Shane van Gisbergen’s recent victory at Watkins Glen was a special one for the Kiwi. Amid what has been a difficult period for his father and himself, SVG spoke about the importance of this triumph in a post-race press conference.SVG opened up about what his family had been going through over the past few months. He and his father suffered massive personal loss, with the deaths of his mother, grandmother, and aunt within a very short period. Through all the physical distance and adversity, SVG has tried to stay in touch with his father, calling him almost daily to offer a much-needed shoulder and to share the ups and downs of his life in NASCAR with him.Shane van Gisbergen said:"Today was really special. I've never had my dog in Victory Lane before and my dad as well, you know, he hasn't been able to travel all year being sick and yeah, to have him here for the next three weeks and have a win with him, it's just really cool to have that moment. Yeah, it's been pretty difficult. He lost his wife, my mother, and then his sister and then his mum a month or so ago, so it's been a really rough run for dad and yeah, it's hard to support him when I'm on the other side of the world.""That's probably why I'm the most homesick, you know, so and then my sister's moved away as well, so he's kind of by himself all of a sudden, so yeah, it's, I try and talk to him every day and yeah, to have him here and like he was in, almost in tears too, so it's really special to share that because yeah, we're a long way from home," he added.With wins at Mexico City, Chicago, Sonoma, and Watkins Glen in 2025 alone, Shane van Gisbergen has quickly become possibly the best road course driver in recent memory. His speed in these events, as evidenced by regularly being over a second per lap faster than the competition, has drawn some parallels with road racing stars such as Jeff Gordon, whose nine road course wins van Gisbergen is fast approaching.Shane van Gisbergen sends a message after avenging last year’s Watkins Glen loss to Chris BuescherShane van Gisbergen secured his fourth NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2025 season at Watkins Glen International, continuing his dominant run on road courses. Starting from second place after being edged out in qualifying by Ryan Blaney, van Gisbergen took the lead for the first time on Lap 25 and made a decisive final pit stop with 27 laps remaining, cycling into the lead on Lap 74.He maintained flawless pace on the 2.45-mile road course and cruised to an impressive 11.116-second victory over Christopher Bell, with Chris Buescher finishing third. Reflecting on the win, he tweeted:“Well that made up for last year! Amazing day thank you to @WeatherTech and the @TeamTrackhouse 88 crew. Real special to have Dad and Ronald here too. Awesome.”This victory extended Shane van Gisbergen's record-setting streak of winning four consecutive NASCAR Cup Series road or street course races, a feat previously only accomplished by Chase Elliott in 2019-2020.