SVG Bowls Over the Competition

Shane Van Gisbergen takes the checkered flag at the Go Bowling at The Glen Sunday afternoon at Watkins Glen International. (Photo: NASCAR)

Go Bowling at The Glen:

Shane Van Gisbergen captured the checkered flag at the Go Bowling at The Glen Sunday afternoon for the fourth time of the 2025 campaign. SVG's fourth win of the year sets a rookie win record surpassing Hall of Famers and champions Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart. The win was also redemption for SVG who gave away the win at Watkins Glen in 2024 after slipping up coming out the interloop allowing Chris Buescher to cross the finish line first. And SVG's fourth visit to victory lane ties him with Denny Hamlin for win leader of the year and paints a clearer path to the Round of 8 for the 88 team with the added bonus points for the playoff leader board.

Aside from SVG's impressive performance, the fight Ryan Blaney took to him throughout the day, the rest of the race was rather mundane. Matter of fact: it was a full on snoozer. And it wasn't a snoozer because of SVG and Blaney controlling the day, it was a snoozer because this car continues to prove it's not the best race car NASCAR could give the fans. We should acknowledge, respect, and be in awe of what SVG did (and has done on road courses all year) and we should be impressed by the fight Ryan Blaney gave him throughout the day. But we can also acknowledge (and should hammer this home to the powers that be) that we need to start focusing on massive improvements for this car to enhance the racing, become more aggressive on tires that fade more throughout the run, and maybe even scrap this car and pivot to a Generation 8 car. I know it's wishful thinking, but I hope NASCAR comes around to the idea that this car, for all the good it has done on intermediates and for safety, it has not accomplished (successfully or fully) all of its intended goals. It's time to start moving on and moving forward. Aside from that, I don't have much else to say about the day. Not a ton of on track action throughout the day. We were blessed with a few moments of intensity towards the end of stage two with the Legacy cars going at it with each other and Gibbs wrecking Nemecheck. And we did have McDowell and Hocevar fighting each other, pissed off, banging doors coming to the checkered flag. But that was pretty much it outside of the aggressiveness of restarts, and those didn't yield much with the restart zone shifted. Either way, congrats to SVG, Trackhouse, and the 88 team on their impressive, flawless performance and fourth win of the season.

Next up we head to Richmond Raceway with just the Craftsman Truck Series and Cup Series as the Xfinity Series has the week off before returning to action at Daytona next weekend. The Truck Series will kick off the action this weekend on Friday night at 7:30 p.m. on FS1 with the eero 250. The Cup Series caps off the weekend with a Saturday night showdown at 7:30 p.m. on USA with the Cook Out 400.

Richmond Picks: Trucks = Grant Enfinger

Xfinity = OFF

Cup = Austin Dillon