Shane van Gisbergen from Auckland, New Zealand, took the NASCAR Cup drivers to school for the 2nd week in a row, leading 97 of 110 laps to win the Cup race at Sonoma Raceway.

In a performance that echoed his road course mastery from seasons past, Shane van Gisbergen delivered yet another commanding victory, claiming his third NASCAR Cup Series win on the 2025 season. The Kiwi sensation survived multiple late-race cautions to showcase his unparalleled skill on the twisting 1.99-mile layout during Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350.

It was van Gisbergen’s third Cup win of 2025 beating Chase Briscoe by 0.754s after a late caution.

“Unreal guys, thank you,” van Gisbergen radioed his team after taking the checkered flag.

No one had anything for him and he only lost the lead during pit stop stops. Van Gisbergen is now tied with three other drivers for the most Cup Series wins in 2025.

After starting on pole, van Gisbergen was absolutely dominant.

Van Gisbergen was so good that he even won the second stage of the race despite a late pit stop. After pitting with just over two laps to go in the stage, van Gisbergen was second to Kyle Larson on the last lap and easily passed the Cup Series champion for the stage win. Larson hadn’t pitted during the stage. That’s how much faster van Gisbergen was.

With wins in Mexico City and at the Chicago street course last week, van Gisbergen is tied with Larson, Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell as NASCAR’s win leaders this season. Those three drivers are legitimate title contenders.

The win at Sonoma made him the first driver since Jeff Gordon in 1998 and 1999 to win three consecutive road course races from the pole.

Chase Elliott rallied to third after a late pit stop. Michael McDowell placed fourth. Christopher Bell completed the top five.

Shane van Gisbergen

How was the heart rate there on all those final cautions and restarts?

SHANE VAN GISBERGEN: Yeah, it was pretty tough stuff. We had an amazing car. Chase Briscoe, what a great racer and 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.

Five weeks ago this race team didn’t have a win. As it sits now you’re the No. 3 seed in the playoffs.

SHANE VAN GISBERGEN: Hard to believe that, isn’t it. I just have to thank these guys. We built up all year, got better and better, and now we need to keep getting better on the ovals and start proving some people wrong.

You’ve won championships, 81 Supercar wins over your career. You’ve done everything you could down there. How do you put into words what the last two years have meant to you?

SHANE VAN GISBERGEN: It means everything. That’s why I race cars. 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.

Chase Briscoe

Take us through that last one, Chase, because that was the one that I think was the closest for you to make that move.

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, for sure. The only opportunity I had was on the restarts. 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.

Yeah, I honestly don’t know what more I need. I feel like my car is extremely good, and I feel like every time I would run down Shane he would just pick up the pace himself and start driving back away. It was frustrating at times, but I was honestly happy with the effort. This is by far my worst racetrack. Kind of surprised myself truthfully.

We thought you might be able to get by him on one of the restarts. One of the stories of the day was just kind of managing tires. We saw some guys go well at the beginning of a run and then fade a lot. What was your plan today? Were you aggressive at the beginning or did you try to take it easy so you had something at the end?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, definitely were just trying to maintain — the first initial start of the race, I didn’t do a good job of maintaining. I fell back to fourth and cost myself too much time trying to save tires.

But yeah, I thought other than that I did a really good job of just trying to stay disciplined and manage my stuff, and I felt like it paid off. I was typically the second best car. I just never had anything for Shane. I felt like he still had more left in the tank as well. But yeah, it was fun. We were slipping and sliding around all over the place. It’s fun when you can do that in these types of race cars. It was a really fun day behind the wheel.

Yesterday after you qualified second you were right behind SVG and you said, I had more in the tank there. You felt like you could have been closer to him in qualifying. One of the things I’ve noticed, I know you’ve won on road courses in Xfinity, but in the Cup Series it seems like you’ve stepped in this 19 car you’ve had a ton of pace at these road courses. Have you been working on something behind the scenes for the road courses?

CHASE BRISCOE: Yeah, I think the car, honestly. I don’t really feel like I’m doing a whole lot different. Certainly going into this week I was saying how this is my worst racetrack.

I felt like the 19 team did a really good job of just trying to show me little things that Martin did that made him excel here, and I just tried to replicate that. But for the most part, honestly, it’s just been doing my typical deal. The car has so much more pace and balance. So it makes it really enjoyable.

Just so honored and thankful that I get to drive this 19 car with Bass Pro Shops on the hood. I cannot thank Johnny Morris, J.P. Morris, the entire Toyota family, Bass Pro Shops family, and obviously Joe Gibbs Racing for giving me this opportunity because I am certainly having the time of my life right now. It’s fun running week in and week out in the Cup Series and feeling like you have a shot to go win.

Sonoma Cup Race Results

The setup for a breakout season and career year continued Sunday at Sonoma Raceway for Chase Briscoe.

After starting second in the Toyota / Save Mart 350, Briscoe collected nine stage points across the opening two stages, led twice for two laps and collected a runner-up finish to Shane Van Gisbergen.

Briscoe, who posted his seventh Top-5 finish of the year, started side-by-side with SVG during late-race restarts, but couldn’t clear the No. 88 for the lead.

“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.”

Briscoe’s second-place effort moved the Joe Gibbs Racing driver to eighth in points, gaining one position. He is now the highest he has ranked in points at any point during a season — and at any point in his career after 20 Cup Series races during any of his prior seasons.

Before Sunday, Briscoe’s highest finish at the Northern California road course was a 13th-place finish in 2022.

“This is by far my worst race track, so to run second to him, it definitely means a lot, so proud of the day,” Briscoe said.

In terms of stats, Briscoe has already set personal bests in 2025 in the Top-5 finishes and poles (4) categories.

One more Top-10 finish will match the fifth-year driver’s best of 10 such finishes, set in 2022, and an additional victory will see Briscoe earn his first multi-victory season in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Dominic Aragon is currently the editor-in-chief for The Racing Experts.

From Grants, New Mexico, USA, Aragon started watching NASCAR in 2004 and has been covering the sport since 2009. Aragon is a 2012 graduate of Grants High School and a May 2016 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a B.A. in Mass Communications & Journalism. Aragon has worked in local and national media, as a musician, and an educator. He is co-author of the 2024 book “All of It: Daytona 500 Champion Tells the Rest of the Story” with racer Geoff Bodine.

Aragon, his wife Feliz, and son Christopher currently reside in Grants, New Mexico, USA.

You can reach Dominic at daragon@theracingexperts.net.

Here is what drivers had to say after Sunday’s Cup race at Sonoma Raceway:

Shane van Gisbergen — Winner: “This is amazing. This is why we go racing. I had a great time. It’s awesome to have Red Bull on the car this weekend. Trackhouse Racing gave me a great Chevrolet again. What a great couple of weeks! Just to execute, make no mistakes, have great pit stops, great strategy and be able to hold them off there at the end – it’s incredible. Chase (Briscoe) was driving really well. We had a lot of fun there. … On the last restart, I thought he (Briscoe) jumped a little bit. I was just trying to do what I could to get in position in Turn 2. That last one, I had to give him a bit of rub, but that was it. I’m just over the moon.”

Shane van Gisbergen ties mark set by Jeff Gordon for consecutive road course wins from the pole with Sonoma victory.

Chase Briscoe — Finished 2nd: “I don’t know if I really saw everything (Shane van Gisbergen) had, truthfully. I felt like every time I would get close; he would just start driving back away. 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 — Finished 3rd: “I’m not sure if there was dirt across the track or what, but it happened a couple of times throughout the day. I was obviously pushing really hard. I just got sliding and ran out of road, but I don’t know that it would have been enough anyways, to be honest. I wasn’t near as good that run than the run before. I’m not really sure why that was, but the call by Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) was great. It was nice to be on offense and give ourselves a shot. 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. We had a really fast No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet all day. I thought we were really solid. We probably needed a little bit more to get Shane (Van Gisbergen) and Chase (Briscoe).”

Michael McDowell — Finished 4th: “We needed a little bit more pace out of our No. 71 Gainbridge Chevrolet. We had Project Zin on the car today, which was really cool. Qualifying really hurt us. I think we had decent pace, but we weren’t fast enough to get around the good cars. We got off strategy there, and that didn’t work. Thankfully, we caught a caution and we were able to tires on our Chevrolet and fight our way back. We salvaged a top-five day, but that’s not what we need. We all know what we need to do, and we just weren’t quite good enough to do it today. But this is part of the process. You have good weeks and bad weeks. Last weekend (at Chicago), we had a car that could win. Today, we were a little off. We’ll keep building on it.”

Christopher Bell — Finished 5th: “We worked really good there as Toyota teammates and (Tyler Reddick) was just talking there about that last lap. I don’t know what else he does, or I do – we are racing for a top-five, a position there, and I took the lane, and he chose not to ship me. I appreciated that. Tires versus no tires, offense versus defense there at the end of the last lap. Tough to race respectful whenever you are out like that, and I get it.”

Tyler Reddick — Finished 6th: “Today was a bit of a struggle honestly for the Chumba Casino Toyota. We just kind of went backwards – we slid back throughout the whole day and didn’t really get stage points. We just kept fighting all day long. We put tires on there and was able to get through the chaos. We had a shot at fifth, just didn’t want to use Christopher (Bell) up on that last corner, so we settled for sixth.”

Ty Gibbs — Finished 7th: “Overall, we had an okay day. Our SAIA No. 54 Camry – we needed to make some adjustments, and I need to do a better job. We had an okay day.”

Kyle Busch — Finished 10th: “We had to come from behind all day with our zone Chevrolet. On the initial start, our car had no drive or rear lateral any direction. After falling to the back, Randall (Burnett) and the guys made the call for major chassis adjustments to get the rears working. Those adjustments definitely helped, just wished I could have had that same adjustment again without giving up the track position. We kept working on the balance and in Stage 3, the car was the best it had been. It was simply avoiding wrecks at the end. Proud of the No. 8 team for pushing through and getting a top-10 finish.”

Ty Dillon — Finished 17th: “It was a rough couple of laps there. Alex (Bowman) 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. I can’t thank Matt Kaulig, Chris Rice, Ty Norris and Kaulig Racing for giving me the opportunity to shine again. I’ve worked so hard to get here and I’m just grateful. All of our partners that are on board, this has just been so much fun. 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 Dillon, John Hunter Nemechek, Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs remain in race for $1 million.

Austin Dillon Finished 21st: “It was a hard battle for the No. 3 Bass Pro Shops / Winchester Chevrolet team. We didn’t really have a lot of speed this weekend, but we did make it better. We made some adjustments mid-race, and then those cautions came out. I had to go through the grass and lost around 15 spots. We got a couple back there at the end, but it’s not what we wanted. We’ll keep digging. We’ve had some good Chevrolet’s the last couple of weekends. Unfortunately, this week, we weren’t as good as we’ve been, but we’ll get better.”

Cole Custer — Finished 23rd: “Definitely a hard-fought day. I felt like we had speed in the car, but we just had a few things go wrong for us and it didn’t work out. I feel like we’re moving in the right direction of having cars that can go out there and compete, it’s just a matter of doing all the little things right.”

When NASCAR and TNT introduced the in-season challenge, a bracket-style tournament with a $1 million prize for the winning driver, absolutely no one would have realistically picked Kaulig Racing’s Ty Dillon as a potential winner.

And yet, the No. 32 seed defeated Denny Hamlin at Atlanta after Hamlin’s early exit from the race, later doing the same with Brad Keselowski when the former Cup champion crashed in Chicago.

At Sonoma, however, it wasn’t going to be another easy advancement. Dillon had to actually race head-to-head with Alex Bowman and the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet on Sunday.

And as fate would have it, the duo found each other in the closing laps of the race. Dillon got passed by Bowman, but he remained close as they were both stuck in the middle of the pack.

On the final lap, Dillon gave Bowman a bump in the hairpin, pushing the HMS driver up the track. There was more contact on corner exit, but he passed him mere seconds before they reached the finish line. With that move, he ensured his advancement into the semi-finals with just four drivers left in the entire tournament.

Both Bowman and Dillon shared a friendly chat after the race, even shaking hands after the tense battle.

“It was a rough couple of laps there,” said Dillon. “Alex (Bowman) 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 … I’ve worked so hard to get here and I’m just grateful. All of our partners that are on board, this has just been so much fun.

“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.”

Dillon will now face John-Hunter Nemechek of Legacy Motor Club at Dover, another driver that few pundits expected to make it this far in the tournament. On the other side, it will be Tyler Reddick versus Ty Gibbs in a battle between two Toyota drivers.

Photos from Sonoma – Race

Shane van Gisbergen tied Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon’s mark of three consecutive road course victories from the pole with Sunday’s dominating victory at Sonoma Raceway.

Gordon accomplished his feat in the 1998-99 seasons.

Van Gisbergen’s road course victories have come at Mexico, Chicago and now Sonoma in the last five races. His three wins this year ties Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell for most this season.

“Unreal guys, thank you,” van Gisbergen radioed his team after taking the checkered flag.

Said crew chief Stephen Doran on van Gisbergen: “He’s something NASCAR has never seen on road courses.”

Van Gisbergen collected six playoff points with the victory and a stage win Sunday. His 17 playoff points rank third in the series at this point, trailing only Larson (23 playoff points) and Hamlin (19).

Ty Dillon, John Hunter Nemechek, Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs remain in race for $1 million.

Van Gisbergen’s win also gives Trackhouse Racing four victories in the last eight races, which includes Ross Chastain’s Coca-Cola 600 win on Memorial Day weekend.

Chase Briscoe finished second for his best road course result. Chase Elliott rallied to third after a late pit stop to earn his fifth consecutive top 10 at Sonoma. Michael McDowell placed fourth for his fourth top 10 in a row at Sonoma. Bell completed the top five, earning his best result at the Northern California track.

Van Gisbergen led 97 of 110 laps. The race was slowed by six cautions for 17 laps.

Here is what drivers said after Sunday’s Cup race in Northern California.

Stage 1 winner: Ross Chastain

Stage 2 winner: Shane van Gisbergen

Next: The series races at 2 p.m. ET Sunday, July 20 at Dover Motor Speedway.