Viva Van Gisbergen

Shane Van Gisbergen celebrates his win in the Viva Mexico 250. (Photo: Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Viva Mexico 250:

Shane Van Gisbergen (SVG) dominated Sunday's Viva Mexico 250 leading 60 of 100 laps in the inaugural Cup Series race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez en route to his first victory of the 2025 season. The win bumps SVG from 30th in points to locked into the 2025 playoffs. SVG's win capped off a historic weekend in NASCAR by following the ever popular win of Daniel Suarez winning the Xfinity race in his home country and the Suarez/SVG duo becomes the second set of international winners on the same weekend.

Overall, I was thoroughly impressed with the race this weekend (actually both races were phenomenal, in my opinion). But with the Cup car delivering mixed results on road courses I was a little nervous about what would unfold in Mexico City on Sunday afternoon. A little rain hit the track midway through lap 1 and added a little "spice" to the excitement of the day. With the rain tires on, SVG took off to a comfortable lead after a lap 8 caution when Kyle Busch slid the brakes and bowled through a few folks until he played his pit strategy card which let Ryan Preece take the Stage 1 win. Stage 2 gifted us a great battle of pit strategy and Ty Gibbs v. SVG (Gibbs was SVG's most serious challenger all day). Pit strategy dictated the day after the stage 2 battle with SVG and Gibbs. SVG took the lead late in Stage 2 to snag the green and checkered flag. Once stage 3 went green the race appeared to be playing out as a Gibbs v SVG battle to the checkered flag with who could execute on their respective pit strategies. As the racing gods would have it, an untimely caution for Gibbs is all SVG needed to set sail for the win. And while there was some challengers and hard chargers in Stage 3, SVG had clear track and no additional cautions. That's all he needed as he was clearly elite on long green flag runs. SVG was smooth and ran perfect over the last 31 laps and cruised to victory with a 16.567 second lead.

Now while the margin of victory was massive, that was more about SVG being elite and not slipping one tire on the last run. And yes, the last run did leave a little to be desired as far as any serious battles late in the race, but the race was amazing. I'm sure NASCAR has some learning curves from the weekend to make this race happen and be better in the future, the on track product was solid. The race track compels hard battles and intense racing, road racing opens up wild pit strategy options, and this car and tire combo delivered on this circuit. Add that alongside the hype of the event and the crowd/city reaction and passion for having NASCAR back in town, the event to me was a success from a fan's perspective. I hope we head back in 2026 or at least in the near future.

Next up we head to the Pocono Mountains and Pocono Raceway with all three national touring series back on track for an action packed weekend. The Craftsman Truck Series starts the weekend off on Friday afternoon at 5 p.m. on FS1 with the Millertech Battery 200. The Xfinity Series has their time on track on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. EST on The CW with the Explore The Pocono Mountains 250. The Cup Series caps off the weekend on the Tricky Triangle with The Great American Getaway 400 on Amazon Prime Video at 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

Pocono Picks: Trucks = Tanner Gray

Xfinity = Chase Elliott

Cup = Denny Hamlin