Shane van Gisbergen continues to build one of the most remarkable road course résumés the NASCAR Cup Series has ever seen.
The Trackhouse Racing star held off a hard-charging Chase Briscoe over the closing laps Sunday to win the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, earning his second consecutive victory at the California road course and his second Cup Series win of the 2026 season.
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SVG ties AJ Allmendinger with 14 combined road course victories across all levels of the sport, which he will look to break next season.
The victory didn’t come easy either.
Briscoe erased much of van Gisbergen’s lead over the final run and closed to within striking distance entering the final hairpin on the last lap. But the New Zealander never cracked under pressure, crossing the finish line just 0.357 seconds ahead after leading 74 of the race’s 110 laps.
Van Gisbergen admitted afterward the No. 97 Chevrolet wasn’t nearly as comfortable late in the race as it had been earlier.
“We were really bad yesterday, and these guys did an amazing job turning this car into a winner,” van Gisbergen said. “The 19 was coming. He was really, really good, and I ran out at the end.”
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Briscoe believed he had the faster car but pointed to a mistake entering Turn 1 with four laps remaining that ultimately cost him the opportunity to challenge for the win.
Pole-sitter Ty Gibbs swept both stages before finishing third after an alternate pit strategy, while Kyle Larson came home fourth and Christopher Bell battled through a broken wrist to finish fifth.
Ryan Blaney, rookie Connor Zilisch, Ryan Preece, Michael McDowell and Alex Bowman rounded out the top 10.
The race also marked the opening round of NASCAR’s In-Season Challenge, producing several upsets. Top seed Tyler Reddick suffered power steering issues that dropped him to last place, allowing 32nd-seeded Alex Bowman to advance. Michael McDowell eliminated Bubba Wallace, Todd Gilliland knocked off Daniel Suarez, Chase Briscoe defeated AJ Allmendinger and Austin Cindric eliminated Brad Keselowski.
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Despite spinning after contact with Carson Hocevar, Denny Hamlin salvaged enough points to leave Sonoma with the NASCAR Cup Series points lead by a single marker over Reddick.
As impressive as Sunday’s victory was, it added another chapter to van Gisbergen’s growing dominance whenever the Cup Series turns right.
The 37-year-old now owns eight Cup Series victories in just 68 career starts, with all eight coming on road or street courses. He has won at Chicago, Mexico City, Watkins Glen, Circuit of The Americas and now twice at Sonoma, tying NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart for second on the all-time Cup Series road course wins list with eight. Only Jeff Gordon, with nine, has more.
For a driver who arrived from Australia’s Supercars championship just three years ago, van Gisbergen is quickly rewriting NASCAR’s modern road course record book. Every time the schedule heads to a road course, the conversation begins with one question:
Can anyone beat Shane van Gisbergen on the road courses?
So far, the answer has usually been no.
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