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.

Michael McDowell picked up his highest finish yet in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season finishing fourth Sunday at Sonoma Raceway.

The Spire Motorsports driver started 15th in the Toyota / Save Mart 350 but finished the race with his second Top-5 effort of the year.

“We needed a little bit more pace,” McDowell said. “Qualifying really hurt us. I think we had decent pace, but we weren’t fast enough to get around the good cars.”

McDowell now has two Top-5 finishes in the last five races, tying his career-high for Top-5 finishes in a single season.

Additionally, McDowell led three laps in the race, leading laps for the second consecutive week.

McDowell started second at the Chicago Street Course. He led the opening 31 laps before a throttle cable relegated him to a 32nd-place finish.

Yet, if McDowell makes the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, doing so without a victory may not be feasible.

With six races before the playoffs, McDowell is 70 points behind the cutline for the post-season. The maximum points a driver could gain in a race is 60.

McDowell and crew chief Stephen Doran did their best to go for that win Sunday. Doran brought McDowell to pit road when the fuel window opened, with 47 laps to go. It put him on a strategy to stay out and stretch his fuel, which worked — until Shane van Gisbergen swept him up two laps later.

After pitting for fresh tires under a late caution, McDowell could only get back to fourth.

“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,” McDowell said. “Last weekend (at Chicago), we had a car that could win. Today, we were a little off. We’ll keep building on it.”

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.

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