Shane van Gisbergen picked up his first win of the NASCAR Cup Series season as the master of road-course racing drove to Victory Lane in Mexico City.
It was almost a disastrous Sunday for the New Zealand native. As he outpaced Christopher Bell by 16.567 seconds, he opened up about the “queasy” feeling that plagued him all day.
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“I tried to treat it like when I go to Asia, just drink bottled water and be careful in the shower and brush your teeth with bottled water, but I just went downhill,” he said. “Couldn’t keep anything in. Everything just went straight through me. I felt really queasy, and my mind was there, but my body just had so much pressure in my stomach. Crazy weekend and everyone dug deep.”
It appeared to be a tough week overall, which started with a mechanical issue on his team’s charter flight that paused his initial trip to Mexico. He slept on the floor of his hauler before the race, unsure if he would be able to compete at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
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Regardless of the illness, van Gisbergen still managed to lead 60 of the 100 laps. The win gives him hope that he could earn a berth into the NASCAR Playoffs.
“It means everything to us, this is why I’m here,” van Gisbergen said. “I am getting better and more competitive. We’re really making a lot of progress.”
The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is Pocono.
Van Gisbergen will enter the race 30th in the standings, but the victory in Mexico City will go a long way as long as 17 different drivers don’t win races from here on out.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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