Michael McDowell, who finished second and trailed Shane van Gisbergen for the final stretch at the Glen Cup, confirmed from the cockpit what Kyle Petty has now said: “It felt like he was just pacing himself off me, and he’d take back off.” That speed, that pace, and watching SVG hunt down nearly 30 seconds is exactly what stirred Petty’s memory, leading to a comparison that takes us back to when the race at Riverside, California, used to be called “The Gurney 500.”

“I was fortunate, I was eight, nine years old and saw Dan Gurney win at Riverside…he would be incredibly fast, but you didn’t know he was fast, you couldn’t see that he was fast and that’s the way Shane is,” Petty admitted.

An outsider like SVG, Dan Gurney, was so dominant at Riverside, winning four times in a row from 1963 through 1966 and then again in 1968. An F1 driver, he’d show up at the Good Ol’ Boys’ series once a year, make it look effortless, and leave. And leave in a manner that calling him visibly fast was an understatement. He was just gone – just like SVG.

“You watch Shane and he is deceptively fast. They talked about it on the broadcast, he runs just fast enough to stay in front and then when it’s time to go, he just catches another gear and goes somewhere else that no one else in the Cup Series can go right now and that is the fascinating part.”

The comparison becomes sharper when you think that Gurney reached his fifth NASCAR Cup win in just 13 starts, and SVG reached the same milestone in 38 starts in 2025 – the fastest anyone had done it since Gurney himself. Also, much like Gurney, all five of SVG’s first cup wins have come exclusively on road courses.

Then, this year, starting from pole, van Gisbergen led 74 of 100 laps, pitted from the lead with 24 laps remaining under green, and emerged from pit road in 24th place, nearly 30 seconds behind race leader Ty Gibbs. What followed was almost like the chosen one had reclaimed his place.

Gisbergen needed only 17 laps to snatch back the lead, winning by 7.288 seconds over McDowell, leading even commentator Mike Joy to bring out this same Gurney-Gisbergen comparison on-air.

Crew chief Stephen Doran explained SVG’s mindset clearly: “He’s made it pretty clear, especially at these tracks, he likes to be on offense, so we put him there and just let him go do his thing.”

And he did. “At that point I was worried. And then when I took off, I really pushed, and I think I did my fastest laps then,” the Kiwi shared after his win.

This was his seventh win, which moves him closer to the records held by Jeff Gordon (nine) and Tony Stewart (eight) for the most NASCAR Cup Series race wins on road courses. And the streak now extends to six wins from the past seven road or street course Cup races, dating back to Mexico City in June 2025.

That Mexico win deserves its own moment, because it’s the clearest example of Petty’s observation in terms of speed. SVG was 33rd in the points standings entering race day, had battled a stomach ailment that left him feeling “pretty rubbish,” and his crew had arrived a day late due to travel problems.

Still, he led 60 of 100 laps and won by 16.567 seconds over Christopher Bell, which was the largest margin of victory in the Cup Series since Kurt Busch’s fuel-mileage win at Texas in November 2009. Nobody watching knew how bad the morning had been, and it can be added to the list of deceptions.

But as the Kiwi rides on his high, his 2026 performance is definitely noteworthy.

SVG’s Glen charge flips the playoff picture

SVG’s win has now majorly reshuffled the driver standings. The victory moved him three spots up the standings to 16th, planting him directly on the Chase cutline with the momentum of a driver who is getting better – and, not just at road courses.

SVG averaged a 27.5 finish through the first 11 races of his 2025 rookie season, with three DNFs. In 2026, the same stats were sharper, as he went as high as fifth in the standings through four races before a rough mid-season stretch pulled him back. But the recovery has been remarkable. He had a 20th at Talladega, 17th at Texas, and now has a win at Watkins Glen.

He also celebrated his 37th birthday the day before the race, finishing eighth in the O’Reilly Series race, then went out Sunday and, by his own admission, drove one of the best races of his career.

“I feel like this is one of the best races I’ve driven,” he said. “My mates were all giving me shit yesterday about how I’m getting too old for my birthday. I don’t feel old. I felt like that’s the best I’ve driven. It was pretty cool.”

So, with 80 laps already led in 2026, three top-10s, two top-5s across 12 races, and confidence, SVG looks less like a playoff outsider and more like the dangerous wildcard nobody wants to face once the post-season begins. Gurney’s rivals figured that out at Riverside, too. By the time they did, he was already far ahead.

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