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For fans Down Under, there were familiar scenes as van Gisbergen pitted late and carved his way through the field to win the 100-lapper.
Despite a deficit of nearly 30 seconds, van Gisbergen caught race leader Ty Gibbs with laps to spare before stretching his legs out to a seven-second lead.
Gibbs eventually slumped to third behind runner-up Michael McDowell, ultimately 16 seconds behind SVG.
Kevin Harvick, who was one of van Gisbergen’s early allies when he made the move Stateside, said the three-time Supercars champion has changed the game.
“He’s turned Cup racing upside down on these road courses,” said Harvick.
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“You can see all the data and everything that he does, but you can’t duplicate it.
“He’s just one of the world’s best road racers and that’s the end of the story.”
Trackhouse Racing boss Justin Marks said van Gisbergen was “at a level that I don’t think this sport has ever seen before on these road courses.”
Meanwhile, veteran commentator Mike Joy described it as “one of the greatest performances in road racing in NASCAR.”
He added: “I’m a huge Dan Gurney fan but I can see Shane van Gisbergen is not only the best road racer now, he might just be the best of all time in NASCAR.”
Van Gisbergen’s Watkins Glen win was his seventh in the Cup Series, putting him equal with Chase Elliott.
That puts him just behind Jeff Gordon (nine) and Tony Stewart (eight) for the most Cup Series road course wins.
That record could be equalled this year with the new naval base circuit in San Diego and Sonoma still to come.
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