Pit Stops : Sonoma Raceway

• Thursday, July 10th, 2025
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

Can Anyone Stop SVG? Van Gisbergen Chases History at Sonoma, $1M Challenge Heats Up

Two questions are front and center as the NASCAR Cup Series heads for Sonoma Raceway for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3:30 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

First, can any other driver in the series halt Shane van Gisbergen’s streak of perfection on road and street courses?

And second, which four drivers will advance to the semifinals of the five-race In-Season Challenge, which pays $1 million to win?

Van Gisbergen swept last weekend’s Cup and Xfinity races, both from the pole position. In mid-June, he won the inaugural Cup race at Mexico City, also from the pole.

Though Sunday’s race will mark his Sonoma debut in a Cup car, SVG won last year’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at the technical 1.99-mile road course—again from the pole.

“I’m excited to get there,” van Gisbergen said. “I’ve never raced that track in a Cup car, so it’s going to be interesting to see how it races and what it’s like. I did the Xfinity race there last year and had a great time. It will be interesting with it being my second time in the Xfinity car and trying to understand how to make that car better.

“Then in the Cup car, it’s obviously a track everyone is going to be strong at because they’ve had so many reps there. It’s going to be interesting to see if we still have a speed advantage. But (I’m) looking forward to running double duty again.”

Should Van Gisbergen win from the pole at Sonoma, he would tie Jeff Gordon’s record of three straight such victories set in 1998-1999.

Arguably, the driver most likely to match Van Gisbergen’s speed is defending race winner Kyle Larson, who has scored four pole positions at Sonoma and held the track qualifying record for nine years before Joey Logano broke it last season with a lap at 97.771 mph on a repaved racing surface.

Larson, Kyle Busch (two victories each) and Daniel Suarez (one victory) are the only drivers in Sunday’s field who have Cup wins at the track.

“It’s always special to go back home,” said Larson, from Elk Grove in Northern California. “I love having friends and family at the track, especially the friends that don’t typically get to go to the track.

“We have dominated there in the past—hopefully, we’ll be just as good… It will feel hotter in Sonoma with the race being in July. The pavement will be a little bit slicker.”

Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Alex Bowman, will face unsinkable Ty Dillon, the 32nd seed, in the quarterfinals of the In-Season Challenge. Among the eight drivers remaining in the tournament. Bowman has the best average finish at Sonoma in the Gen 7 era (15.3).

Dillon finished 23rd in both 2022 and 2023 but didn’t compete in last year’s Cup race.

“I’m looking forward to getting to Sonoma this weekend, a track where I have a lot of confidence going to,” said Dillon, who upset top-seeded Denny Hamlin in the first round at EchoPark Speedway and advanced past hard-luck Brad Keselowski last week on the Chicago Street Course.

“I’ve been in the sim (simulator) this week and working with my teammate, AJ (Allmendinger), one of the best in the business, to try to learn as much as I can to be prepared this weekend. I didn’t race on the track last year, so this will be the first year for me on the new pavement, which will bring its own challenges, but I’m looking forward to taking advantage of this weekend and having a strong run.”

Other In-Season Challenge matchups feature LEGACY Motor Club teammates Erik Jones and John Hunter Nemechek against each other, guaranteeing the organization will have one driver in next Sunday’s semifinals at Dover Motor Speedway; Ryan Preece vs. Tyler Reddick; and Ty Gibbs vs. Zane Smith.

Chris Buescher, who was eliminated from the tournament in Chicago, has the best average finish at Sonoma over the past three years (3.0). Surprisingly, Hamlin has the worst average in the Next Gen era (35.0), after an early engine failure relegated him to 38th last year.

• Saturday, July 12th, 2025
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

Van Gisbergen Rockets to Sonoma Pole, Sweeps Second Straight Qualifying Weekend

For the second straight weekend, Shane van Gisbergen dominated NASCAR time trials—and predictably so.

On his second lap Saturday at Sonoma Raceway, the New Zealander became the only driver to top 96 mph on the 1.99-mile, 12-turn road course.

Touring the circuit in 74.594 seconds (96.040 mph), van Gisbergen secured the pole position for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Cup Series race (3:30 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Van Gisbergen beat second-place qualifier Chase Briscoe (95.719 mph) by 0.25 seconds to claim his first Busch Light Pole Award at Sonoma, his third of the season and the fourth of his career.

His pole-winning run followed Friday’s top qualifying effort for the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Sonoma. Last weekend on the Chicago Street Course, van Gisbergen swept the poles and races in both series.

Qualifying in Group B, SVG picked up speed substantially from his first lap to his second, from 74.833 seconds to 74.594.

“I thought it could be faster,” said van Gisbergen, who won last season’s Xfinity race at Sonoma but will be making his first start here in a Cup car. “And then in the first group, we saw big gains from people in their second runs. I think the 24 (third-place qualifier William Byron) made a huge jump, which is pretty abnormal, I think, on these tires, especially this new soft tire.

“My first lap was just a banker almost. The second lap was really good.”

Byron navigated the course at 95.488 mph to claim the third spot on the grid. Ross Chastain was fourth at 95.409 mph, followed by AJ Allmendinger (95.367 mph) and Ty Gibbs (95.357 mph).

Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman and Christopher Bell claimed the sixth through 10th starting spots, respectively.

Drivers facing off in the third round of the In-Season Challenge qualified as follows: Gibbs, sixth vs. Zane Smith, 12th; Bowman, ninth vs. Ty Dillon, 26th; John Hunter Nemechek, 18th vs. LEGACY Motor Club teammate Erik Jones, 31st; and Reddick, eighth vs. Ryan Preece, 20th.

Preece, two points below the current elimination line for a berth in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, may be more concerned with the position of 30th-place starter Bubba Wallace, who is two points above the cut line with seven races left in the regular season.

Katherine Legge, who finished 19th last Sunday on the Chicago Street Course, did not make a qualifying attempt and will start 37th.

• Sonoma Raceway
• Toyota/Save Mart 350
• Busch Pole Award Pole Winner: Shane Van Gisbergen
• Age: 36
• Team : No 88 - Red Bull Chevrolet
• Owner: Justin Marks
• Crew Chief: Stephen Doran
• Shane Van Gisbergen won the Pole Award for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 with a lap of 74594 seconds, 96040 mph
• This is his fourth pole in 34 NASCAR Cup Series races
• This is his third pole and fourth top-10 start in 2025
• This is his first pole in one races at Sonoma Raceway
• Chase Briscoe (second) posted his 10th top-10 start of 2025 and his first in five races at Sonoma Raceway
• William Byron (third) posted his fifth top-10 start at Sonoma Raceway It is his 12th in 20 races this season
• Shane Van Gisbergen (first) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Sunday, July 13th, 2025
• NASCAR Wire Service - Reid Spencer

SVG Goes Back-to-Back-to-Back on Road Courses with Sonoma Cup Victory

Shane van Gisbergen proved on Sunday that it’s impossible to keep a road course superstar down for more than a brief interlude.

After finishing second to Connor Zilisch in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, van Gisbergen was back on top on a pleasant Sunday afternoon in wine country, winning the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

As has become his custom of late, the New Zealander reached a trio of milestones, winning his third straight road/street course race from the pole position to equal Jeff Gordon’s feat from 1998 and 1999.

The victory was van Gisbergen’s third of the season in his first trip around the 1.99-mile, 12-turn circuit in a NASCAR Cup Series car. SVG won for the fourth time in 34 starts, becoming the quickest to four wins since Parnelli Jones won at Riverside in 1967 in his 31st Cup start.

His 97 laps led are the most by a Sonoma winner, eclipsing Jeff Gordon’s high-water mark of 92 set in 2004.

“We had an amazing car,” van Gisbergen said. “Chase Briscoe, what a great racer and gave me respect. Jumped the last (restart) 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.”

The winner of 81 Australian Supercars races on the way to three championships in the series, van Gisbergen already is being touted as perhaps the best road course racer in NASCAR history.

“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,” said the 36-year-old driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. “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.”

Winning the second stage despite short-pitting to preserve track position, van Gisbergen advanced to third on the current Cup Playoff grid with 17 Playoff points. He arrived at the finish line 1.128 seconds ahead of consistent Chase Briscoe, but the win was far from guaranteed, given the chaos of the final 15 laps.

SVG had to survive three cautions and subsequent restarts in the late stages of the race to seal the win, as a large group of drivers on better tires chased those who had stayed on the track (including the race winner) after the No. 51 Ford of Cody Ware jettisoned a tire and caused a yellow on Lap 97.

Briscoe qualified second and finished where he felt he deserved.

“The only opportunity I had was on the restarts,” Briscoe said. “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.”

Chase Elliott pitted on Lap 97 for fresher tires and came home third after restarting 14th on Lap 100. Michael McDowell, on the same strategy as Elliott, climbed to fourth at the finish, while Christopher Bell held fifth on older tires.

It was nice to be on offense and give ourselves a shot,” Elliott said. “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.”

The action on the final few laps was attributable in part to battles within the NASCAR Cup In-Season Challenge. In Sunday’s third round at Sonoma, 32nd seed Ty Dillon bumped the No. 48 Chevrolet of Alex Bowman out of the way on the final lap to finish 17th to Bowman’s 19th and keep his hopes for the $1-million prize alive.

Dillon will face John Hunter Nemechek in next Sunday semifinals at Dover Motor Speedway. Nemechek finished one spot ahead of LEGACY Motor Club teammate Erik Jones (28th to 29th) to advance to the fourth round.

“It was a rough couple of laps there,” Dillon acknowledged. “Alex 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…

“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 Gibbs moved into the tournament semifinals with a seventh-place finish to Zane Smith’s 27th, and Tyler Reddick ousted Ryan Preece with a sixth-place run to Preece’s 12th. Gibbs and Reddick will face off at the Monster Mile for a trip to the finals.

William Byron, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch completed the top 10 in a race that featured six cautions for 17 laps.

• Drivers Entered: 37
• Laps Scheduled: 110
• Margin of Victory: 01.128 Seconds
• Time of Race: 2 Hours 54 Minutes 55 Seconds
• Average Speed: 75.087
• Cautions: 6 for 17 laps
• Lead Changes: 12
• Green Flag Passes: 3,426 (36.8 passes per green flag lap)

• Sonoma Raceway
• Toyota/Save Mart 350
• Race Winner: Shane Van Gisbergen
• Age: 36
• Team : No 88 - Red Bull Chevrolet
• Owner: Justin Marks
• Crew Chief: Stephen Doran
• Shane Van Gisbergen won the Toyota/Save Mart 350, his fourth victory in 34 Cup Series races
• This is his third victory and fourth top-10 finish in 2025
• This is his first victory and first top-10 finish in one race at Sonoma Raceway
• Chase Briscoe (second) posted his first top-10 finish in five races at Sonoma Raceway It is his ninth top-10 finish in 2025
• Chase Elliott (third) posted his seventh top-10 finish in nine races at Sonoma Raceway
• Shane Van Gisbergen (first) was the highest finishing rookie
• William Byron leads the point standings by 14 points over Chase Elliott