Shane van Gisbergen turned a demanding NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series cameo at Watkins Glen into a podium finish on Thursday evening, hauling the Niece Motorsports Chevrolet Silverado to third in the Bully Hill Vineyards 176 behind a maiden Truck Series winner in Kaden Honeycutt and Cup rookie phenomenon Connor Zilisch.
The result confirmed once again that the Glen brings out the best in the New Zealand-born road-course specialist, and added another chapter to a 2026 season that has already cemented Van Gisbergen as the most talked-about road racer in NASCAR's national series.
Honeycutt produced a controlled drive in the closing stages, holding off a determined late charge from Zilisch in the JR Motorsports machine to take his breakthrough Truck Series victory. Van Gisbergen, the 2023 Chicago Cup winner and reigning road-course king, slotted into the third step of the podium after a race that featured several restarts on the slick upstate New York layout.
Van Gisbergen entered the weekend as the betting favourite based on his record at the circuit, where he has been a Cup Series winner and consistently among the fastest cars in the field whenever the road courses come around. Niece Motorsports lined up the No. 4 Silverado for the Australian-resident Kiwi as part of a one-off programme designed to build on his existing Trackhouse Cup commitments.
In qualifying, Van Gisbergen was firmly in the conversation for pole before settling for a front-row outside slot. Race conditions then conspired against him in the early going, with traffic and a series of safety-car interruptions making it difficult for the New Zealander to dictate pace at the front.
What tipped the result Honeycutt's way was the Texas-born rookie's restraint on the closing restart sequence. Holding the lead with a hard-charging Zilisch behind, Honeycutt resisted the temptation to overdrive into the Bus Stop chicane, letting the Truck rotate on its rear axle and accelerating cleanly toward the Boot. That clean exit gave him the buffer he needed up the back straight.
Zilisch, whose sophomore Cup season has already produced highlight-reel moments at multiple road courses, ran Honeycutt close but could not find the run he needed off the final corner. Van Gisbergen was able to steady his pursuit of the leading pair through the late laps, content to bank the points and the broadcast time after a weekend that had threatened to slip out of his hands during practice.
The result also adds new context to the Watkins Glen Cup race scheduled for later in the weekend. NASCAR moved the road-course round to early May for 2026, a calendar shift that has divided fan opinion but offered drivers like Van Gisbergen, Zilisch and AJ Allmendinger a fresh reference point. Trackhouse will run Van Gisbergen in the Cup race with the head-to-head against Zilisch already framed as one of the storylines of the weekend.
For Honeycutt and his crew, the Bully Hill Vineyards 176 win represents a long-awaited breakthrough on a circuit that has historically been a graveyard for series regulars who lack road-course mileage. For Zilisch, second place adds further evidence that his 2026 trajectory toward Cup race wins is built on more than novelty.
---
*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/van-gisbergen-watkins-glen-truck-third-bully-hill-vineyards-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
