Photo credit to Logan Riely/Getty Images NASCAR Shane van Gisbergen Remains King of the Road in Austin, Taking O’Reilly COTA Win
AUSTIN, TEXAS – Restarting sixth in a five-lap dash to the checkers, odds were stacked against Shane van Gisbergen at COTA. Getting extra reps in JR Motorsports’ No. 9, the New Zealander road course ace entered turn one four-wide with his competitors. Coming out of this corner with a nose ahead, nobody had anything left for SVG over the run to the checkers. Extending his own impressive record as NASCAR’s winningest international driver, van Gisbergen took O’Reilly win number five from Austin.
Despite not starting on pole, SVG looked stout early on by quickly grabbing the lead. The opening laps were a back and forth affair between him and JRM teammate Connor Zilisch. Both drivers short pitting each stage gave the bonus points to Austin Hill and Sam Mayer. Zilisch ran into some issues later on, however, that took him out of contention. The Cup rookie in JRM’s No. 1 suffered a cracked brake rotor, and was spun late by Corey Day.
After winning the second stage, Mayer was one of a few drivers who opted to stay out on a late caution. Old tires were a severe disadvantage on the No. 41, as Mayer overcooked turn one and allowed van Gisbergen clear track ahead. SVG’s margin of victory would be almost eight tenths ahead of Austin Hill when the checkers finally waved.
“Good to finally execute,” van Gisbergen said. “We ad an awesome day, thank you to Safety Culture, JR Motorsports, the pit crew was awesome, the strategy worked out well. I wondered what was going to happen on that last restart. I kind of sent the 41 and he took everyone out for me, that was cool. What an awesome day, good to finally win here and hopefully we can have a day tomorrow.”
“I did learn a few things. I wasn’t driving good earlier today, we lacked in the car but also I could be better too. So hopefully it’s worthwhile doing these races and hopefully it helps tomorrow.”
Behind SVG at the checkers was Austin Hill, just ahead of Sammy Smith, Jesse Love, and Corey Day. The rest of the COTA top-10 were: Brent Crews, William Sawalich, Justin Allgaier, Ross Chastain, and Brennan Poole.
SVG now has 11 combined wins on road or street courses between O’Reilly and Cup Series competition, and will try to make it an even dozen tomorrow. Saturday also marked a 10th-straight road win for JR Motorsports, who win at COTA in back-to-back tries.
O’Reilly Auto Parts Series competitors will return to action next week from Phoenix Raceway. The GOVX 200 will be part of a Saturday desert doubleheader with the NTT IndyCar Series. The O’Reilly green flag waves at 7:30 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo credit to Logan Riely/Getty Images
Tweet Related Related Topics2026 NASCAR seasonAustin HillConnor ZilischCOTAFeaturedJR MotorsportsNASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts SeriesPeter StrattaSam MayerShane Van Gisbergen
