Shane van Gisbergen nabs final road-course trophy of 2026 at Sonoma
- Last updated: June 30, 2026 | 10:23
Shane van Gisbergen moved into playoff position Sunday by getting back to basics.
Collecting the checkers on a road course.
van Gisbergen led a race-high 74 of 110 laps and hung on in NASCAR's final road-course event of 2026, winning the Toyota/Save Mart 350 on Sunday at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.
The No. 97 Trackhouse Racing driver put his Chevrolet back up front after his final pit stop on Lap 88, held a healthy lead most of the remainder but had to hold off Chase Briscoe by 0.357 seconds to win for the eighth time in 16 road starts.
van Gisbergen has won seven of nine road races and matched Tony Stewart for second with eight wins on the road, one behind all-time leader Jeff Gordon.
"(Briscoe) was coming," said van Gisbergen, who won 2 of 4 road races this season.
"Pretty special to make up for last week, too. ... I just kept struggling. Chase was really good. A couple more laps and we'd have had some problems."
The New Zealander moved into a playoff spot -- climbing three places to 14th -- but knows where he needs to improve: the ovals.
"This is an oval championship," he stated.
Briscoe positioned his No. 19 Toyota within a car length of the 97 in the closing laps, but he could not force a pass.
"It was odd," the Joe Gibbs Racing driver said of his closeness to the King of the Road.
"Not many people get that close to him at the end of these road- course races. Frustrated with myself. I felt I definitely had the better car. I didn't do as good a job of driving it (as he did).
"Bummed that at the end of the day it was my fault we didn't win it."
Ty Gibbs, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell rounded out the top five.
Tyler Reddick lost four laps, came home 36th and turned over the points lead to 26th-place finisher Denny Hamlin (+1), the first points lead change of 2026.
Chevrolet won its third straight at Sonoma and for the fifth time in the past six races.
With Gibbs starting from the pole for the third time ever, van Gisbergen moved to second from his sixth-place starting position inside Stage 1's last 10 laps, and Gibbs kept his No. 54 Toyota out front by a half-second with five circuits remaining in the 25-lap first segment.
Twenty-three drivers decided to pit before Stage 1 ended, staggering the field all day, and Gibbs stayed out to collect the maximum bonus points. Bell, Michael McDowell, Carson Hocevar and Ryan Preece were the rest of the top five after Stage 1.
Reddick's team had to go under the hood after Stage 1's completion. The No. 45 Toyota lost six laps during the second segment, falling to last as the only driver not on the lead lap.
Stage 2, a 30-lapper, shook out with van Gisbergen pulling away from Larson on the restart and leading by almost two seconds at the midpoint. Briscoe, Ryan Blaney and rookie Connor Zilisch also moved into the top five.
However, van Gisbergen gave away a 10-second lead along with the rest of the frontrunners with two laps to go. That gave Gibbs a sweep of the first two stages, and Bell, racing with a fractured wrist, finished runner-up again followed by AJ Allmendinger, Austin Cindric and Ross Chastain.
After a final cycle of pit stops, van Gisbergen reemerged as the leader by 1.67 seconds over Briscoe with about 20 laps left with Zilisch, Larson and Gibbs rounding out the top five.
Reuters