Shane van Gisbergen Sweeps Sonoma Weekend
It seems like nothing can stop America’s favorite Kiwi.
Absolutely nobody is surprised that Shane van Gisbergen won at Sonoma, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t an entertaining race regardless. There were plenty of surprises, and it’s always entertaining to watch these stock cars hustle around a truncated version of one of America’s premier road courses. NASCAR has raced here since 1989; back then, it was called Sears Point, named for Franklin Sears, who settled in the area way back in 1851. Later on, he’d purchase some 15,000 acres of additional land, including the property this track is built on now. If only he lived to see SVG absolutely dominate the field in back-to-back years.
Maybe “dominate” isn’t the right word. A late charge from Chase Briscoe meant that SVG had a real chance of losing this race. One solitary slip from a hard-charging Briscoe kept the interval just far enough apart to prevent the #19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota from taking a swipe at the leader.
With this win, SVG has tied with Tony Stewart for second place on the all-time road course wins list with eight, one win behind Jeff Gordon. Gordon has won at Sonoma five times; Martin Truex, Jr., tied for ninth all-time, has four wins here. We expect to see many more from SVG, who also won the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race the day before, effectively sweeping the weekend. We also expect a serious challenge to his road-course supremacy from his young teammate, Connor Zilisch, who finished second in the O’Reilly race (having won it last year) and seventh on Sunday.
Despite a heartbreaking 26th-place finish from Tyler Reddick at Coronado, he was expected to further his championship lead over Denny Hamlin at Sonoma. Reddick is regarded as a great road racer, a category that Hamlin is unusually humble about, despite being a serviceable road racer himself. However, a power steering failure relegated Reddick to a frustrating last-place finish. Hamlin, who was spun while racing in the top 15, finished 26th, but still managed to surpass Reddick to lead the points race.
For the first time this season, the Cup series has a new points leader. Hamlin (719 points) leads Reddick (718 points) by just one single point, so it’s still anyone’s guess who will win the regular season championship.
Image: Stan Szeto/Imagn Images