Van Gisbergen Captures Pole for Cup Race on Naval Base Coronado

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

SAN DIEGO – To no one’s surprise, Shane van Gisbergen will lead the NASCAR Cup Series field to green at Naval Base Coronado in Sunday’s running of the Anduril 250.

The road course ace didn’t have a perfect lap by any means, but it was still more than enough to put the No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet on top of the board.

Van Gisbergen had to roll out in the first of two qualifying groups, which is usually a detriment to anyone that has to go out early, but he made the most of it despite bouncing off the wall a few times to put down a lap of two minutes, 14.788 seconds to set the benchmark.

SVG wins the pole on a road course yet again! 😤 pic.twitter.com/ppcWKCA8qm

— Sports on Prime (@SportsonPrime) June 20, 2026

“Amazing to get the first pole here (at San Diego). Really cool,” said van Gisbergen. “It’s tough, I’ve said it a couple of times. It’s your first lap of the day and there’s three, four, five corners you’re probably going through for the first time of the day as your qualifying lap starts.

“And yeah, I made a meal of it, but I guess the rest of the lap was pretty decent and made the time back. I’m sure everyone has the same story that there’s a lot of time left, but it’s cool to make the least mistakes, I guess (laughs).”

Even though he remains the odds on favorite for Sunday, van Gisbergen noted that it’s still not a certain thing that he’ll walk away with yet another road course win.

“My long runs weren’t that great yesterday. The Nos. 5, 33 and 54 were faster than me yesterday, I believe,” he said.

“But my car is better today than yesterday, so who knows. We’re definitely in a good place to start and tomorrow will be a bit of a gamble and a lottery, I think, with the tires. It’s going to be hard for the crew chiefs and strategists to get it right tomorrow, for sure.”

Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney would make a run at it in the second group, but came up just short, slotting in second and third, respectively, on the starting grid.

Blaney was notably fired up after his run and his starting position on Row 2 for Sunday.

Ryan @Blaney appeared to be pleased with his lap on the radio. pic.twitter.com/8yR0xIDMv9

— Bozi Tatarevic (@BoziTatarevic) June 20, 2026

“I’ve said it before, I feel like I’m an average road racer. I don’t think I excel at this stuff very much,” said Blaney.

“I’ve worked really hard to try to get better, and I thought we had an OK day yesterday. Coming into today, you really get one lap because the tires were so bad and it’s the only lap we’re gonna make today and you just hope you hit it right and pick up the multiple seconds that we were running yesterday.

“I had a good lap. I didn’t know I had it until the final last little chicane and that kind of bums me out a little bit, but, overall, a really good effort by the 12 boys. They worked on it overnight, so I’m looking forward to tomorrow. It’s gonna be a heck of a race. Tire degradation is massive, so it’s who can manage rears better. It’s just a cool event. It’s cool to be out here.”

The remainder of the top-10 starters on Sunday will be Zane Smith, Todd Gilliland, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Preece, Connor Zilisch, Michael McDowell, and Austin Hill.

Current points leader Tyler Reddick will start in 17^th following a spin in qualifying, while the winner of the last three races on the schedule, Denny Hamlin, starts back in 26^th place.

The Anduril 250 is scheduled for 4:00 pm ET, streaming on Amazon Prime.