SONOMA, Calif. — Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway followed form, but not without the stiffest fight of Shane van Gisbergen’s brief NASCAR Cup Series career.
On the other hand, the opening race of the Cup Series’ In-Season Challenge defied the handicappers — at least as far as top-seeded Tyler Reddick was concerned.
RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Sonoma
For the second straight year, van Gisbergen had to hold off a charging Chase Briscoe over the final laps to win at the 1.99-mile, 11-turn road course.
Briscoe closed within one foot of SVG’s bumper in the hairpin (Turn 11) on the final circuit but couldn’t get close enough to the New Zealander’s No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet to make a move for the win.
“Yeah, what a day,” said van Gisbergen, who finished 0.357 seconds ahead of Briscoe. “We were really bad yesterday (sixth in qualifying), and these guys (the No. 97 crew) did an amazing job turning this car into a winner. The 19 (Briscoe) was coming. He was really, really good, and I ran out at the end.”
Van Gisbergen led three times for 74 for the 110 laps in securing his eighth Cup Series victory in his 68th start, tying NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony Stewart for second-most all-time road-course wins, one behind Jeff Gordon’s nine. He completed a weekend sweep, claiming NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series laurels on Saturday.
SHOP: Winner gear
The victory was SVG’s second of the season and second straight at Sonoma, and it helped to assuage the frustration of last Sunday’s race at Naval Base Coronado, where he was eliminated in a multicar wreck 32 laps into the contest.
“I was back to normal by the weekend, but, yeah, I was certainly pissed at the start of the week,” van Gisbergen said. “This really makes up for it, sharing it with these guys. They went through it at the start of the week. Pretty special to win.”
But the win was anything but easy, given that the handling of the winning car deteriorated noticeably over the final 27 laps.
“We had these (lapped cars) come out (of the pits) in front, and they were wobbling all over the track and putting dust, and I just kept struggling. Chase was just really, really good. Yeah, a couple more laps (and) we would have had some problems.”
Briscoe might have been able to overtake SVG had he not slipped in Turn 1 with four laps left. The mistake cost him a second and made his task all the more difficult.
“Yeah, just frustrated with myself,” Briscoe said. “I felt like I definitely had the better car. I didn’t do as good of a job as he did driving. I just made a mistake with, like, three or four to go getting into (Turn) 1.
“I was having to push so hard, and that was where I would make up my ground. It was just such a razor’s edge, and I about crashed. Gave up a (full) second, and then I was able to obviously run him back down at the end. If I don’t make that mistake, I’m probably ahead of him, I feel like, at the end.”
Running the first two stages to the end, versus the short-pitting strategy of both SVG and Briscoe, pole winner Ty Gibbs finished third after winning Stage 1 and Stage 2. The defending winner of the $1 million winner-take-all In-Season Challenge eliminated 27th-place finisher Austin Dillon from this year’s tournament.
Reddick wasn’t as fortunate. The 23XI Racing driver lost six laps on pit road with a power steering issue and finished last (36th), as his first-round opponent, 32nd-seeded Alex Bowman, advanced with a 10th-place finish.
Kyle Larson ran a consistent, solid race and finished fourth, followed by Christopher Bell, who came home fifth despite managing a broken wrist.
Ryan Blaney, Connor Zilisch, Ryan Preece, Michael McDowell and Bowman completed the top 10, with Zilisch scoring his first top-10 finish in the Cup Series. Despite his eighth-place run, Preece was eliminated from the In-Season Challenge by SVG.
Despite finishing 26th after spinning off the bumper of Carson Hocevar’s Chevrolet on Lap 64, Denny Hamlin took the series lead by one point over Reddick. Second-seeded Hamlin also avoided elimination from the In-Season Challenge when his first-round opponent, Ty Dillon, developed power steering issues late in the race and came home 35th.
Dillon eliminated Hamlin in last year’s first round and advanced to the final round against Gibbs.
In other In-Season Challenge matchups of note, 12th-seeded Briscoe eliminated 21st-seeded AJ Allmendinger; 25th seed Todd Gilliland upset No. 8 seed Daniel Suárez; 20th-seeded McDowell defeated No. 13 Bubba Wallace; and Austin Cindric topped Brad Keselowski in a battle of 16th and 17th seeds.
The race featured three cautions for eight laps, only one for an on-track incident. There were eight lead changes among six drivers with only SVG and Gibbs (31 laps led) out front for more than two circuits.
The Cup Series’ next race is the eero 400, scheduled next Sunday (6 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Chicagoland Speedway, which will host the circuit for the first time since 2019.
Note: Post-race inspection was completed in the Cup Series garage at Sonoma without issue, confirming van Gisbergen as the winner.
Ty Gibbs seals Sonoma stage sweep
Ty Gibbs made a clean sweep of the opening two stages as Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race reached the halfway mark at Sonoma Raceway.
Gibbs’ No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 30 of the first 55 laps in the Toyota/Save Mart 350.
MORE: Stage 2 results | Gibbs nets Stage 2 win
Christopher Bell again made it 1-2 for Joe Gibbs Racing, securing second at the stage’s end, with AJ Allmendinger, Austin Cindric and Ross Chastain completing the top five.
Defending race winner Shane van Gisbergen took the lead for the first time Sunday after an exchange of pit stops during the Stage 1 intermission. His No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet was in front for 25 laps before he dove to pit road to execute a stage-flip strategy for the second time in Sunday’s race.
Zane Smith, van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney completed the top 10.
A mechanical issue on Tyler Reddick’s No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota potentially has major implications atop the Cup Series standings and for the opening round of the In-Season Challenge tournament. Reddick’s crew worked under the hood for multiple laps after he reported problems with the car’s steering.
MORE: Reddick finds trouble at Sonoma
The full distance is scheduled for 110 laps (218.9 miles) on the 1.99-mile road course.
Sunday’s race is the opening event in the 32-driver In-Season Challenge tournament, and the field will also reach the halfway point of the 36-race Cup Series season after Sunday’s showdown.
Ty Gibbs leads all the way in Stage 1
Polesitter Ty Gibbs landed a wire-to-wire Stage 1 win in the early going of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway.
Gibbs led all of the stage’s 25 laps in the Toyota/Save Mart 350. He held the top spot from the drop of the green flag and kept it when other contenders headed to pit road in a stage-flip strategy.
MORE: Stage 1 results | Watch Gibbs capture Stage 1 honors
Christopher Bell, a teammate of Gibbs’ at Joe Gibbs Racing, placed second at the end of the opening stage in the No. 20 Toyota. Spire Motorsports teammates Michael McDowell and Carson Hocevar were third and fourth, respectively, with RFK Racing’s Ryan Preece completing the top five.
Defending race winner Shane van Gisbergen started sixth and made it all the way to second place in the No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet by late in the stage. He opted to head to pit road with three laps left in the stage, but still scored stage points in seventh place at the green-checkered flag.
Erik Jones, Kyle Larson and Riley Herbst were eighth through 10th and the final Stage 1 point earners.
Contributing: Staff reports