Van Gisbergen clinches Watkins Glen Cup Series pole

Driving the #97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet Camaro, van Gisbergen set a 1:11.165s around the high-speed road course.

SVG wound up 0.259s faster than his nearest rival Michael McDowell in the #34 Front Row Motorsports Ford Mustang, who set a 1:11.424s.

Van Gisbergen made up the most time through the Bus Stop chicane.

“I did nail it on my first lap,” van Gisbergen said.

“The first half of the lap was pretty average, I thought.

“My second lap, I had less tire grip, but it was a better lap, so I think I was ahead until the Bus Stop, and then I mucked it up.

“My first lap was really good there—probably got it right, and maybe the others got it wrong. But generally, that is a really strong point for me.”

It was a strong day on the whole for Trackhouse Racing with Connor Ross Chastain qualifying the #1 car in fourth while Connor Zilisch put the #88 car in fifth.

Similarly, Team Penske enjoyed a strong showing. Austin Cindric led its efforts in third behind the wheel of the #2 Ford Mustang while Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney qualified sixth and seventh in the #22 and #12 cars respectively.

Joe Gibbs Racing trio Christopher Bell, Chase Briscoe, and Ty Gibbs rounded out the top 10 in their Toyota Camrys.

Tyler Reddick of 23XI Racing, who van Gisbergen picked as the favourite, was 15th. Reddick won the most most recent road course race at Circuit of the Americas.

Monday morning’s NASCAR Cup Series race is expected to have high tyre degradation over the course of 100 laps.

“The fall-off was insane,” van Gisbergen said.

“I didn’t expect that. The marbles and the fall-off was extreme today. It’s kind of like Bristol when it’s cold. The tyres would fall apart. It was very interesting. We fell off four seconds or so.

“Crazy. It’ll be a good race to watch but probably a hard one to manage.”

The green flag will fly at 5:14am AEST with coverage live on Fox Sports and Kayo Sports.

Results: NASCAR Cup Series Go Bowling at The Glen, Qualifying