A frustrated NASCAR fields heads to COTA still looking to crack the SVG road course code

Shane van Gisbergen is officially under the skin of the NASCAR Cup Series garage, and has them working harder than ever.

“I’ve studied everything I can study in car-wise,” AJ Allmendinger said, “and I’ll continually do it going into (Circuit of the Americas).”

At first, the Kiwi's road-course domination drew admiration from his fellow competitors. It started with van Gisbergen bursting onto the scene in 2023 and winning on the streets of Chicago. Then he took his talents to a full year of O’Reilly Auto Parts Series racing, where he won three of the season’s six road races.

Last year, van Gisbergen won five of the six road course races in his rookie Cup Series season. Although to say "he won" is putting it lightly: van Gisbergen was untouchable and downright dominant.

While some of that admiration from the garage might still be there, race car drivers are also selfish and competitive in a results-based business. So, repeatedly getting beaten gets old quickly.

Allmendinger, for example, conceded that it can be frustrating – but not for him. It would be different if his Kaulig Racing team had been in contention at the road-course races, going toe-to-toe with van Gisbergen and getting beaten. But instead, they’ve been in a battle all their own just to get back to being at that end of the leaderboard.

“I put a lot of that on myself when Goodyear keeps bringing a softer tire, trying to make it last,” Allmendinger said. “I do think there were certain road courses we didn’t have a lot of speed – Watkins Glen stood out to me. I thought we were taped out and running at the edge of the top 10. So, he definitely is making everyone step up a level.

“But when it comes to me and my frustration with SVG, no, because we’re not running second, either. We just have to get better, and I have to get better in the car to get back to where we were.”

Tyler Reddick, however, was a little blunter.

“It drives me nuts going to a road course and getting just dusted by Shane,” said Reddick. “So, we’ve been working really hard to work around our road course program, look at some things. We’ve had decent speed firing off, and that’s just not good enough. We’ve been working hard, trying things, seeing what things are like in sim.”

Reddick has three career wins on road courses in the Cup Series at three different tracks: Road America, Indianapolis, and Circuit of the Americas. His victory at COTA in 2023 came after Reddick qualified second but then led 41 of 75 laps. It was his first win with 23XI Racing, and at the time, had started a conversation about Reddick being one of, if the, best road course racer in the series and how he was working to help teammate Bubba Wallace improve.

But Reddick hasn’t won a road course race since.

Christopher Bell denied van Gisbergen a road/street clean sweep in 2025 with his win at COTA. James Gilbert/Getty Images

“I give him a lot of credit, and I don’t want this to sound like I’m taking anything away from him when I say this, it’s just something about the direction of road course racing over the last year and a half has gone in his wheelhouse,” said Reddick. “So, that’s kind of telling for me. Obviously, he was getting his feet wet, understanding what the Next Gen car is like versus what he was used to, and when he came into this, we had harder tires and more downforce. I felt like guys like me were right there with him, if not better at some of these racetracks. The more the downforce has come off the car, the more the tire has softened up. And we’ve added more horsepower now, too. It seems something about that really fits how he drives a race car.

“So, trying to understand, OK, what do I need to do or have in my car to manage my stuff well. He does find a way to run fast laps in qualifying, and I’ve been able to somewhat match that, but in the long run... I wouldn’t say that he finds another gear; he just manages his stuff great. So, for us, taking a deeper dive at that. Maybe rethinking what we need out of cars to have some short-run speed, but prioritize the long run. It’s telling for me, and I don’t want to sound like I’m giving myself too much credit, but when I copy and paste what he does in the car and he’s still driving away, it tells me that we’ve got some work to do in other areas. Our hope is that we’ve worked hard enough to go challenge him at these road courses this year.”

The ability to save the tire and still have speed throughout a run is a theme the competition has picked up on with van Gisbergen. It’s not only how he drives the car and attacks the course, but the balance of aggression and not crossing the line.

“He’s so good on still being quick but never overstepping the tire, and as Goodyear has softened these tires it has made that gap bigger and bigger,” Allmendinger explained. “I think that’s where a lot of us have to be better and figure out. But if we knew exactly how to beat him, he’d get beat. So, maybe (Connor) Zilisch can help us out with that.”

Circuit of the Americas was the only road course race van Gisbergen did not win in 2025. It was Christopher Bell who triumphed after a fantastic late-race battle with Kyle Busch and William Byron.

“I think we play it week by week and race by race,” said Bell about whether he’s also frustrated getting beaten by van Gisbergen. “Shane is very good, and he’s done an amazing job of not making mistakes and executing the races very well – him and his pit crew and crew chief. It’s hard to win these races, even when you have the dominant car or the dominant driver. So, they’ve done a really good job.

“If he’s had any bobbles, we would have been the first team to pick it up. We have been trying to improve, and I’ve been trying to drive the car a little bit differently at the road courses, so I think we certainly are putting effort into trying to be better.”

Van Gisbergen has been in the field for 12 Cup Series road course races dating back to 2023, and five of those he won. The winners of the other races: Michael McDowell (Indianapolis), William Byron (COTA), Alex Bowman (Chicago), Chris Buescher (Watkins Glen; beating van Gisbergen toe-to-toe), Kyle Larson (Roval), and Bell (COTA).

“Listen, SVG is very good,” former teammate Daniel Suarez said. “He has been doing road course racing for a long time, and he’s very experienced as well, so it’s the perfect combination. He has probably more experience than the entire field combined in road-course racing. But guess what? He’s human. So, as far as I know, every human here is beatable. So, we’re working very, very hard to get there.

“I know SVG fairly well, and I know he has a lot of strengths, but he also has weaknesses, and I know that there are ways to get here. But you have to be very good as well. I know I can get there. I have been there in the past. It’s going to be fun. It’s a good challenge. I love challenges, and it’s not going to be easy because he has set the bar pretty high. But as I said, he’s human, and I believe not just myself but many drivers and organizations out there are working very hard to catch up.”