Shane van Gisbergen Wins 2nd Straight Xfinity Race

Shane van Gisbergen won his second NASCAR Xfinity Series race in two weekends at Sonoma Raceway after passing Austin Hill on the final restart to take his second victory of the 2024 season and his career, leading a race-high 33 laps.

Van Gisbergen took the lead by staying side-by-side with Hill and forcing him to the outside after sliding to keep the inside position. Van Gisbergen pulled away from Sam Mayer and stayed ahead of a charging Sheldon Creed to win the race by 1.323 seconds.

Creed earned his ninth runner-up finish in the Xfinity Series after finding speed late, putting the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Supra one runner-up finish behind the all-time record held by Dale Jarrett for most second-place finishes before their first win.

Mayer was able to hold onto third after holding off a challenge off turn 11 from Austin Green, who scored his best finish of fourth and his first top-five finish. Hill completed the top five.

Justin Allgaier, a damaged Chandler Smith, John Hunter Nemechek, Cole Custer -who recovered from a spin during the race – and Parker Kligerman rounded out the top 10.

Van Gisbergen started on the pole after setting the track record in qualifying and stayed ahead of Ty Gibbs at the start of the race.

Stage 1 went caution free and was for the most part quiet on track minus Hill going wide in turn 11 and scraping the tire wall, losing three spots on track.

Gibbs stayed within a second of van Gisbergen throughout the majority of the stage. Gibbs pitted with three laps to go in the stage, while van Gisbergen stayed out to win the stage. AJ Allmendinger, Hill, Kligerman and Nemechek completed the stage one top five.

With van Gisbergen staying out, Gibbs took over the lead for stage 2, held off Jesse Love and pulled away up to over a four-second lead during the caution-free stage. Leland Honeyman and Boris Said spun during the stage, but both were able to continue.

Van Gisbergen, who worked his way back to second, wanted to pit before the end of the stage. But the pits were closed as Gibbs decided to stay out to win the stage, throwing a wrench into the No. 97 team’s strategy. Love, Creed and Custer rounded out the Stage 2 top five.

Gibbs had issues on pit road during the stage caution that set his No. 19 to 14th, and after pit stops, Hill took over the lead and beat Green on the restart, and a massive 14-car pile up collected many in the outside the top 10. The wreck collected Gibbs, Smith, Brandon Jones, Josh Williams, Ed Jones, Preston Pardus, Jeb Burton, Kyle Weatherman and more.

Hill defended a challenge from Allmendinger for the lead with the restart with 24 laps to go, but in turn 11 on the same lap, van Gisbergen was able to get by his teammate and stay close with Hill.

Van Gisbergen got wide in turn 10 battling for the lead but maintained behind Hill throughout the run, setting up for the pass, but a caution flew for Hill’s teammate Love spinning off of turn 10.

With 11 to go, van Gisbergen slid ahead of Hill, gaining the inside advantage while Mayer advanced to second, Green to third and Creed to fourth after making contact with Allmendinger, sending the No. 16 for a spin in turn 7.

Van Gisbergen was able to pull away from Mayer and escaped another late caution with spins by Parker Retzlaff and Pardus to win back-to-back races.

Xfinity Sonoma Results

The Xfinity Series returns next weekend at Iowa Speedway. Coverage will be provided by USA Network.