Shane van Gisbergen has smashed the field to win pole position for tomorrow’s race at Watkins Glen by a whopping 0.259 seconds.

What is usually a tight qualifying run, van Gisbergen smashed the field to win his first pole of the year on the NASCAR Cup Series’ second trip to a road course track (the first being at COTA back in March).

Van Gisbergen qualified with a time of 71.165 seconds, ahead of second place Michael McDowell with a 71.424.

The rest of the top five consisted of Team Penske’s Austin Cindric, and van Gisbergen’s Trackhouse teammates Ross Chastain and Connor Zilisch.

Team Hendrick struggled to crack the top 10, with their best result being William Byron who qualified 13th.

The cold temperatures creates a new challenge for the drivers as it’s first time the Watkins Glen race has been held in the first portion of the season since it’s inaugural event back in 1957.

Last year’s race was won by van Gisbergen who is looking to go back-to-back as he tries to get back into the top 16 in points to make the Chase come August.

The Go Bowling at the Glen race will start on Monday morning at 5am AEST.