Shane van Gisbergen proved in his NASCAR debut to be an elite road and street course racer by winning in his first career outing.

Two years later, his rivals have gotten a good look at the New Zealander’s technique and have declared him the favorite to win Sunday at Sonoma Raceway. He will start from the pole for the second consecutive week and third time in five races.

“It’s pretty awesome, we’ve had a really cool couple of weeks,” said the Trackhouse Racing driver. “It’s so cool how stoked everyone is and you feel the energy in the shop when you walk in. It’s just a cool atmosphere in the shop, everyone is lifted up.”

Van Gisbergen is on a two-race winning streak on the specialty courses following victories on the road course in Mexico City (where he won by 16.6 seconds from the pole) and last Sunday on the streets of Chicago (again from the pole). He has five consecutive finishes of seventh or higher dating back to Watkins Glen International last September.

“He’s so good and it’s rare that you see somebody stand out like that and distance himself from the competition,” said Kyle Larson, last year’s winner at Sonoma. “He’s way, way, way better than us at the road course stuff.”

The secret, his rivals have learned, is a toe-heel braking technique that none of them can master.

“If I tried to learn what he’s doing, it would take me until I retire,” Kyle Busch said.

Added Larson: “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. There’s zero chance I can learn how to do that.”

Van Gisbergen, who won at Sonoma in his Xfinity Series debut last year and started from the pole Saturday in that race, will be making his Cup debut Sunday on the picturesque track in Northern California’s wine country.

He is beatable, said Denny Hamlin, but it won’t be easy for any driver to stop van Gisbergen’s dominance.

“I think you are going to need things to not go his way, and then someone is going to have to really hit it,” Hamlin said. “That, to me, is probably going to be challenging. Cautions could turn things upside down. He is beatable, on speed alone, but I would say outright pace? No.”

In addition to the way van Gisbergen brakes, Hamlin commended the way the Kiwi approaches the courses.

“His approach to how he attacks certain corners seems to be the thing where we’re more reactive,” Hamlin said. “I’m more reactive to seeing how someone approaches a corner to go fast. He’s proactive and knows how to approach it, so he’s better and faster before I am. And by the time I start to get closer, he then refines his technique and goes even faster.”

Joey Logano had little to offer on his current feud with Ross Chastain. It heated up last week at Chicago when Chastain spun Logano in a retaliatory move that sent Logano to NASCAR to demand punishment for a deliberate action.

NASCAR did not penalize Chastain and the two drivers have not spoken since Sunday’s postrace confrontation.

“We haven’t talked,” Logano said Saturday. “It is what it is.”

Logano didn’t want to talk about Chastain, anyway.

“He made his choices. I’m just going to go race my car,” Logano said.

As for Chastain? He maintained that “there’s three sides to every story.”

“I think that a lot of people were all running into each other for the last couple of laps,” Chastain said. “That’s what I saw.”

Bubba Wallace tried to fix his frayed relationship with Alex Bowman as soon as they arrived in California earlier this week.

The two had an incident at Chicago for the second consecutive year and have had other run-ins in the past. After the latest dustup, Bowman expressed surprise that the two were still having issues.

“I thought we had squashed our beef, but clearly we have not,” Bowman said in Chicago.

To prove to Bowman that they had indeed moved on, Wallace said he saw Bowman in a Napa Valley restaurant, approached him from behind and wrapped him in a bear hug. He later paid for Bowman’s dinner.

“I told him I messed up like an idiot,” Wallace said of his driving at Chicago. “I apologized. I was down for a couple days about it. So I bought him a meal. It felt right.”

For the second consecutive weekend, Shane van Gisbergen has pulled off an impressive feat.

The driver of the No. 88 Red Bull Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing put down a dominant lap in qualifying (74.594s/96.040mph) to collect the pole position for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway — his second pole position of the weekend at the 1.99-mile road course in Sonoma, California.

During last weekend’s annual trip to the Chicago Street Course, the Auckland, New Zealand-native made himself a piece of history, becoming the second driver to win from the pole in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series on the same weekend. Having racked up the pole for both events this weekend, it’s a mark he’ll look to duplicate at Sonoma.

The mind-blowing lap time, which had van Gisbergen sitting a quarter-second faster than any other driver, went straight to the top of the speed charts at the start of the second 20-minute group. However, with only a slim margin, the New Zealander went back on the racetrack hoping to retain the pole.

STARTING LINEUP: 2025 NCS Toyota / Save Mart 350

“I’m shaking. That was pretty full-on. I’m stoked to have RedBull on the car. Thank you to Trackhouse and Chevy, amazing car,” said van Gisbergen. “We weren’t very good in practice, but new tires fixed it. Hopefully, we can be good for the race. But what a cool day.”

There wasn’t a single driver who returned to the racetrack that even came close to the lap of the Trackhouse Racing driver, but that didn’t stop him from schooling the remainder of the field.

Chase Briscoe, who challenged Shane van Gisbergen for the pole last weekend at the Chicago Street Course, was the second-fastest driver in qualifying on Saturday. Briscoe and van Gisbergen have combined to win the pole position in six of the last eight NASCAR Cup Series events.

William Byron was the quickest of those in the first group of qualifying, but had to settle for a third-place starting spot. Ross Chastain posted the fourth-fastest lap, and AJ Allmendinger (the fastest car in practice) rounded out the top five.

Ty Gibbs was sixth fastest in qualifying, with Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, and Christopher Bell rounding out the top-10.

In 12th-place, Zane Smith put together a strong qualifying result for his Front Row Motorsports team.

Other notables include Chase Elliott (13th), Chris Buescher (14th), Denny Hamlin (16th), Joey Logano (22nd), and Austin Cindric (24th).

Katherine Legge, after an incredible effort to get into the Chicago Street Race last weekend, suffered mechanical issues with her Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet in practice and thus did not make a qualifying run.

The Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway will take place on Sunday, July 12 at 3:30 pm ET on TNT Sports, Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

Shane van Gisbergen has now won four consecutive poles in the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series, sweeping qualifying at both Chicago and now Sonoma. In Cup qualifying at Sonoma on Saturday, he looked untouchable, earning his fourth career pole and third of the 2025 season.

“I’m shaking,” said van Gisbergen after the pole run. “That was pretty full-on. I’m stoked to have Red Bull on the car. Thank you to Trackhouse and Chevy — amazing car. We weren’t very good in practice. New tires fixed it. So yeah, hopefully we can be good in the race. What a good day.”

As for what he needs in order to capture the checkered flag on Sunday, SVG said he needs “a bit more rear grip and a bit better balance … just tune it up a little bit, but obviously not a bad spot to start.”

He will be joined on the front row by Chase Briscoe, who ended the session 0.250s off the pole lap by the driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. William Byron was third, Ross Chastain fourth, and A.J. Allmendinger fifth.

Ty Gibbs, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, and Christopher Bell filled out the remainder of the top ten.

This is also the first pole position for a Cup car with Red Bull as the primary sponsor since Kasey Kahne’s pole position at Atlanta in September of 2011.

Watch: SVG ‘shaken’ to capture back-to-back Cup Series pole awards

The qualifying session went on without any major incidents, but there were a few off-track excursions and a spin by Blaney.

Byron set the pace in Group A with a 1:15.025s, and while it was an impressive lap, it wasn’t enough to hang on for pole as Byron looks to rebound after a difficult month.

SVG went to the top of the board early in Group B, lapping the road course in 1:14.833s. However, other drivers still had a chance as Briscoe was only 0.011s off the pole time.

However, the three-time Supercars champ crushed any hope remaining on his second run, picking it up to a 1:14.594s as most of the frontrunners failed to improve at all.

Katherine Legge was the only driver who did not set a qualifying time, so she will start 37th in Sunday’s race.

Roto-Rooter and JR Motorsports will continue their successful NASCAR Xfinity Series relationship into the 2026 season and beyond as the two parties announced a multi-year partnership extension on Saturday in a press conference at Sonoma Raceway.

As part of the extension, Roto-Rooter will continue as a primary sponsorship partner for JR Motorsports in seven NASCAR Xfinity Series races annually, and will split the races with Justin Allgaier and additional JR Motorsports drivers (to be announced later).

Additionally, Roto-Rooter will serve as a full-season associate sponsorship partner of the JR Motorsports Late Model program, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will take on a personal service agreement with Roto-Rooter.

“We couldn’t be more excited to continue our relationship with Dale, Kelley, and everyone at JR Motorsports. Partnering with JR Motorsports means more than just sponsorship – it’s about being part of a true team,” said Roto-Rooter President, Thad Reinhard. “We share the same values; reliability, hard work, and a drive to succeed, both on and off the track. We’re especially thrilled to be working more closely with Dale on a personal level and to follow his journey in the Late Model series. I’m looking forward to watching our relationship continue to grow.”

Earnhardt says he and the JR Motorsports team are elated to continue building upon the successful relationship with Roto-Rooter.

“We are excited to continue growing our relationship with Roto-Rooter,” said Earnhardt Jr. “I feel like JR Motorsports offers an amazing marketing platform across the board, and it’s great when partners see the value that our companies provide. I’m looking forward to seeing how we can continue to deliver for Roto-Rooter on and off the track.”

Roto-Rooter is plastered on Connor Zilisch’s No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet in this weekend’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Sonoma Raceway. On Friday, Zilisch, who has three career NASCAR Xfinity Series wins, secured the second starting spot for Saturday’s race.