Shane van Gisbergen capped off a near-perfect weekend at Sonoma Raceway by backing up his NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series victory with a win in the NASCAR Cup Series race on Monday morning (NZST).
The Kiwi drove from sixth on the grid, overcame late-race pressure from Chase Briscoe and used a smart strategy to secure another road-course victory for Trackhouse Racing.
Van Gisbergen started sixth after a frustrating end to qualifying. Driving the No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, he topped the opening qualifying group with a lap of 1:15.914s and looked set to challenge for pole position before a 360-degree spin over the crest in the opening sector prevented him from improving.
As the second group completed their runs, van Gisbergen slipped to sixth on the grid. Ty Gibbs claimed pole position ahead of Carson Hocevar, Kyle Larson, Michael McDowell and Ross Chastain. Trackhouse teammate Connor Zilisch qualified 17th.
Under clear skies at Sonoma, Gibbs and Hocevar led the field to green, with Hocevar initially grabbing the lead before Gibbs fought back through the esses.
Van Gisbergen immediately began moving forward. Within the opening laps, he had climbed to fifth and was challenging Larson for fourth.
By Lap 3, Hocevar had dropped back after a mistake, while van Gisbergen and Larson were locked in a battle for third as Gibbs and McDowell began to break away at the front.
The Kiwi finally got past Larson on Lap 8 and settled into third. His focus quickly turned to McDowell, who was reporting handling issues over the radio despite running second.
It didn’t take long for van Gisbergen to close the gap. By Lap 15, he had caught and passed McDowell, moving into second place and reducing Gibbs’ advantage to just over a second.
As the opening stage neared its conclusion, van Gisbergen continued to reel in the race leader. With five laps remaining, the gap was down to just half a second.
Rather than chase the stage win, Trackhouse opted for a strategy. Van Gisbergen pitted with two laps remaining in Stage 1, giving up track position but setting himself up for the next phase of the race.
While Gibbs stayed out to win the stage, the strategy worked perfectly. Once the caution-period pit stops were completed, van Gisbergen inherited the lead for the start of Stage 2 alongside Larson.
He beat Larson into Turn 1 and quickly pulled clear.
While Larson found himself defending from Chase Briscoe, van Gisbergen steadily increased his advantage. With five laps remaining in the stage, he held an 8.4-second lead, while Briscoe and Ryan Blaney battled over second place. Zilisch had also worked his way into fourth.
The gap continued to widen, reaching more than 11 seconds before Trackhouse once again chose strategy over stage points.
With two laps remaining in the stage, van Gisbergen came to pit road from the lead. Gibbs inherited the top spot and went on to win Stage 2, while van Gisbergen still collected points in seventh.
The strategy once again paid off, with van Gisbergen and Zilisch starting the final stage from the front row.
Van Gisbergen took control before Turn 1, but an early caution followed when Josh Berry spun in Turn 3 after contact with Austin Cindric. Noah Gragson and Bubba Wallace were forced to take evasive action to avoid the spinning car.
At the restart, van Gisbergen retained the lead while Briscoe moved past Zilisch into second.
The race then settled into a long green-flag run. With 27 laps remaining, Briscoe and Zilisch made their scheduled pit stops in an attempt to gain ground on the leader. Zilisch lost time after stalling during his stop.
Holding a seven-second advantage, van Gisbergen stopped a lap later and comfortably rejoined ahead of Briscoe.
While the Kiwi had dominated much of the race, the closing laps were far from easy. As tyre wear increased, he became less comfortable with the car’s balance, and Briscoe began to close rapidly.
With two laps remaining, Briscoe was right on the rear bumper of the No. 97 Chevrolet as van Gisbergen worked his way through lapped traffic.
The pressure remained on over the final lap, but van Gisbergen made no mistakes. He defended his position at every opportunity and denied Briscoe any realistic chance of making a move.
After 110 laps, van Gisbergen crossed the line first to complete a Sonoma double after also winning Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race.
“I think my guys just did an excellent job,” van Gisbergen said.
“There were still some better cars than us, but the guys did some great strategy to win the race. I’m stoked it was two laps shorter; it would’ve been interesting with Chase there.
“It’s pretty special to win, makes up for last weekend.”
The result lifts van Gisbergen to 14th in the regular-season standings, up three positions and now 294 points clear of the playoff cut-off line.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads next to Chicagoland Speedway, with the next race scheduled for Monday, July 6 (NZST).
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