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NASCAR insiders react to Shane van Gisbergen win, brutal break for Ty Gibbs in Mexico

Brian Jones Profile Picby: Brian Jones06/16/25brianjones_93
Shane van Gisbergen (3)
Henry Romero/Reuters via Imagn Images

Two NASCAR insiders had a lot to say about Shane van Gisbergen winning the NASCAR Cup Series Mexico City race and Ty Gibbs falling short. On The Teardown podcast, Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic weighed in on van Gisbergen winning his first race of the season.

“This is exactly what we would have thought all along,” Gluck said about van Gisbergen winning the road course race. “This is exactly what we thought coming into the season, this is why we both picked him to make the playoffs. Yeah, it’s taken him a while to get up to speed on oval racing. I think he might have been more off than we thought, but he’s had some good oval runs recently.”

Gluck also said that the track at Mexico City matched Shane van Gisbergen’s skillset. He then talked about Ty Gibbs being the only driver to compete with van Gisbergen.

More on Shane van Gisbergen and Ty Gibbs at Mexico City

“Ty Gibbs was going to be competitive with him. Unfortunately, Ty Gibbs was screwed by the timing of the [Carson] Hocevar caution,” Gluck stated. “I talked to Ty Gibbs on pit road afterwards, and he was trying to keep a positive attitude. I said, ‘Do you think you had something for SVG or were you just going to run top two or top three anyway?’ He said, ‘No, I think we could have beat him.’ He could have.”

Bianchi said he spoke to van Gisbergen after the race, and he told him that when he was running second before the caution, he tried to make a move but was having issues with the car. “It would have been interesting to watch how SVG would have managed that,” Bianchi said. “Honestly, it would have been really interesting to see how Ty Gibbs would have managed that. We know how aggressive Ty Gibbs can be at times. Coming down the stretch, if they’re going head-to-head, I would presume that Ty is going to be going all out for it. I think we would have saw a hellacious battle.”

Van Gisbergen has clinched a playoff spot with the victory at Mexico City. And with the playoffs having five road-course tracks, it’s possible the New Zealand native could make a serious run at the Cup Series title in his first year as a full-time driver.