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Shane van Gisbergen embarrasses the field again in Roval win, playoff drivers go wild

JHby: Jonathan Howard10/05/25Jondean25
Shane van Gisbergen Roval win
Screenshot credit NASCAR on NBC via X.com

For the fifth straight time this season, Shane van Gisbergen is victorious on the road course. He dominated the Roval today. There were times when Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell appeared to be there for a challenge. But SVG brought home another win on the NASCAR season.

Five wins this year, Shane van Gisbergen frankly embarrassed the field again. He won with his right rear tire starting to go out and sliding across the finish line. The 88 won by more than 10 seconds again.

This race delivered on the drama. The NASCAR Playoffs had Ross Chastain wrecking Denny Hamlin in the final turn and going in reverse across the finish line. Chastain ultimately didn’t have enough tires to finish ahead of Joey Logano in points.

Shane van Gisbergen wins another race. Now, onto the Round of 8 for the playoff drivers.

Trackhouse Racing won the race, but lost their remaining playoff driver. Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, and Austin Cindric were also eliminated.

Austin Cindric had the worst day ever at the Roval

When it comes to winners and losers, you can start the loser list with Austin Cindric. Not to be mean, of course, he just had a rotten day. Nothing was going right for the 2 team today on the track in Charlotte.

Cindric was spun out, blew a corner, and then was just wrecked. Carson Hocevar slid in hot to the chicane, and while his brakes locked up, he got into Cindric. It put the 2 car in the garage and ended any long-shot hope of advancing.

It was very obvious from the start that Shane van Gisbergen was going to be the car to beat. He won the first stage and was able to save his tires to an unreal degree compared to the field.

Kyle Larson advanced on points in the first stage. Christopher Bell clinched his spot after Stage 2. Everyone else more or less filed in after that with a tight race on the cutline.

Ross Chastain makes it a race with Joey Logano

With how much the tires were wearing and all of the pit strategies going on throughout the field, it was hard to keep up. The only constant was Shane van Gisbergen dominating most of the day. He didn’t lead every lap, but led more than half of them overall today.

It was clear early on that the real points battle was likely coming down to Ross Chastain and Joey Logano. We saw that play out throughout the race, too. Logano was slow. He had to fight his car to get it going forward with any pace. Chastain simply made too many mistakes.

Coming out of a pit stop under caution, Chastain missed the corner of the exit of pit road. Just a mental mistake. It cost him a ton of track position and gave Logano life. Then, late in the race, Chastain sped on pit road. Moments that just can’t happen and he had two of them.

While Shane van Gisbergen executed perfectly for Trackhouse today, Ross Chastain did not. A tale of two races for that organization today.

Shane van Gisbergen gets roughed up by Kyle Larson

During the final stage, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell mounted a legitimate charge against Shane van Gisbergen. It ended up resulting in Larson and SVG getting physical on the track. When the 88 tried to push the 5 out of the way at Turn 7 on the hairpin before getting on the oval, Larson turned down into SVG.

The battle went on for about a lap. It even allowed Bell to get back in the picture. But it was futile. SVG was simply too good today. Even with a different tire strategy, the 88 saved its tires so well that it didn’t matter. Larson and Bell could not close the gap in time.

When they were racing closely, it was one hell of a battle. The race today at the Roval was one of the better editions since it began. Genuinely, this was a good road course race in NASCAR. We just happen to have the best road course racer in a stock car running full-time in the Cup Series this year.

Shane van Gisbergen better enjoy the road course dominance. It won’t be long before Connor Zilisch enters the picture, and the 19-year-old American will be just as tough on these tracks as the 36-year-old Kiwi.