There seems to be no stopping Shane van Gisbergen on road courses in the NASCAR Cup Series. The driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet put on another road racing clinic on his way to his third win of the NASCAR Cup season in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
Race Results: NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma
In the last month, Van Gisbergen, who was having a rough rookie season in the NASCAR Cup Series has completely flipped the script as he now has three wins, and is set to rank very high in the Playoff grid once the Playoffs kick off in six races. For SVG, the last month is why he made the move to America, and why he continues chasing the dream.
“It means everything. That’s why I race cars,” Van Gisbergen explained. “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. 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.”
Van Gisbergen, 36, was never seriously threatened for the win throughout Sunday’s race as he led a race-high 97 laps, which is an all-time NASCAR Cup Series record at the 1.99-mile California road course (Jeff Gordon previously held the record with 92 laps led in 2004).
SVG was so dominant that he chose to flip Stage 2 and abandon going for the Stage Win in an effort to set himself up better for the overall race win, and guess what? He won Stage 2 anyway.
Van Gisbergen was able to hold Chase Briscoe at bay for the race lead through three late-race cautions, and he marched to the finish line to win the race by a margin of 1.128 seconds.
The native of New Zealand credited Briscoe for racing him clean through all three of the restarts down the stretch.
“Yeah, it was pretty tough stuff.” Van Gisbergen said of the late-race restarts. “We had an amazing car. Chase Briscoe, what a great racer, and [he] gave me respect. Jumped the last one 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.”
After the win, Van Gisbergen’s crew chief Stephen Doran admitted that his driver is truly special behind the wheel on tracks where drivers are required to turn right in addition to left.
“Most of it’s Shane,” Doran explained. “We did get the car better. He was not happy with it in practice. We made a bunch of changes for today. Made the right changes, and he was pretty happy with it today and he was able to control the race, save his tires, kind of just manage his gap and use them at the end when he needed them.”
Briscoe was looking for his second win of his first season with Joe Gibbs Racing, but had to settle for second. After the race, Briscoe admitted he had nothing for Van Gisbergen, but was proud of his team’s effort on Sunday afternoon.
“I don’t know. I don’t know if I really saw everything he had, truthfully. I felt like every time I would get close; he would just start driving back away,” Briscoe said. “We were definitely the second-best car. I don’t really know what more I need – maybe a little bit a grip, but even if I had a little more grip, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to gain the speed that he had. But overall, great day for the Bass Pro Shops Toyota. This is by far my worst race track, so to run second to him, it definitely means a lot, so proud of the day.”
Chase Elliott would finish third behind SVG and Briscoe in the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, and Elliott would be followed across the finish line by Michael McDowell and Christopher Bell inside of the top five of the finishing results.
Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs, William Byron, Joey Logano, and Kyle Busch rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
NASCAR Cup Series Point Standings Update
With an eighth-place finish, Byron was able to stop the bleeding in his quest to secure the NASCAR Cup Series regular-season championship. Byron entered the day 13 points ahead of Chase Elliott, and the top-five drivers inside of the standings were all within 48 points of him.
Exiting Sonoma, Byron now holds a 14-point advantage over Elliott, while Kyle Larson dropped to 44 points behind in third, Tyler Reddick sits 53 points back in fourth, and Denny Hamlin is now 62 points behind Byron in fifth.
There are six races remaining until the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs begin.
With six races left, the Playoff cutline has heated up as Bubba Wallace and Ryan Preece are duking it out for the final spot.
Preece was able to overcome suffering damage on a late-race incident involving Noah Gragson and Erik Jones to finish 12th on Sunday, while Wallace came home in 26th. Leaving Sonoma, Wallace holds the final slot inside the Playoffs cutline by three points over Preece.
Here is how the battle for the Playoffs looks:
-
Kyle Larson, 3 wins
-
Denny Hamlin, 3 wins
-
Shane van Gisbergen, 3 wins
-
Christopher Bell, 3 wins
-
William Byron, 1 win
-
Ryan Blaney, 1 win
-
Austin Cindric, 1 win
-
Joey Logano, 1 win
-
Chase Briscoe, 1 win
-
Ross Chastain, 1 win
-
Josh Berry, 1 win
-
Chase Elliott, 1 win
-
Tyler Reddick, +149 points
-
Chris Buescher, +34
-
Alex Bowman, +32
-
Bubba Wallace, +3
===Cutline===
17. Ryan Preece, -3
18. Kyle Busch, -37
19. AJ Allmendinger, -50
20. Ty Gibbs, -60
In-Season Tournament Update
Ty Dillon, the 32nd seed heading into NASCAR’s inaugural In-Season Tournament, continued his improbable march through the contest as he nudged past Alex Bowman on the final lap of Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350.
Dillon finished 17th, while Bowman was eliminated from the tournament with a 19th-place result.
Tyler Reddick advanced to the next round of the tournament with a sixth-place finish, and he eliminated Ryan Preece, who finished 12th.
Ty Gibbs also advanced by way of a seventh-place finish, and in doing so, eliminated Zane Smith, who finished 27th.
John Hunter Nemechek also advanced in a tight battle with his LEGACY MOTOR CLUB teammate Erik Jones.
Here are next week’s In-Season Tournament matchups, which will decide the drivers that will battle for $1 million in the Brickyard 400.
- No. 32 Ty Dillon vs No. 12 John Hunter Nemechek
- No. 23 Tyler Reddick vs No. 6 Ty Gibbs
Next Week’s Race
Next up for the NASCAR Cup Series is the AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 20. That race will be the fourth of five races to be televised on TNT. TNT’s race broadcast will kick off at 2:00 PM ET. The Performance Radio Network (PRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the Dover race.