A familiar sight played out on a road course once again, as Shane van Gisbergen put together a phenomenal drive through the field in the closing laps to win Sunday's race at Watkins Glen International, the latest example of his excellence behind the wheel when right-hand turns are thrown into the mix.
While van Gisbergen left the rest of the field scratching its head once more, and points leader Tyler Reddick continues to win even when he loses, extending his advantage to 129 points over his 23XI Racing co-owner Denny Hamlin with a fifth-place finish, Richard Childress Racing finally put a complete race together.
Austin Dillon accomplished his best road course finish of sixth in his 47th start turning left and right, while Kyle Busch came home eighth, despite battling a sinus cold throughout the race. It was Dillon's first top 10 finish of the season and Busch's second in three weeks after a 10th place run at Talladega Superspeedway.
Most importantly for Busch, it was his second consecutive week showing improved pace after running inside the top 10 for most of the day at Texas Motor Speedway, only to fade to 20th after a late run-in with John Hunter Nemechek.
Needless to say, this was a long overdue performance for the whole organization, and one they can certainly build on after a trying start to the 2026 season.
Austin Dillon, Kyle Busch have encouraging finishes at Watkins Glen
It was not like both drivers lucked into those finishes, either. Once Dillon got the track position after crew chief Richard Boswell elected to pit earlier than most on lap 15, he stayed inside the top 10 and finished fourth in stage two. Busch, meanwhile, was just behind his teammate in fifth.
For Dillon, it came down to saving fuel after he was one of the first drivers to pit following the final caution of the race for Joey Logano's tire incident with 41 laps left. Despite stretching his fuel tank thin, Dillon held on for sixth, which turned out to be third-best among the drivers who pitted with 38 laps to go.
It was the first time that Dillon finished inside the top 10 since his win at Richmond Raceway in August 2025 and the first time since the race at Texas two years ago in which Dillon and Busch both produced top 10 finishes.
Of course, it is just one race, which is not nearly enough to make up for the new low that nobody saw coming from the two-time champion Busch earlier this year.
Between the breaking point his team reached at Bristol Motor Speedway and the overall lack of performance from the organization through 12 races, some positive results at a Watkins Glen road course the series will not see again until the 2027 postseason is not going to erase that frustration by itself.
However, as Dillon and Busch both head into the weekend locked into Sunday's All-Star Race at Dover Motor Speedway, the results needed to start somewhere. If you ask Boswell, he believes Dillon has had the pace to contend for top 10 finishes on multiple occasions this season, only to fall short of those expectations for one reason or another.
Busch even won the pole for the season-opening Daytona 500, but much like his season overall, he had nothing to show for it when the checkered flag waved.
Only time will tell how much progress RCR has truly made, considering the fact that both drivers finished 18th or worse in the only prior race on a concrete surface so far this season (Bristol).
Not only does that not make the prospects good for a solid weekend at Dover, but their 1.5-mile program has also consistently lacked the results you would expect from a weekly contender, making the upcoming Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway a huge wild card as well.
With that said, momentum has to start somewhere, and RCR certainly had its best overall race day of the 2026 season at Watkins Glen. Whether the organization can build on that is no guarantee, but it does show the potential that exists when the strategy and pace of the cars are on point.
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