing trio of Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe and Ty Gibbs completed the top 10.

van Gisbergen expects tire wear to play a major role in Sunday's race, which has been lengthened from 90 to 100 laps, featuring stage lengths of 20, 30 and 50 laps.

"The fall-off was insane," van Gisbergen said. "I didn't expect that. The marbles and the fall-off was extreme today. It's kind of like Bristol when it's cold. The tires would fall apart. It was very interesting. We fell off four seconds or so.

"Crazy. It'll be a good race to watch but probably a hard one to manage."

Series leader Tyler Reddick, a five-time winner this season and the most recent road course winner at Circuit of the Americas, qualified 15th. Chase Elliott, last Sunday's winner at Texas Motor Speedway, will start 27th on Sunday.