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Shane van Gisbergen illness: No. 88 driver, pole sitter medicated before NASCAR Mexico City race

Nick Profile Picby: Nick Geddes06/15/25NickGeddesNews
Shane van Gisbergen
Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

Shane van Gisbergen is feeling under the weather at the wrong time. Van Gisbergen, sitting on the pole for Sunday’s Viva Mexico 250 at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, came down with an illness ahead of the race, Marty Snider of Prime Video reported.

Van Gisbergen had to be medicated prior to getting inside his No. 88 Chevrolet. Nothing is going to stop van Gisbergen from attempting to win this race and clinch his spot in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. That being said, it will be an uncomfortable 242 miles (100 laps) for the New Zealand native.

Van Gisbergen isn’t the only one. Ross Chastain, who started third, is also feeling under the weather. Noah Gragson also posted on his Instagram that he wasn’t feeling great. Gragson added, “Don’t drink the tap water.”

Shane van Gisbergen can turn around 2025 season at Mexico City

As for van Gisbergen, you just know he’s been waiting for this portion of the schedule. Three of the next five races (including Mexico City) are on road/street courses. The rookie won the 2023 Chicago Street Race in his Cup debut. Win one of these races, and he’ll be postseason bound despite sitting 33rd in the points standings.

“Certainly, a win fixes our year, gets you locked in,” van Gisbergen said Saturday. “Win a race and it changes your year, and then we can race with less pressure, and just keep learning, keep being methodical, keep getting better every week and then we can try some stuff. We’re very sort of welded in a box in the moment, just not wanting to get out of our comfort zone.”

Starting on the pole was the first step. Now, he needs to finish the job on Sunday.

“It was a great session for us,” he said of qualifying. “We kind of lacked in a lot of areas yesterday [in practice] with our car getting the balance we wanted and went through a lot of challenges last night — a couple I thought were maybe too much — and started my lap and the car felt magic right from the start.”