Shane van Gisbergen wins at Sonoma

By JENNA FRYER

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — Shane van Gisbergen won his second straight race and has three victories in the last five weeks after yet another dominating run on a road course, this time in Northern California.

The New Zealander once again showed he’s in a completely different class on road and street courses than his rivals as he led 97 of 110 laps Sunday to win from pole at Sonoma Raceway. All three of his wins this year have been from pole position — which tied him with Jeff Gordon for a NASCAR record of three consecutive road course victories from the top starting spot.

Gordon did it between the 1998 and 1999 seasons.

Victory No. 3 for van Gisbergen — who stunned NASCAR in 2023 when he popped into the debut Chicago street course race from Australian V8 Supercars and won — seemed a given before teams even arrived at the picturesque course in California wine country. His rivals have lamented that “SVG” has a unique braking technique he mastered Down Under that none of them — all oval specialists — can ever learn.

That win in Chicago two years ago led van Gisbergen to move to the United States for a career change driving stock cars for Trackhouse Racing. He and Ross Chastain have pumped energy into the team over this summer stretch as Chastain kicked it off with a Memorial Day weekend victory at the Coca-Cola 600.

Van Gisbergen is the fastest driver to win four Cup Series races — in his 34th start — since Parnelli Jones in 1969.

“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,” said van Gisbergen. “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.”

The Sonoma win made it four victories for Trackhouse in eight weeks. Van Gisbergen was second from the pole in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race.

Although he dominated again Sunday, van Gisbergen pitted from the lead with 27 laps remaining and then had to drive his way back to the front. He got it with a pass of Michael McDowell with 19 laps remaining, but two late cautions made van Gisbergen win restarts to close out the victory in his Chevrolet.

Chase Briscoe was second in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing.

“I’ve never played against Michael Jordan, but I imagine this was very similar,” Briscoe said after not being able to pass van Gisbergen on the two late restarts — the last with five laps remaining.

Briscoe was followed by Chase Elliott in a Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. McDowell in a Chevy for Spire Motorsports was fourth and Christopher Bell in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing was fifth.

In-season challenge

The mid-season tournament that pays $1 million to the winner is down to four drivers.

Alex Bowman finished 25th and eliminated Ty Dillon, who finished 26th. Tyler Reddick (11th) knocked out Ryan Preece (16th), John Hunter Nemechek knocked out teammate Erik Jones as they finished 21st and 22nd, and Zane Smith, with a seventh-place finish, eliminated Ty Gibbs.

Bowman, at eighth, is the highest-seeded driver still in the challenge, which debuted this year.

Crew fight

NASCAR officials had to separate the crews for Brad Keselowski and Ty Gibbs when members from the two teams scrapped on pit road during the race.

Keselowski’s crew confronted Gibbs’ crew after Gibbs drove through their pit stall and narrowly missed hitting some of Keselowski’s crew members already in place, waiting for him.

The confrontation appeared to be contained to pushing and shoving and NASCAR quickly stepped between them. Both crews were given an official warning for fighting but NASCAR said Gibbs did nothing wrong.

Clean race — for a while

It took 61 of the 110 laps for the first caution for an on-track incident — when Ryan Blaney was knocked off the course and into the dirt early in the third stage. The contact from Chris Buescher left Blaney stranded, and right before NASCAR could throw the yellow, Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin both spun.

It was technically the third caution of the race, but the first two were for natural stage breaks.

The race ended with six cautions — two in the final stretch.

Up next

The Cup Series races Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware, where Denny Hamlin won last year.