SONOMA, Calif. -- For the second straight weekend, Shane van Gisbergen dominated NASCAR time trials -- and predictably so.
On his second lap Saturday at Sonoma Raceway, the New Zealander became the only driver to top 96 mph on the 1.99-mile, 12-turn road course.
Touring the circuit in 74.594 seconds (96.040 mph), van Gisbergen secured the pole position for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Cup Series race (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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Van Gisbergen beat second-place qualifier Chase Briscoe (95.719 mph) by 0.25 seconds to claim his first Busch Light Pole Award at Sonoma, his third of the season and the fourth of his career.
His pole-winning run followed Friday’s top qualifying effort for the Xfinity Series race at Sonoma. Last weekend on the Chicago Street Course, van Gisbergen swept the poles and races in both series.
Qualifying in Group 2, SVG picked up speed substantially from his first lap to his second, from 74.833 seconds to 74.594.
“I thought it could be faster,” said van Gisbergen, who won last season’s Xfinity race at Sonoma but will be making his first start here in a Cup car. “And then in the first group, we saw big gains from people in their second runs. I think the 24 (third-place qualifier William Byron) made a huge jump, which is pretty abnormal, I think, on these tires, especially this new soft tire.
“My first lap was just a banker almost. The second lap was really good.”
Byron navigated the course at 95.488 mph to claim the third spot on the grid. Ross Chastain was fourth at 95.409 mph, followed by AJ Allmendinger (95.367 mph) and Ty Gibbs (95.357 mph).
Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman and Christopher Bell claimed the seventh through 10th starting spots, respectively.
Drivers facing off in the third round of the In-Season Challenge qualified as follows: Gibbs, sixth vs. Zane Smith, 12th; Bowman, ninth vs. Ty Dillon, 26th; John Hunter Nemechek, 18th vs. Legacy Motor Club teammate Erik Jones, 31st; and Reddick, eighth vs. Ryan Preece, 20th.
MORE: Results and key information for SonomaPreece, two points below the current elimination line for a berth in the Cup Series Playoffs, may be more concerned with the position of 30th-place starter Bubba Wallace, who is two points to the good, with seven races left in the regular season.
Katherine Legge, who finished 19th last Sunday on the Chicago Street Course, did not make a qualifying attempt and will start 37th.
Allmendinger tops the chart in practice Allmendinger paced practice Saturday in a session divided between two groups, with each group hitting the track for a 25-minute session. The Kaulig Racing driver turned the fastest lap at 94.325 mph, besting Gibbs (94.024 mph), van Gisbergen (93.965 mph), Chastain (93.782 mph) and Kyle Larson (93.711 mph). Bell, Blaney, Daniel Suárez, Reddick and Nemechek rounded out the top 10. Suárez was the fastest among Group 1 drivers. Brad Keselowski, as well as all three Spire Motorsports cars driven by Michael McDowell, Justin Haley and Carson Hocevar, went for spins in Group 1 practice.