RFK Racing's Chris Buescher has admitted Shane van Gisbergen's road-course rampage in NASCAR's Cup Series is something he and his rivals are going to have to confront head-on at Watkins Glen this weekend, even if the Australian has been beaten at multiple tracks since his Cup arrival.
The Trackhouse Racing driver has reset the standard for road-course pace since making the full-time Cup switch, taking SVG into a stratosphere where the only certain thing is that the rest of the field is racing for second on twisty layouts. Speaking to Peter Stratta ahead of his Watkins Glen weekend, Buescher gave a frank assessment of how the field has had to lift its game.
"There's no doubt that he is an exceptional talent, right?" Buescher said of van Gisbergen. "So we know we're going to have to race him at some point. We know that hasn't ended, but he forced us all to step up. At some other racetracks where it doesn't show up at the Glen quite as much, but some other road courses it's had to get everybody out of their comfort zone a little bit and figure out that we weren't as quick as we thought we were."
The driver of the No. 17 Ford has every reason to feel optimistic about Sunday's Go Bowling at The Glen. Watkins Glen has been a happy hunting ground for Buescher across his Cup tenure, with strong runs spread across the last several visits.
"When we go to the Glen, that's a track where on our mind is we've been able to win there," Buescher said. "We've run really well there the last three races, four races. It's always a good track for us. We always have good speed, so I guess we're focused on our own race on that one. Certainly, I don't feel like with what we do, we're going to be in the hunt to win it. But there is a certain group of drivers that you're going to be competing against, and it's going to be the same group that it's been the last couple of times. Him included."
That measured tone reflects the new reality of road-course racing in the 2026 Cup field. Where SVG used to wipe the floor with American oval specialists, the gap has been closing. The three-time Supercars champion already has the COTA win this season and was widely expected to beat the field at Sonoma. His ability to manage tyres on the Next Gen car, combined with sheer apex-to-apex pace, still places him among the favourites at any road or street layout.
Van Gisbergen's Watkins Glen weekend is also being framed by a triple-duty schedule that has tested even the most committed of crossover drivers. The Trackhouse Project91 alumnus is contesting all three NASCAR national series this weekend — Cup, Xfinity and Trucks — alongside his usual full-time Cup commitment. Triple duty is a punishing physical and logistical workload at any circuit, and the SVG camp has spent the build-up making the case that the gamble is worth it for the road-racing learning curve.
The bookmakers, for their part, have made van Gisbergen the clear favourite for Sunday's race. FOX Sports listed the Australian at the head of the Watkins Glen market this week, with Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott among his closest challengers and Buescher himself further back. Cheap grandstand tickets opening at $33 for the weekend point to a fan base still warming back up to a Watkins Glen weekend that has, in NASCAR's recent calendar shuffle, become a mid-season focal point of the Cup road-course year.
Sunday's Cup race goes green at 3pm ET, and the field will be heading into the Glen's Bus Stop knowing the Australian is going to be in the hunt — and, as Buescher acknowledged, the only question is how soon someone in the rest of the pack lines him up to race for it.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/buescher-van-gisbergen-watkins-glen-2026-cup-series). Visit for full coverage.*
