MEXICO CITY — Shane van Gisbergen claimed his first Busch Light Pole position of the season Saturday afternoon at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and will lead the field to green in the inaugural Viva Mexico 250 Sunday in Mexico City (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
The scheduled 45-minute qualifying session was called off 17 minutes early due to light rain, but the 36-year-old former Australian Supercar Series champion was easily the class of the field — his pole-winning lap of 93.904 mph improving notably from his speed in Saturday afternoon’s two practice sessions.
Smiling and referring to road courses as his “natural habitat,” van Gisbergen was quite satisfied with his work in the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet — especially considering the unknown of a first-time race at the venue.
Inaugural races have been a plus on his resume. He made NASCAR history in 2023, famously winning the Chicago Street Race in his very first series start.
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“It was a great session for us, we kind of lacked in a lot of areas yesterday [in practice] with our car getting the balance we wanted and went through a lot of challenges last night — a couple I thought were maybe too much — and started my lap and the car felt magic right from the start,” van Gisbergen said.
The pole position and positive start of the weekend could prove especially important as van Gisbergen is ranked 33rd in the championship standings, essentially needing a race victory to earn a position in the 16-driver NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs field.
“Certainly, a win fixes our year, gets you locked in,” he said with a smile about the pole helping produce a victory Sunday.
“Win a race and it changes your year, and then we can race with less pressure, and just keep learning, keep being methodical, keep getting better every week and then we can try some stuff,” van Gisbergen continued. “We’re very sort of welded in a box in the moment, just not wanting to get out of our comfort zone.”
Another notable qualifying effort came from RFK Racing’s Ryan Preece, who will start second on the front row alongside van Gisbergen. Preece was the second fastest and ran only a single lap in the session.
Van Gisbergen’s Trackhouse teammate Ross Chastain was third fastest in the No. 1 Chevrolet, followed by Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs, who earned a front-row start in the NASCAR Xfinity Series race earlier in the day.
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One of NASCAR’s most respected road course drivers, Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell was fifth fastest in qualifying and will start alongside one of the season’s three-race winners, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson on the third row.
Mexico native — and huge crowd favorite — Daniel Suárez was 10th fastest in the No. 99 Trackhouse Chevrolet.
Hendrick’s William Byron, the current NASCAR Cup Series championship leader, will start 27th.