AUSTIN, Texas (Feb. 28, 2026) – Shane van Gisbergen made a cameo appearance in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series on Saturday at Circuit of The Americas and turned it into a show-stealing victory.
The fulltime NASCAR Cup Series driver for Trackhouse Racing joined JR Motorsports as a NASCAR at COTA weekend road-course ace and played the part to perfection, dominating the Focused Health 250. Van Gisbergen led a race-high 31 of the 65 laps en route to a 0.780 of a second victory over runner-up Austin Hill of Richard Childress Racing.
Sammy Smith of JR Motorsports, Jesse Love of Richard Childress Racing and Corey Day of Hendrick Motorsports rounded out the top five, respectively. Seventeen-year-old Brent Crews made his O’Reilly Auto Parts Series debut with Joe Gibbs Racing and turned in a strong performance with a sixth-place finish.
For van Gisbergen, it was his fifth career series victory, all of which have come on road or street courses, and first NASCAR national series win at COTA. Van Gisbergen will look for the weekend sweep when he starts 13th in Sunday’s marquee event, the DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix Powered by RelaDyne (2:30 p.m. CT, TV: FOX, Radio: PRN, SiriusXM).
“I learned a lot today and tried some different techniques, and I hope it will help tomorrow,” van Gisbergen said. “I was driving as fast as I could … I think Connor (Zilisch) was definitely faster when he caught me early on and then he kind of went off in the first stage. Yeah, I was experimenting, trying all kinds of stuff, but it was all for a good intention. I wasn’t really playing around, but it’s good when you have a car like that and you’re in a position like that and can experiment and learn a lot.”
Connor Zilisch, his Trackhouse Racing rookie teammate and weekend mate with JR Motorsports, started on the pole and was looking to win the Focused Health 250 for the second consecutive year. Van Gisbergen, who started second, gave notice that he would be one of his primary threats by stealing the point from Zilisch for the opening five laps. Zilisch rebounded to lead the next 12 laps, but it was Hill who would take the first stage while van Gisbergen was 10th.
Sam Mayer of the Haas Factory Team edged out Crews for second-stage honors while van Gisbergen moved into position for the final stint by taking fifth. He shined in that final stage, leading 18 of the 25 laps with the only cause for concern coming on a restart on Lap 61 following a caution.
While the majority of the field pitted, Nick Sanchez of AM Racing and Justin Allgaier of JR Motorsports stayed out and led the field to the restart. Smith, who restarted third, pushed his way into the lead heading into the Turn 1 left-hander, but carried too much speed and was forced to go wide on the exit. Meanwhile, van Gisbergen, who restarted sixth, deftly moved inside and came out of the first turn with the lead and never looked back.
In IMSA action, Wyatt Brichacek of Toney Driver Development dominated the weekend, winning both P3 class races from the pole and leading every lap of both 45-minute timed races. Westin Workman of RAFA Racing duplicated the feat in the GSX class with a pair of poles and wins and leading every lap.
Up Next: The weekend culminates with Sunday’s DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix Powered by RelaDyne NASCAR Cup Series race beginning at 2:30 p.m. (TV: FOX, HBO max; Radio: PRN, SiriusXM).
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