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).

Leading 97 laps in Sunday’s #ToyotaSaveMart350 at Sonoma Raceway, @ShaneVG97 has set a NEW RECORD for the most laps led in a NASCAR Cup Series event at the racetrack.

The previous record (92) was set by Jeff Gordon in 2004.#NASCAR | ?:@AaronGiffin62, @TobyChristieCom pic.twitter.com/PdfreMOVKA

— Joseph Srigley (@joe_srigley) July 13, 2025

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:

1. Kyle Larson, 3 wins

2. Denny Hamlin, 3 wins

3. Shane van Gisbergen, 3 wins

4. Christopher Bell, 3 wins

5. William Byron, 1 win

6. Ryan Blaney, 1 win

7. Austin Cindric, 1 win

8. Joey Logano, 1 win

9. Chase Briscoe, 1 win

10. Ross Chastain, 1 win

11. Josh Berry, 1 win

12. Chase Elliott, 1 win

13. Tyler Reddick, +149 points

14. Chris Buescher, +34

15. Alex Bowman, +32

16. 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.

Having exhausted nearly every legal option to retain their charters after the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals revoked a previous preliminary injunction protecting it, both 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports have taken a new course forward.

23XI and FRM have filed a motion for another temporary restraining order (TRO) and a new preliminary injunction that would allow them to keep their charters for the remainder of the 2025 season. The trial date for the lawsuit does not take place until December 1st of this year.

New evidence?

Todd Gilliland, Front Row Motorsports Ford

Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

The teams cite new evidence as their reasoning for this motion, and allege that NASCAR plans to “immediately move to sell or issue Plaintiffs’ charters to other entities—putting Plaintiffs in irreparable jeopardy of never getting their charters back and going out of business.” The teams claim they received a letter from NASCAR, indicating that this is indeed the intention of the sanctioning body. 

NASCAR has quickly responded, calling the motion “improper” and requesting a decision from the courts by Wednesday on the TRO.

23XI and FRM have three charters each, and with only 36 charters, they are highly sought after. Teams are willing to pay tens of millions of dollars for just one charter, as recent sales of showcased. NASCAR also stated that 23XI and FRM are refusing to return the money they’ve earned under the 2025 Charter Agreement so far, stating in a Monday filing: “The Plaintiffs have informed NASCAR they do not intend on returning the money irrespective of the Fourth Circuit’s decision.”

NASCAR’s official statement

23XI Racing logo

Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

NASCAR released a full statement on the situation publicly, claiming they have reached out in attempts to end this legal battle before it goes to trial, but 23XI and FRM are not receptive to it.

“It is unfortunate that instead of respecting the clear rulings of the Fourth Circuit, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports are now burdening the District Court with a third motion for another unnecessary and inappropriate preliminary injunction.

“As both the Fourth Circuit and the District Court suggested, NASCAR has made multiple requests to 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports to present a proposal to resolve this litigation. We have yet to receive a proposal from 23XI or Front Row, as they have instead preferred to continue their damaging and distracting lawsuit. We will defend NASCAR’s integrity from this baseless lawsuit forced upon the sport that threatens to divide the stakeholders committed to serving race fans everywhere. We remain focused on collaborating with the 13 race teams that signed the 2025 charter agreements and share our mutual goal of delivering the best racing in the world each week, including this weekend in Dover.”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — ARCA Menards Series winner Jake Finch is set to make his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut with Hendrick Motorsports.

Hendrick Motorsports named Finch to their No. 17 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro for the July 19 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Dover Motor Speedway.

Dover is where Finch earned his first ARCA-sanctioned win in 2023 in the East series. In 2024, he earned a win in the main ARCA series at Talladega Superspeedway.

Finch has just one start so far this season – in the April ARCA Menards Series East race at Rockingham Speedway.

Jake Finch is the son of James Finch, the owner of Phoenix Racing. Up until its closure in 2013, Phoenix Racing worked closely with Hendrick Motorsports. In 2009, they allowed one of their developmental drivers at the time to get a big opportunity. Brad Keselowski claimed his and Phoenix Racing’s first NASCAR Cup Series victory in a wild finish at Talladega in April 2009. The future NASCAR Cup Series champion went on to win much more but the team never won again.

Jake Finch will be the second driver to make his NASCAR Xfinity Series debut since the 2022 revival of Hendrick Motorsports’ program in the series.

In his series debut in March at Martinsville Speedway, Corey Day finished 21st after starting eighth at Martinsville. Day finished 16th after starting 33rd at Texas, 11th after starting 21st at Nashville Superspeedway and 24th after starting 14th at Sonoma.

Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.

A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.

Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick’s final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen’s stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers’ stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.

Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com

23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports filed for a new preliminary injunction Monday and a restraining order in an effort to retain their charters.

The two teams are scheduled to lose their charters on Wednesday. This came after a three-judge panel from the Fourth Circuit of Appeals vacated the preliminary injunction in June that was granted to them for the 2025 season. A request from the teams for a rehearing on the matter was denied earlier this month.

In the new filing, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports stated that NASCAR “has signaled its intention to immediately move to sell or issue Plaintiffs’ charters to other entities – putting Plaintiffs in irreparable jeopardy of never getting their charters back and going out of business.”

23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports were the only two teams who did not sign the new charter agreement. A joint antitrust lawsuit was filed against NASCAR on Oct. 2. NASCAR has since filed a counterclaim against the teams.

A trial date is set for December.

The loss of a charter would remove guaranteed entry into NASCAR Cup Series events. Open teams also earn less of the prize money.

“It is unfortunate that instead of respecting the clear rulings of the Fourth Circuit, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports are now burdening the District Court with a third motion for another unnecessary and inappropriate preliminary injunction,” NASCAR said in a statement. “As both the Fourth Circuit and the District Court suggested, NASCAR has made multiple requests to 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports to present a proposal to resolve this litigation. We have yet to receive a proposal from 23XI or Front Row, as they have instead preferred to continue their damaging and distracting lawsuit.

“We will defend NASCAR’s integrity from this baseless lawsuit forced upon the sport that threatens to divide the stakeholders committed to serving race fans everywhere. We remain focused on collaborating with the 13 race teams that signed the 2025 charter agreements and share our mutual goal of delivering the best racing in the world each week, including this weekend in Dover.”

In 2024, Finch claimed the Show Me the Money Series championship at Montgomery Motor Speedway, piloting the famed No. 18 for Ronnie Sanders Racing. He has also won the last two runnings of the Baby Rattler 125 at South Alabama Speedway.

Finch is the son of James Finch, the owner of Phoenix Racing which formerly competed in the NASCAR Cup Series. In 2009, Brad Keselowski earned the team’s lone Cup Series victory at Talladega.

SONOMA, Calif. — NASCAR said the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 54 team did no wrong after an incident during Sunday’s Cup Series race in which driver Ty Gibbs passed through the RFK Racing No. 6 team’s pit box during a stop and clipped a tire being held by the team’s tire carrier.

The pit crews for Gibbs and Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 6 car, then had a minor altercation — which included pushing and shoving — following a sequence of pit stops on Lap 52 of the race at Sonoma Raceway.

The disagreement stemmed from how Gibbs pulled into his stall, which was one spot beyond Keselowski’s. As Gibbs is allowed to do under NASCAR rules, he partially drove through Keselowski’s stall to get into his own, but as he did, he made contact with the tire in the hands of Keselowski team member Telvin McClurkin, who was over the pit wall preparing to service Keselowski’s car.

You be the judge pic.twitter.com/JYiUYvRp9e

— RFK Racing (@RFKracing) July 13, 2025

“I pull in my (pit) box, and by the rules, the first-place car that’s going in, it’s my right of way,” Gibbs told The Athletic. “And that’s the thing with pit crew guys who like to be out there, that’s on them. It’s my right of way. They had an incident that slowed their stop down, so that sucks for them.”

Although McClurkin never lost control of the tire, he did twist his wrist. After completing the pit stop, he walked down to Gibbs’ stall and confronted members of the No. 54 team, setting off a brief skirmish between the two teams. NASCAR officials quickly broke up the scrum.

McClurkin declined comment about the incident after the race but did say his wrist was “doing fine.”

“I talked to NASCAR and, obviously, no rules were broken,” RFK competition director Josh Sell said. “Would we have liked to have seen it play out differently? Yeah, absolutely, and that’s really all there is to it.”

An incident on the track and a separate one on pit road.@SteveLetarte and the TNT crew take a closer look. pic.twitter.com/lyWsYKExfW

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 13, 2025

After reviewing the incident, NASCAR officials determined that Gibbs did nothing wrong and that the No. 6 team should’ve given Gibbs more room to enter his own pit stall. NASCAR considers the incident closed, though a NASCAR spokesperson said officials would review this week the skirmish between the two teams to see if any penalties would be assessed.

“The rule is the rule, and the 54 (car) in that instance has the right of way, and the pit crew members just have to be aware enough to know that and not run into traffic unless you have to,” JGR competition director Chris Gabehart said. “(McClurkin) has the right to be standing out there, but the 54 has got to get in his box first. And it’s one of those tough rules. I don’t really fault anybody on it. It just takes a lot of give-and-take in that situation. And unfortunately, they got into him.”

Incidents between pit crews are a rarity in NASCAR, though occasionally there are flare-ups in a high-pressure environment where teams are racing to get their driver on and off pit road as quickly as possible. This is in addition to the danger created by five-member pit crews jumping over the wall as cars pass by — pit road speed at Sonoma is 40 mph — which only heightens emotions when there is a perceived safety risk.

“Scrapping, man,” Gabehart said. “Everybody’s excited. That’s racing and part of it.”

(Photo of Ty Gibbs in Sunday’s race: Chris Williams / Sonoma Raceway / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)