Trackhouse Racing driver Shane van Gisbergen more than made up for his crash in San Diego a week earlier by winning the Toyota/Save Mart 350 race at Sonoma Raceway in the NASCAR Cup Series. However, the victory was far from easy for the New Zealander, known as “SVG”.
Briscoe came very close in the final lap.
Van Gisbergen led for 74 of the 110 laps, but struggled with his car's progressively worsening grip in the final stages. Chase Briscoe of Joe Gibbs Racing, following closely behind, came almost bumper-to-bumper in the corners on the final lap but couldn't get close enough to overtake. Van Gisbergen crossed the finish line 0.357 seconds ahead to secure his second Sonoma victory of the season and second consecutive win. Ty Gibbs finished third on the podium after winning both stages following his pole position start.
“What a day,” said van Gisbergen. “We were terrible yesterday, but this team turned the car into a win.”
A name that went down in history.
This was van Gisbergen’s eighth victory in his Cup career, all eight coming in road course races. The New Zealander thus tied Tony Stewart for the all-time road course win with eight, behind only Jeff Gordon with nine. SVG also won the O’Reilly Series race on Saturday, completing the weekend with a double victory.
Big changes in the championship.
As noteworthy as the victory was the development in the points standings. Tyler Reddick, who had dominated the season with five wins, suffered an early steering system failure and spent an extended time in the pits, finishing the race in 36th place. This result caused him to lose the lead for the first time since the start of the season. Denny Hamlin, who finished 26th, took over the regular season points lead by just one point. Sonoma was also the first leg of the Cup Series' new “In-Season Challenge” tournament; in the first round, top seed Reddick was eliminated by Alex Bowman, preventing a surprise breakthrough.