Posted on by Nate Ryan

So now that Trackhouse Racing has parlayed possibly the greatest leap of faith in NASCAR history into a playoff berth, who’s next?

It’s actually a two-part question.

Part 1 is finding another iteration of Shane van Gisbergen, who was tooling around race tracks literally half a world away when he got the FaceTime call from Trackhouse founder Justin Marks that changed his life and permanently has altered the landscape of NASCAR for the foreseeable future.

RELATED: Race results | Best photos from Sonoma

With his third victory in five races, van Gisbergen is making a strong case he will be remembered as the all-time greatest road-course racer in the Cup Series.

Just consider the company he already is keeping.

With his victory at Sonoma Raceway, van Gisbergen joined four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon as the only drivers to have won three consecutive Cup races from the pole position.

With his 34th start, van Gisbergen became the fastest driver to four wins since Baja 1000 and Indianapolis 500 winner Parnelli Jones in January 1967.

A three-time champion in Supercars (the premier category of racing in Australia and New Zealand), van Gisbergen wasn’t plucked out of complete obscurity, but Marks deserves a ton of credit for giving the massively talented Kiwi a shot.

Yet that was only the first step.

Part 2 is having a team owner with the financial wherewithal and unshakable belief to commit a full-season Cup schedule to a driver largely untested in NASCAR.

Marks did that with van Gisbergen and might have created a blueprint for making the playoffs in the road course era of the Next Gen car.

Shane van Gisbergen celebrats in Victory Lane at Sonoma.
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR Digital Media

The 2022 season brought the switch to a vehicle that is nimbler and more sophisticated than its lumbering and antiquated predecessor. And that opened the window to recruiting world-class road-racing talent with designs on parachuting into a NASCAR schedule in which one of every six races now features left and right turns.

Dropping a highly accomplished driver from the realm of single-seater formula or sports car racing into a stock car with the goal of securing a playoff berth no longer seems fanciful. It could be a Cup Series cheat code, provided a driver can get acclimated with as much aplomb as SVG.

Despite his immense lack of NASCAR experience, van Gisbergen has been very comfortable behind the wheel of the Next Gen with its independent rear suspension and sequential gear shifter, among the many reminders of his days dominating Supercars, which race entirely on road and street courses.

“He’s something NASCAR has never seen on road courses,” crew chief Stephen Doran said. “It’s just an honor being part of it. He’s amazing. I don’t know what else I can say about it. He shows it every time we come to these tracks.”

RELATED: SVG on his oval progression: ‘Felt like I got better’

Did Marks know van Gisbergen could be this good?

Perhaps not when he hired him for a one-off in the Project 91 program that was intended to showcase elite international drivers in Cup.

But then van Gisbergen stunned NASCAR on July 2, 2023 in the streets of downtown Chicago, and became the first driver in 60 years to win his Cup debut. Trackhouse wasted little time in assembling a fast-track program for van Gisbergen, who started last year in the Xfinity Series before moving to Cup this season.

By taking the calculated risk of putting SVG full-time in the No. 88 Chevrolet, Marks now has a car guaranteed to finish in the top 16 in the points standings (with a driver who has been ranked outside the top 30 for much of the season).

It was a multimillion-dollar gamble that already has realized a major return on the investment.

“Unreal,” van Gisbergen said on Sunday’s TNT post-race show when asked to describe his two-year whirlwind. “Chicago was just an experience that I really enjoyed, and I never thought it would lead to more, let alone moving over here and doing all these things. It’s been amazing. Everything I could have hoped it would have ever been.”

And it all started with a leap of faith that any team owner could take with another undiscovered diamond of a driver possessing sublime road-racing skills.

So who’s next?

The Cup playoffs could await.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

SONOMA, Calif. — Based on his performance in three qualifying races, the chances of Ty Dillon making a deep run in the inaugural In-Season Challenge were slim.

All he needed was an opportunity.

After entering the tournament as the final seed — No. 32 of 32 — Dillon and his No. 10 Kaulig Racing team kept the Cinderella story alive Sunday at Sonoma Raceway, using a late bump-and-run in Turn 11 to shift this week’s opponent — Hendrick Motorsports’ No. 8 seed Alex Bowman — out of the way on the final lap to advance to the semifinal round of the tournament.

MORE: In-Season Challenge after Sonoma | Sonoma results

“I’m a little in shock,” Dillon said.

He and everyone else who made a bracket.

Dillon trailed Bowman much of the day, but with Bowman in his sights in the final 15 laps, Dillon knew he had a chance to pounce if he could get there.

“I was like, ‘OK, we have the opportunity here. Just execute some good restarts,’ ” Dillon said. “And I did. I got by him on the last restart, and he battled back. I know he was (champing) at the bit, too. He passed me clean — we all got checked up at (Turn) 11; he got around me on the outside. And my goal on the last lap was just try to be close enough getting into 11 where I could move him off the bottom and try to drag race him back.”

Move him he did, sliding Bowman out of the groove and allowing Dillon to jolt by on his right, rocketing Dillon to a 17th-place finish and dropping Bowman to 19th. All he needed to do was beat him by one to advance.

“If it wasn’t for a million dollars, I probably would have never punted him for that position,” Dillon said. “But a million dollars means a lot.”

Ty Dillon races at Sonoma.
Daylon Barr | For NASCAR Digital Media

Dillon has had perfectly improbable — or improbably perfect — performances when it has mattered most. In the opening two weeks of the five-week, bracket-style challenge, Dillon was tasked with beating a 57-time Cup Series winner and top seed Denny Hamlin at EchoPark Speedway (formerly Atlanta Motor Speedway) before getting paired against 2012 Cup champion Brad Keselowski in Chicago.

At EchoPark, Hamlin was one of more than 20 drivers involved in a massive pileup at Lap 70 and was eliminated from competition while Dillon charged to an eighth-place finish. Fate played into Dillon’s hands early at Chicago, too, when Keselowski was collected in a Lap 3 traffic jam that ousted his No. 6 Ford from the race while Dillon used a 20th-place run to advance.

Dillon earned his way to the semifinals Sunday. Faced with elimination in the final hairpin corner of the race, Dillon took matters into his own hands without wrecking Bowman, but moved the Hendrick Motorsports driver out of the way to join John Hunter Nemechek, Tyler Reddick and Ty Gibbs in the penultimate round.

“This in-season tournament, to some, might not mean a lot, but you see what it’s done for our team and myself,” Dillon said. “We’re excited to be a part of it and down to the final four. It’s been just a dream run. It’s hard to even put it together. I’m a little bit shook by how it all shook out, but yeah. We did it.”

Dillon said he and Bowman spoke after the race and shared a laugh about the contact with both understanding the circumstances and no lingering frustration over a bump-and-run for 18th place.

“I told him, I’m like, ‘Hey, man, I’m sorry,’ ” Dillon said. “If it wasn’t for a million dollars, I would have never done that. I appreciated him for racing me clean, and he was cool. He knew it was coming. I think he was more frustrated with my teammate (AJ Allmendinger), my brother (Austin Dillon). They were all racing hard back there, and he did a great job.”

The tournament now shifts to Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), where Dillon will face off against No. 12 seed John Hunter Nemechek, who advanced over his Legacy Motor Club teammate Erik Jones at Sonoma. Dillon is carrying more than just some head-to-head wins with him into the 1-mile oval. He and the No. 10 team have rattled off three consecutive top-20 finishes for the first time this season.

All Dillon needs at Dover is a chance.

“We don’t give up when things are against us, and we scored a bunch of points today too,” added Dillon, who scored 29 points at Sonoma. “For whatever reason, this has brought our team alive in a good way, and we just want to keep this momentum going forward for the rest of the year.”

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

SONOMA, Calif. — Chase Briscoe lined up alongside Shane van Gisbergen for the Sonoma Raceway win three times in the final 13 laps.

But despite being the closest one to contest NASCAR’s latest road-course hero, Briscoe couldn’t muster any more than what he showed Sunday en route to a second-place finish in the Toyota/Save Mart 350.

“I wish I had more,” Briscoe said. “That’s all I got.”

RELATED: Race results | Best photos from Sonoma

A rash of three cautions in the closing 15 laps brought Briscoe’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota within striking distance multiple times, giving Briscoe both a chance to pounce and a chance to learn. Much of what he learned, he already knew.

“I learned that he could still go a lot faster if he wanted to,” Briscoe said. “There was one time I felt like I made a push and got within, I don’t know, four or five car lengths, and he just drove right back away another five car lengths. So he definitely had more in the tank anytime he really wanted to.”

The gap, he believes, comes from van Gisbergen’s innate muscle memory, utilizing the clutch in his shifts with his left foot while using the heel-toe method with his right foot to brake and blip the throttle simultaneously.

“It’s just so foreign for what we do,” Briscoe said. “And that’s why I think on the ovals, he kind of struggles a little bit more because of how he’s using his feet, but that’s what’s natural for us, right? And it just is such an advantage on these road courses. So he does an incredible job. He’s an incredible race car driver, so I’m honestly proud of running second to that guy. I was even saying in my TV interview, I obviously never played basketball against Michael Jordan in his prime, but I feel like that is very similar to what it would be like. It’s just a lot of fun and proud to have ran second to him.”

Briscoe needed a bounce-back performance after the way his last two weeks ended. Since winning at Pocono Raceway on June 22, Briscoe had finished 35th at EchoPark Speedway (formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway) and 23rd on the Chicago Street Course. Yet Briscoe is one of only two drivers not named van Gisbergen to win a NASCAR Cup Series race in the last five races, a testament both to van Gisbergen’s recent dominance and Briscoe’s persistence as he rebounded to runner-up Sunday.

“I feel like I get overlooked a lot of the time,” Briscoe said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to earn the respect of a lot of guys — not even all the drivers, but I think just everybody. I always felt like I was capable of doing it and the 19 car finally lets me show what I feel like I’m capable of. It’s just so fun to drive fast race cars.”

MORE: Race recap 

He certainly earned van Gisbergen’s respect, particularly after their late head-to-head duels.

“I knew Chase wasn’t going to do anything stupid, but he got really close at Turn 2 a couple of times and he had a proper crack,” van Gisbergen said. “It was cool racing.”

What Briscoe has proven so far is 2025 is already a career year for the Indiana native. Through 20 races, Briscoe has accumulated a career-high seven top fives and nine top 10s, one top 10 short of tying his career-best mark set in 2022. His 14.7 average finish is also on pace to outrank his previous best of 17.3, also set in 2022.

“I’m just super proud of this 19 team,” Briscoe said. “It took us a little bit at the beginning of the year to kind of find our stride, but I feel like we’re honestly as strong as any team in the field right now as far as just overall balance. Whether it’s a short track or road course or intermediate, I feel like we can go any single weekend and battle for the win. And it reminds me a lot, honestly, of when I was in Xfinity, and I haven’t had that ever in the Cup Series, so it’s a lot of fun.”

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

The Cinderella run extends into the final four for No. 32 seed Ty Dillon as he passed No. 8 seed Alex Bowman in Turn 11 on the final lap to advance to the semifinals of the In-Season Challenge Sunday afternoon at Sonoma Raceway. It was arguably the most impressive win in the 32-driver tournament for the driver of the No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet as he had to outduel a pretty stout road-course driver in Bowman from start to finish. What was once improbable is now trending realistic as Dillon now has a 25% chance to claim the $1 million prize in NASCAR’s inaugural tournament on TNT Sports.

Here’s where we stand after Sonoma and before next Sunday’s AutoTrader EchoPark Automotive 400 at Dover Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio):

RELATED: Race results | Check your bracket

Sonoma Raceway winner: Shane van Gisbergen has become unstoppable on road courses this year, winning three of the last five races to match Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell for most wins at the Cup level in 2025. Van Gisbergen led 97 of the 110 laps completed Sunday at the Northern California track, the most ever for a Cup race at Sonoma.

Who advances to semifinals: (6) Ty Gibbs, (12) John Hunter Nemechek, (23) Tyler Reddick and (32) Ty Dillon.

Nemechek clashed with Legacy Motor Club teammate Erik Jones in a Round 3 matchup. The No. 43 Toyota driver held point on Nemechek until late in the race when Jones was spun off Turn 7 in a multicar incident with nine laps to go. The two were separated by a single position until the checkered flag waved, with Nemechek getting the nod in 28th. Jones crossed the line in P29.

Pitting for fresh Goodyear tires with 13 to go, Ty Gibbs placed seventh Sunday to outduel Zane Smith in their third-round matchup. On the same strategy as Gibbs, Tyler Reddick stumped Ryan Preece after finishing sixth. Preece also collected significant damage in the Lap 101 incident, but still managed to score a 12th-place result.

There will be no clear favorites heading to Dover next Sunday. Nemechek and Dillon will face off in the semifinals on their side of the bracket, while Gibbs and Reddick meet for a spot in the championship round.

Who’s up

Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Gibbs’ seventh-place finish at Sonoma continued a fruitful summer stretch that has included two top fives (Michigan, Chicago) and no finish worse than 14th in the last six races. Gibbs’ run to the semifinals has now included wins over Justin Haley, AJ Allmendinger and now Smith. Dover could be enough to get Gibbs into the championship round as the third-year Cup driver finished 10th in last year’s event, shaping up a thrilling battle with Reddick as the No. 45 driver finished just behind Gibbs in the most recent edition.

Who’s down

Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota. Sunday was not what the doctor ordered for the Jones camp as a 29th-place result will now put the No. 43 team in must-win territory the next six weeks to make the playoffs. It’s the second straight finish of 25th or worse for the 29-year-old driver. Jones had quite the eventful end at Sonoma as he was involved in a multicar wreck after getting turned by Josh Berry coming out of Turn 7. Jones, however, can gain some momentum back at Dover as he has just two finishes outside the top 20 in 11 starts at the concrete oval.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

SONOMA, Calif. — Shane van Gisbergen proved on Sunday that it’s impossible to keep a road-course superstar down for more than a brief interlude.

After finishing second to Connor Zilisch in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race, van Gisbergen was back on top on a pleasant Sunday afternoon in wine country, winning the Cup Series’ Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

As has become his custom of late, the New Zealander reached a trio of milestones, winning his third straight road/street course race from the pole position to equal Jeff Gordon’s feat from 1998 and 1999.

The victory was van Gisbergen’s third of the season in his first trip around the 1.99-mile, 12-turn circuit in a NASCAR Cup Series car. SVG won for the fourth time in 34 starts, becoming the quickest to four wins since Parnelli Jones won at Riverside in 1967 in his 31st Cup start.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Sonoma

His 97 laps led are the most by a Sonoma winner, eclipsing Jeff Gordon’s high-water mark of 92 set in 2004.

“We had an amazing car,” van Gisbergen said. “Chase Briscoe, what a great racer and gave me respect. Jumped the last (restart) a little bit, and it was pretty tense, but amazing. So stoked for Red Bull, Trackhouse, Chevy. I believe we had a really fun weekend here, some great races, and I hope everyone enjoyed that.”

The winner of 81 Australian Supercars races on the way to three championships in the series, van Gisbergen already is being touted as perhaps the best road-course racer in NASCAR history.

“I had an amazing time in Australia, and then to come here and the last couple weeks or years actually has been a dream come true,” said the 36-year-old driver of the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. “I’ve really enjoyed my time in NASCAR. Thanks, everyone, for making me feel so welcome. I hope I’m here for a long time to come.”

Winning the second stage despite short-pitting to preserve track position, van Gisbergen advanced to third on the current Cup Series Playoff grid with 17 playoff points. He arrived at the finish line 1.128 seconds ahead of consistent Chase Briscoe, but the win was far from guaranteed, given the chaos of the final 15 laps.

SVG had to survive three cautions and subsequent restarts in the late stages of the race to seal the win, as a large group of drivers on better tires chased those who had stayed on the track (including the race winner) after the No. 51 Ford of Cody Ware jettisoned a tire and caused a yellow on Lap 97.

Briscoe qualified second and finished where he felt he deserved.

“The only opportunity I had was on the restarts,” Briscoe said. “I never played basketball against Michael Jordan in his prime, but I feel like that’s probably what it was like. That guy is unbelievable on road courses. He’s just so good. He’s really raised the bar on this entire series.

“Proud of the effort. I thought there was one restart I was maybe going to get clear of him, but truthfully, even if I cleared him, he was probably going to pass me back by the end of the lap. Yeah, proud of the effort. We were a second-place car all day and obviously ended up second with it.”

Chase Elliott pitted on Lap 97 for fresher tires and came home third after restarting 14th on Lap 100. Michael McDowell, on the same strategy as Elliott, climbed to fourth at the finish, while Christopher Bell held fifth on older tires.

“It was nice to be on offense and give ourselves a shot,” Elliott said. “I wish I could have made it happen there. I was trying, but I just couldn’t get going like we needed to there at the end.”

SHOP: Buy winner’s gear

The action on the final few laps was attributable in part to battles within the NASCAR Cup Series’ In-Season Challenge. In Sunday’s third round at Sonoma, 32nd seed Ty Dillon bumped the No. 48 Chevrolet of Alex Bowman out of the way on the final lap to finish 17th to Bowman’s 19th and keep his hopes for the $1 million prize alive.

Dillon will face John Hunter Nemechek in next Sunday semifinals at Dover Motor Speedway. Nemechek finished one spot ahead of Legacy Motor Club teammate Erik Jones (28th to 29th) to advance to the fourth round.

“It was a rough couple of laps there,” Dillon acknowledged. “Alex and I race really clean. I told him, ‘Man, if it wasn’t for the million dollars, I probably wouldn’t have done that,’ but I had to. It’s been an incredible run for this No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet team. We’ve worked so hard for this opportunity…

“We’re going to give it all we’ve got at Dover; put pressure on the guys. I think you’ve seen through this that our team doesn’t quit. I saw the No. 48 there at the end, and I knew it was our opportunity to race hard and go get him. Just proud of this team’s effort.”

Ty Gibbs moved into the tournament semifinals with a seventh-place finish to Zane Smith’s 27th, and Tyler Reddick ousted Ryan Preece with a sixth-place run to Preece’s 12th. Gibbs and Reddick will face off at the Monster Mile for a trip to the finals.

William Byron, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch completed the top 10 in a race that featured six cautions for 17 laps.

Ross Chastain and van Gisbergen divided the stage wins. Chastain encountered trouble in a tangle with Trackhouse Racing teammate Daniel Suárez on Lap 45, with Suárez spinning after the contact in the Turn 11 hairpin and losing 15 positions in the exchange.

MORE: Chastain, Suárez collide in Stage 2

The Cup Series’ next race falls Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway (2 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Six races remain in the regular season before the 16-driver field for the Cup Series Playoffs is set.

NOTE: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage was completed without issue, confirming van Gisbergen as the winner. Competition officials indicated that no cars would travel back to the NASCAR Research & Development Center for further inspection.

Contributing: Staff Report

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

SONOMA, Calif. — The Nos. 6 and 54 pit crews had a minor altercation during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway.

On Lap 52 of the Toyota/Save Mart 350, Ty Gibbs’ No. 54 Toyota led Brad Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford onto pit road near the end of Stage 2. The two were pitted directly next to each other, with Gibbs’ crew in stall No. 16 and Keselowski’s in stall 17.

RELATED: Race results

Gibbs drove through Keselowski’s pit box on entry and nearly clipped Telvin McClurkin, Keselowski’s tire carrier, as the No. 6 crewmen leaped over the wall. The hesitation appeared to slow the No. 6 team’s stop, and upon its completion, McClurkin approached the No. 54 crew to express his displeasure.

The confrontation resulted in a brief burst of physical shoves between two RFK Racing crew members and three Joe Gibbs Racing crew members that was visible from the Sonoma Raceway media center before NASCAR officials intervened to break up the scrum.

Spokespersons for both JGR and RFK Racing described the incident to NASCAR.com and PRN Radio as a “disagreement” as the second stage came to an end.

Gibbs explained his view of the incident after finishing seventh, four spots ahead of Keselowski in the 37-car field.

“By NASCAR’s rules, you know, I’m the lead car because I’m in the pit box past where the 6 is and I’m in front of them as well,” Gibbs told TNT Sports. “We have these orange lines right there — as you can see, I’m sure they’ll show you after — where if I’m behind him, I have to go around those orange lines for it to be the rule. Going in, I have the right-of-way. So you know, they’re on the wall for a reason, they jump for a reason, and they kind of get out of the way. And those guys like to push it, and that’s kind of the consequence you pay. So it’s unfortunate for them that they had a penalty. Nothing malicious. It’s my right-of-way.”

Jeremy Bullins, crew chief for Keselowski and the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, came off the pit box to help diffuse the situation.

“If we were in that pit box, I would expect him (Keselowski) to do the same [expletive] thing, so we’re good,” Bullins told No. 54 jackman Braxton Brannon. “It’s your right to drive through here. It sucks, but it is what it is.”

TNT Sports reported McClurkin expressed Gibbs’ car did hit the tire in his hands and twisted his wrist. McClurkin also told TNT he was OK and would continue pitting the rest of the afternoon.

A NASCAR spokesperson confirmed that officials reviewed the incident and expressed to the No. 6 team that the crew should have given more room for the No. 54 car and ruled Gibbs’ close entry unintentional, therefore not resulting in a penalty. Additionally, officials will review the altercation during the week and determine if there will be any penalties to come.

WATCH: RFK shares overhead view of pit stop, altercation

“I mean, I get it. It was overblown because you look up and people are scrapping and you’re wondering what the heck’s going on here,” said Chris Gabehart, Joe Gibbs Racing’s competition director. “So I understand why it was made a scene, but the truth of the matter is, the lead car in that instance has the right-of-way to the trailing-box car. It’s just really, really tough when they’re literally coming to pit road nose to tail. It doesn’t happen very often. So in that instance, and we all know on pit road how to deal with that, like everybody understands that the trailing car has got to give a gap so the leading car, so your guys can jump in between the two, but it’s just a really tight spot.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Trackhouse Racing teammates Ross Chastain and Daniel Suárez tangled in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race, with Suárez getting the worst of a Turn 11 collision at Sonoma Raceway.

Suárez was running 14th when Chastain overcooked his entry into the final corner in the 45th of 110 laps in the Toyota/Save Mart 350. The contact from Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet sent Suárez’s No. 99 Chevy spinning in the hairpin, knocking him to 29th place in the running order.

RELATED: Race results | Best photos from Sonoma

“You better hope I don’t get to him today,” Suárez told his team over the No. 99 radio after the incident. During the Stage 2 break, Suárez was told that Chastain had relayed an apology through his spotter, indicating he did not intend to drive that deep into the turn and could not halt his car’s momentum.

Suárez had a measure of turnabout in the final results after a series of late-race caution flags, finishing 14th. Chastain placed 24th after starting fourth in the 37-car field.

Chastain left Sonoma without comment, but Suárez said a conversation between the two might be warranted.

“I hope so,” Suárez said. “And if it doesn’t happen, he’s gonna get it back.”

Suárez and Trackhouse announced July 1 that they had mutually agreed to part company at the end of the 2025 season. Suárez left Sunday’s race 29th in the Cup Series points standings. Just six races remain in the regular season before the 16-driver field for the Cup Series Playoffs is set, and he needs a win to reach the postseason.

MORE: Trackhouse to part ways with Suárez after 2025 season

Chastain, who won Stage 1 Sunday at Sonoma, clinched a playoff berth with his May victory in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Shane van Gisbergen, the third Trackhouse Racing driver racing full-time in the Cup Series, cruised to his third win of the season Sunday at Sonoma. It’s quite the tear for the New Zealand import, who also won the previous weekend in the Chicago Street Race.

Posted on by Staff Report

Can’t wait any longer to go Inside the Race following each NASCAR Cup Series event?

Visit our NASCAR YouTube page Sunday evening following the NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway to get a breakdown and analysis of all the action and story lines coming out of Wine Country.

Sunday’s post-race show will analyze all the twists and turns of the Toyota/Save Mart 350, with host Alex Weaver and analysts Todd Gordon and Kyle Petty dissecting the winning and losing moves.

Head to our YouTube page post-race, or just watch the live stream embedded below.

Posted on by PJ Walsh

NASCAR odds list Shane van Gisbergen as the clear favorite for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Sonoma Raceway, and for good reason.

SVG, who has won two of the three races on road courses, like Sonoma, this season, sits at +105 NASCAR odds at DraftKings heading into today’s race.

He is followed by Kyle Larson (+700), Chase Elliott (+850), Tyler Reddick (+1200), Michael McDowell (+1200) and AJ Allmendinger (+1200).

When it comes to my favorite NASCAR pick for Sonoma, I’m bypassing the outright market and am instead zeroing in on one matchup that’s a headscratcher in my mind.

MORE: See full Sonoma field in photos | Sonoma fantasy advice

NASCAR Odds, Best Bet Pick for Sonoma

*Odds as of Sunday morning

Sonoma has been good to Daniel Suárez in the Next Gen car.

Over the past three races at this circuit, Suárez has posted the eighth-best driver rating, the ninth-best average running position and a win back in 2022.

On the other hand, Denny Hamlin has had all kinds of problems at Sonoma in the Next Gen, finishing 31st in 2022, crashing out in 2023 and blowing an engine on Lap 2 last season.

But what really makes me bullish on Suárez in this matchup today is how they both paced in practice on Saturday.

Despite running in the much slower Group 1, Suárez was actually faster than Hamlin in five-lap average speed and only one spot behind the No. 11 Toyota in 10-lap average.

Further, Suárez qualified only three places behind Hamlin, so I can understand why this matchup looks closer on paper than it truly is, based on both drivers’ track histories and the fact that we need to adjust for when they both hit the track in practice.

In my mind, Suàrez should be the favorite here, but DraftKings has him priced at -105 against Hamlin — a price I’m investing in for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma.

NASCAR Pick: Daniel Suárez (-105) over Denny Hamlin — DraftKings

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

It’s the summer of Shane van Gisbergen in 2025. Two road courses down this summer and two to go until the Cup Series Playoffs, van Gisbergen has a 100% win rate and now there’s a strong chance he could be leading the entire series in victories once the checkered flag flies at Watkins Glen International in a month.

SVG will be the favorite for his third win of the year Sunday at Sonoma Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), but other drivers are lurking just behind to topple the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing driver’s road-course dominion.

RELATED: Sonoma schedule | How to watch NASCAR on TNT Sports, Max

Few drivers have even come close to matching van Gisbergen’s pace, but one driver who’s surging during this stretch of three road courses in five weeks is Ty Gibbs.

The first 14 races of this year had Gibbs all but written off at any shot of breaking through for that long-awaited first Cup triumph, but the script has flipped this summer for the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team. Dating back to Michigan five races ago, Gibbs hasn’t finished worse than 14th, and road courses have once again been a bright spot for the third-year Cup wheelman as he led 27 laps in Mexico City and was runner-up to van Gisbergen last Sunday at Chicago.

According to Racing Insights, Gibbs ranks top 10 in passing, defense and restarts on road courses this season and slots fourth in average running position at 10.92.

Sonoma hasn’t been the kindest to Gibbs in his two starts — average finish of 27.5 — however, Sunday may prove that the 22-year-old is ready to write the next chapter in his early Cup career.

FANTASY: Set your lineup | Make a 36 for 36 pick

OTHER DRIVERS TO WATCH

KYLE LARSON: Larson has been in a relative slump lately with four finishes outside the top 10 in the last seven races; however, he can quickly turn that around in his home state on Sunday. Larson owns two wins at Sonoma (including last year) and has won four poles on the road course.

MICHAEL MCDOWELL: If it weren’t for a mechanical failure, it looked like Chicago could’ve been the place McDowell was going to score his first win with Spire Motorsports. Alas, that didn’t happen, and the No. 71 driver still needs a victory to make the playoffs. On paper, Sonoma is the best chance for McDowell to clinch that berth. He ranks first in speed and long-run pace at the road course in the Next Gen car and hasn’t finished worse than seventh.

CHRIS BUESCHER: In the Next Gen era at Sonoma, Buescher has placed everywhere in the top five except fifth or first. He’d certainly prefer the latter this weekend as he holds just a 35-point buffer to the playoff cutline. At Sonoma, Buescher ranks top five in speed, long-run pace and restarts.

ROSS CHASTAIN: The Trackhouse Racing driver had quite the eventful end to Chicago after a late-race run-in and confrontation with Joey Logano, but Chastain still walked away with a top 10 after the dust settled. Sonoma has been kind to Chastain with top 10s in his last four starts, including a best of fifth place in last year’s event. Chastain also ranks first in restarts at the California course.

RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE TOYOTA/SAVE MART 350

Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula incorporates current track, track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to predict a projected winner and provide full race results. Updated on race day with practice and qualifying factored in.

FINISHCAR NUMBERDRIVER
15Kyle Larson
288Shane van Gisbergen
320Christopher Bell
416AJ Allmendinger
545Tyler Reddick
69Chase Elliott
71Ross Chastain
824William Byron
917Chris Buescher
1054Ty Gibbs
1112Ryan Blaney
128Kyle Busch
1371Michael McDowell
1448Alex Bowman
1519Chase Briscoe
1611Denny Hamlin
1722Joey Logano
1877Carson Hocevar
1999Daniel Suárez
202Austin Cindric
2160Ryan Preece
226Brad Keselowski
2338Zane Smith
2423Bubba Wallace
2534Todd Gilliland
2642John Hunter Nemechek
2743Erik Jones
284Noah Gragson
2947Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
307Justin Haley
3141Cole Custer
323Austin Dillon
3335Riley Herbst
3421Josh Berry
3510Ty Dillon
3651Cody Ware
3778Katherine Legge