Shane Van Gisbergen Makes It Two In A Row With NASCAR Sonoma Win

Shane van Gisbergen proved on Sunday that it’s impossible to keep a road course superstar down for more than a brief interlude.

After finishing second to Connor Zilisch in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, van Gisbergen was back on top on a pleasant Sunday afternoon in wine country, winning the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

As has become his custom of late, the New Zealander reached a trio of milestones, winning his third straight road/street course race from the pole position to equal Jeff Gordon’s feat from 1998 and 1999.

The victory was van Gisbergen’s third of the season in his first trip around the 1.99-mile, 12-turn circuit in a NASCAR Cup Series car. SVG won for the fourth time in 34 starts, becoming the quickest to four wins since Parnelli Jones won at Riverside in 1967 in his 31st Cup start.

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His 97 laps led are the most by a Sonoma winner, eclipsing Jeff Gordon’s high-water mark of 92 set in 2004.

“We had an amazing car,” van Gisbergen said. “Chase Briscoe, what a great racer and gave me respect. Jumped the last (restart) a little bit, and it was pretty tense, but amazing. So stoked for Red Bull, Trackhouse, Chevy. I believe we had a really fun weekend here, some great races, and I hope everyone enjoyed that.”

The winner of 81 Australian Supercars races on the way to three championships in the series, van Gisbergen already is being touted as perhaps the best road course racer in NASCAR history.

“I had an amazing time in Australia, and then to come here and the last couple weeks or years actually has been a dream come true,” said the 36-year-old driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. “I’ve really enjoyed my time in NASCAR. Thanks, everyone, for making me feel so welcome. I hope I’m here for a long time to come.”

Winning the second stage despite short-pitting to preserve track position, van Gisbergen advanced to third on the current Cup Playoff grid with 17 Playoff points. He arrived at the finish line 1.128 seconds ahead of consistent Chase Briscoe, but the win was far from guaranteed, given the chaos of the final 15 laps.

SVG had to survive three cautions and subsequent restarts in the late stages of the race to seal the win, as a large group of drivers on better tires chased those who had stayed on the track (including the race winner) after the No. 51 Ford of Cody Ware jettisoned a tire and caused a yellow on Lap 97.

Briscoe qualified second and finished where he felt he deserved.

“The only opportunity I had was on the restarts,” Briscoe said. “I never played basketball against Michael Jordan in his prime, but I feel like that’s probably what it was like. That guy is unbelievable on road courses. He’s just so good. He’s really raised the bar on this entire series.

“Proud of the effort. I thought there was one restart I was maybe going to get clear of him, but truthfully, even if I cleared him, he was probably going to pass me back by the end of the lap. Yeah, proud of the effort. We were a second-place car all day and obviously ended up second with it.”

Chase Elliott pitted on Lap 97 for fresher tires and came home third after restarting 14th on Lap 100. Michael McDowell, on the same strategy as Elliott, climbed to fourth at the finish, while Christopher Bell held fifth on older tires.

It was nice to be on offense and give ourselves a shot,” Elliott said. “I wish I could have made it happen there. I was trying, but I just couldn’t get going like we needed to there at the end.”

The action on the final few laps was attributable in part to battles within the NASCAR Cup In-Season Challenge. In Sunday’s third round at Sonoma, 32nd seed Ty Dillon bumped the No. 48 Chevrolet of Alex Bowman out of the way on the final lap to finish 17th to Bowman’s 19th and keep his hopes for the $1-million prize alive.

Dillon will face John Hunter Nemechek in next Sunday semifinals at Dover Motor Speedway. Nemechek finished one spot ahead of LEGACY Motor Club teammate Erik Jones (28th to 29th) to advance to the fourth round.

“It was a rough couple of laps there,” Dillon acknowledged. “Alex and I race really clean. I told him, ‘Man, if it wasn’t for the million dollars, I probably wouldn’t have done that,’ but I had to. It’s been an incredible run for this No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet team. We’ve worked so hard for this opportunity…

“We’re going to give it all we’ve got at Dover; put pressure on the guys. I think you’ve seen through this that our team doesn’t quit. I saw the No. 48 there at the end, and I knew it was our opportunity to race hard and go get him. Just proud of this team’s effort.”

Ty Gibbs moved into the tournament semifinals with a seventh-place finish to Zane Smith’s 27th, and Tyler Reddick ousted Ryan Preece with a sixth-place run to Preece’s 12th. Gibbs and Reddick will face off at the Monster Mile for a trip to the finals.

William Byron, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch completed the top 10 in a race that featured six cautions for 17 laps.

— Reid Spencer/NASCAR Wire Service

Full Results:

1. (1)  Shane Van Gisbergen #, Chevrolet, 110.
2. (2)  Chase Briscoe, Toyota, 110.
3. (13)  Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 110.
4. (15)  Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 110.
5. (10)  Christopher Bell, Toyota, 110.
6. (8)  Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 110.
7. (6)  Ty Gibbs, Toyota, 110.
8. (3)  William Byron, Chevrolet, 110.
9. (22)  Joey Logano, Ford, 110.
10. (17)  Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, 110.
11. (21)  Brad Keselowski, Ford, 110.
12. (20)  Ryan Preece, Ford, 110.
13. (25)  Josh Berry, Ford, 110.
14. (19)  Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 110.
15. (29)  Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 110.
16. (14)  Chris Buescher, Ford, 110.
17. (26)  Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 110.
18. (5)  AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 110.
19. (9)  Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 110.
20. (16)  Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 110.
21. (33)  Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 110.
22. (35)  Todd Gilliland, Ford, 110.
23. (27)  Cole Custer, Ford, 110.
24. (4)  Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 110.
25. (28)  Riley Herbst #, Toyota, 110.
26. (30)  Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 110.
27. (12)  Zane Smith, Ford, 110.
28. (18)  John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota, 110.
29. (31)  Erik Jones, Toyota, 110.
30. (24)  Austin Cindric, Ford, 110.
31. (37)  Katherine Legge, Chevrolet, 110.
32. (23)  Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet, 110.
33. (34)  Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 110.
34. (36)  Cody Ware, Ford, 108.
35. (11)  Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 108.
36. (7)  Ryan Blaney, Ford, Accident, 106.
37. (32)  Noah Gragson, Ford, Accident, 99.