Rookie Shane van Gisbergen remains NASCAR's king of the road courses with 4th victory of the season

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (AP) — Shane van Gisbergen’s latest victory in NASCAR’s premier series was as historical as it was emotional.

With his father, Robert, on hand for the first time this year, the Auckland, New Zealand, native set a Cup Series rookie record with his fourth victory, blowing out the competition again at Watkins Glen International.

“It’s just amazing to have him here,” said van Gisbergen, who last saw his father while visiting home over the Christmas break. “It’s been a very tough, tough year for dad, and he hasn’t been able to travel, so to have him here for the next three weeks and share this with him, it’s amazing.”

As amazing as van Gisbergen’s rookie season in the Cup series.

The Trackhouse Racing driver joined 2020 champion Chase Elliott and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon as the only drivers to win four consecutive Cup races on road or street courses.

Unlike his prior wins at Mexico City, Chicago and Sonoma, van Gisbergen was unable to start from the pole position after being edged by Ryan Blaney. After qualifying second, van Gisbergen bided his time and took his first lead on the 25th of the 90-lap race. He then settled into a typically flawless and smooth rhythm on the 2.45-mile road course.

“I’m just a very lucky guy to get to drive for an amazing bunch of people and just execute,” van Gisbergen said. “The day went flawlessly.”

The 36-year-old rookie made his final pit stop with 27 laps remaining and cycled into first place on Lap 74 of a clean race with only three yellow flags. Cruising to a big lead while leading the final 17 laps, van Gisbergen beat Christopher Bell by 11.116 seconds.

“I’m thrilled because we’ve been struggling a little bit,” Bell said. “Just trying to execute the races has been tough for us, so really awesome to have a good day. Frustrated to get our butts kicked by (van Gisbergen). He’s doing such a really good job.”

With five victories in only 38 career starts in NASCAR’s premier series, van Gisbergen trails only Elliott (seven wins) and Kyle Larson (six) among active drivers on street or road courses. He also is the fastest to five wins in Cup since the legendary Dan Gurney, who won his fifth race in his 13th start in January 1968.

The win validated the decision by Trackhouse to sign van Gisbergen to a multiyear contract extension last week. Tied with Denny Hamlin for the series lead in victories, van Gisbergen holds the No. 2 seed in the playoffs with two races remaining in the regular season.

The first round will be held at three oval tracks, where the inexperienced van Gisbergen, who raced exclusively on road and street courses while winning three championships in the Australia-based Supercars, has an average finish of 26.9 this year.

“It ain’t going to be easy, that’s for sure,” van Gisbergen said of his playoff outlook. “The first round, it’s some very difficult left-handed tracks for me, but I’m getting better at it, and I’m enjoying myself, and it’s a challenge. That’s why we’re here, and we’ll have a proper crack at it.”

Third-place finisher Chris Buescher improved to 34 points ahead of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing teammate Ryan Preece in the battle for the final playoff spot.

Buescher outdueled van Gisbergen on the final lap to win at Watkins Glen last year. His team tailored its strategy Sunday toward amassing stage points instead of following the win-oriented strategy used by van Gisbergen.

“Last year, we didn’t have to deal with the points side of things, so we brought a fast race car and made it happen,” Buescher said. “We had a really fast race car again, just definitely took the opportunity to capitalize on some big stage points early.”

It was another frustrating race for Ty Gibbs, who spun John Hunter Nemechek late in Stage 2 and then complained about the handling and strategy of his No. 54 Toyota. Joe Gibbs Racing competition director Chris Gabehart, who recently began working as a strategist and consultant to Gibbs’ team, radioed the driver to “stay in the game” after the Nemechek wreck and later took issue after Gibbs questioned his team’s strategy.

“I’m sure you’ve got a real good understanding from inside the car,” Gabehart told Gibbs on the radio. “So you can call the strategy if you want, or we can keep rolling.”

Gibbs, the grandson of team owner Joe Gibbs, finished 33rd and remained winless since moving into Cup after winning the 2022 Xfinity Series championship. Teammates Chase Briscoe, Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell have qualified for the playoffs with victories this season.

The Cup Series will race Saturday at Richmond Raceway, which will play host to its only NASCAR race weekend this season. The 0.75-mile oval had two annual races on the Cup schedule from 1959-2024.

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AJ Allmendinger (16) gets some air leaving the Bus Stop during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in Watkins Glen, N.Y., Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Shane van Gisbergen (88) does donuts on the track after finishing first during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in Watkins Glen, N.Y., Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Shane van Gisbergen, center right, poses fort pictures with his team after finishing first during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race in Watkins Glen, N.Y., Sunday, Aug. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

PARIS (AP) — Ralph Fiennes ' vision of “Eugene Onegin” was cinematic.

A three-time Academy Award nominee and a Tony Award winner, Fiennes made his opera directing debut Monday at the Paris Opera's ornate Palais Garnier. Using bright lighting near the proscenium as other characters receded to the rear in faded illumination, he controlled focus as a movie director determining the audience's view.

“It became clear that his priorities are quite cinematic as if everything is kind of in close up,” mezzo-soprano Susan Graham said.

Based on Alexander Pushkin's 1833 novel, “Onegin” was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a libretto the composer co-wrote with Konstantin Shilovsky. Baritone Boris Pinkhasovich stars as Onegin, soprano Ruzan Mantashyan as Tatyana and tenor Bogdan Volkov as Lensky. The entire 11-performance run through Feb. 27 is sold out. France TV will broadcast the opera on Feb. 9.

Conductor Semyon Byckov, announced three weeks ago as Paris Opera's music director starting in August 2028, picked Fiennes to direct, writing in a text message: “Ralph is an immense actor and director, with a profound connection to Russian culture.”

“I was shocked, delighted and scared — principally delighted,” Fiennes said during a Jan. 6 public discussion. “My history with `Eugene Onegin’ goes back to when I was an acting student and the librarian of our academy, who was also a teacher, suggested I read Pushkin’s novel in verse in English because the character might appeal to me, maybe for an audition piece. I read it. I was completely transfixed by the poem and the character.”

Fiennes portrayed the title character in the 1999 movie “Onegin,” directed by his sister Martha and co-starring Liv Tyler. He also directed “The White Crow,” a 2018 film about ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev.

“His telephone call woke up my love, or reawoke my love of Pushkin but of course, opera was new to me,” Fiennes said of Bychkov. “I had an instinctive feeling that with Semyon’s support and guidance I could take it on.”

Fiennes, 63, stars in the recently released movies “The Choral” and “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,” and he returns to London theater in April with David Hare’s “Grace Pervades.”

He had seen director’s Rimas Tuminas’ stage dramatization of the Pushkin novel that portrayed the title character and Lensky simultaneously as two people, young and old. Fiennes decided to set the opera in the 1830s.

“If I tried to find a 20th or 21st century parallel, I felt I would be contriving something,” he said. “I didn’t go through some long analysis or philosophical dissection. I followed my gut.”

Graham, at 65 sang her first Russian-language role as Madame Larina, mother of Tatyana and Olga. When she met Fiennes in Los Angeles last spring, he emphasized eschewing grand opera gestures.

Mantashyan and Volkov were successful creating emotional tension — the tenor had tears streaming down his face during Lensky's second-act aria.

“The scope of gesture is different on an opera stage certainly than it is in front of a film camera. You can do something with eyes in a film camera that doesn’t read past the third row in a theater,” Graham said. “We’re not lapsing into park and bark by any stretch of the imagination. It’s all still very real and very human movement. We try to avoid the spread arms of great, big opera singing, but sometimes you have great big operas singing.”

Pinkhasovich at times sang to the audience rather than his cast mates.

“In rehearsals I’ve asked the singers sometimes to speak the libretto so they are in touch with the conversations,” Fiennes said.

That was new for Mantashyan, who first read the novel in school as a 13-year-old.

“It’s strange for a singer to do, but I think during that you discover some new possibilities or new colors that you could use in your acting,” she said. “Of course, it comes from the actor’s perspective. He listens to music, but his first tool is in the text.”

Michael Levine's sets were simple, trees on a backdrop and leaves on the ground for the Larin country estate, using that also as Lensky moved to the snowy outdoors, the crowd following, as he challenged Onegin to a duel in Act 2. The backdrop switched to Prince Gremin's ballroom in St. Petersburg for the third act.

Costume designer Annemarie Woods' outfits are not period accurate, with Fiennes emphasizing contemporary body language. Still, Mantashyan used a quill for Tatyana's letter scene, Alessandro Carletti's lighting accentuating her intense expressions.

Rehearsals started Dec. 1 and moved on stage Jan. 9, just 2 1/2 weeks before the opening

“The process is very fast and very, very messy and some people are very surprised by that,” Levine said. “I think maybe it’s helpful having me around saying: Don’t worry. Just keep pushing, keep working on all this time and detail and moving forward.”

Fiennes's final vision was the shattered Onegin, collapsed, sobbing and clutching the shawl he had grabbed from Tatyana during their confrontation — the same shawl she had worn when they first met.

Ralph Fiennes, right, appears with conductor Semyon Bychkov during curtain calls after his opera directing debut of Tchaikovky’s “Eugene Onegin” at the Palais Garnier in Paris on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ron Blum)