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05/11 13:19 CDT After dominating the road in NASCAR, Shane van Gisbergen wants to master ovals and make the Chase After dominating the road in NASCAR, Shane van Gisbergen wants to master ovals and make the Chase By NATE RYAN Associated Press Shane van Gisbergen turned 37 a day ahead of dominating the NASCAR Cup Series yet again on a road course. Before he spent Sunday "just carving everyone up" in his second consecutive win at Watkins Glen International, the knives were playfully out for the Trackhouse Racing driver. "My mates were all giving me (guff) yesterday about how I'm getting too old," van Gisbergen said after his second consecutive win on the road course in New York. "I don't feel old. I felt like that's one of the best races I've driven. It was pretty cool." His seventh career Cup win might have featured his most impressive drive yet. After giving up the lead with 24 laps remaining, van Gisbergen made up 23 spots and nearly 30 seconds in 17 laps. With his first victory since last October, he tied Chase Elliott for most road and street-course wins among active Cup drivers. "We have a race car driver that is at a level that I don't think this sport has ever seen before on these road courses," said Trackhouse Racing founder and co-owner Justin Marks, who gave the driver nicknamed "SVG" his chance at NASCAR with a ride in the inaugural Chicago Street Race three years ago. The three-time champion of Australia's Supercars responded by becoming the first driver to win his Cup debut in 60 years. He has since been nearly unbeatable on road and street courses --- winning six of the past seven races on the tracks with left and right turns. The question now becomes whether van Gisbegen can achieve the same excellence on the ovals that dominate the Cup Series circuit. The Watkins Glen win moved him up three positions into the 16th and last provisional spot in the NASCAR Chase. He is six points ahead of Chase Briscoe and 38 in front of three-time Cup champion Joey Logano, but van Gisbergen isn't locked into the 10-race championship run as he was for last year's playoffs, which have been overhauled this season. With the end of the "win-and-in" format, van Gisbergen will need to stockpile points through consistently solid finishes in his second full year of racing full time in NASCAR's top series. "I really want to earn my way in this year, and that's what you have to do," he said. "I know that we need to get a lot better as a team, and I still need to improve a lot as a driver." Trackhouse also has work to do --- teammates Ross Chastain (19th in points) and Connor Zilisch (32nd) are ranked well outside the Chase. "It's been easy to see that we've certainly been behind," Marks said. "We've been working harder behind the scenes than we have ever in the history of this company because the way that we started this season, it's unacceptable to us." Marks said there was "some light at the end of the tunnel" with the speed of the Trackhouse Chevrolets two weeks ago at Texas Motor Speedway. Chastain and Zilisch qualified in the top 20 while van Gisbergen was a disappointing 30th. "I feel like I went backward a bit going to Texas," he said. "It's a track I haven't been to much, and I've still got so much to learn there. Other tracks, I'm really getting to know them and what I want the car to feel like." Of the 14 races left in the regular season, there are 12 ovals, a road course (Sonoma) and a street course (the inaugural race in San Diego). If he can match his early performance (four top 15s in the first six ovals), van Gisbergen believes he can return to the Chase and solidify a NASCAR career that he would like to take into the next decade. "I still enjoy it and still feel like I'm learning a lot, especially the last couple of years," he said. "It's probably more than I've ever learned, and I don't feel like I'm getting any slower. I'll keep doing it as much as I can."

Marks on Project 91 Marks discovered van Gisbergen through the team's Project 91 program, which aims to put international racing stars in one-off Cup rides. After fielding van Gisbergen, Formula One champion Kimi Raikkonen and four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves, Project 91 has been on hiatus since the 2025 Daytona 500 but isn't out of commission. "I would say don't forget about Project 91," Marks said Sunday when asked about its status. "That's all I'll say right now."

Extension for Stenhouse Hyak Motorsports announced a multiyear contract extension Monday with 2023 Daytona 500 winner Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who has been with the team since 2020. "Ricky has been a huge part of what we're building at Hyak Motorsports, and we're proud to continue this partnership for years to come," team owner Gordon Smith said in a statement. ___ AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

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