MEXICO CITY — Shane van Gisbergen captured his first pole win of the 2025 season to lead the field to the green flag in Sunday’s Viva Mexico 250 NASCAR Cup Series race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Turning in a best lap of 92.776 seconds at 93.904 mph in his No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, the qualifying effort delivered the 36-year-old Auckland, New Zealand, native his second career pole in NASCAR’s top division.
Chevrolet owns half of the pole wins this season in NASCAR’s top division, with Shane van Gisbergen giving the manufacturer its eighth pole award heading into the 16th points-paying race.
“We made some big swings last night. Our No. 88 Safety Culture Chevrolet was a bit better. We had a lot more front grip, which is what I needed,” van Gisbergen explained. “But my laps were average… like you’ll see everyone was beating me on the first-half of the lap, and then my lap gets good at the end. We had a lot of speed today, which is good. It’s been a great improvement. What a really cool achievement for us and a great start for tomorrow. I’m excited…that’s really cool.”
RFK Racing Ford driver Ryan Preece, known as a short-track specialist, turned the second quickest lap and will start outside the front row.
Van Gisbergen’s Trackhouse Racing teammates Ross Chastain and home countryman Daniel Suarez qualified third and 10th, respectively.
Ty Gibbs was fourth in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, while road course specialist Michael McDowell was fifth in his Spire Motorpsorts Chevrolet.
Kyle Larson, Todd Gilliland, A.J. Allmendinger, Joey Logano and Suarez completed the top 10.
