What Happened?
Shane van Gisbergen put on a historically dominant performance to win over Chase Briscoe on Sunday, July 13 at Sonoma Raceway. Finishing behind them were Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell and Christopher Bell to round out the top five.
With his third victory this year, van Gisbergen has tied both Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart for most NASCAR Cup Series wins as a rookie.
What Really Happened?
This has become unprecedented.
Never before have any of us seen a road course talent enter NASCAR and so quickly school the rest of the field in the way V8 Supercars champion van Gisbergen has.
And maybe you’re tired of it. Maybe you think he has made road course racing boring and his wins don’t matter because he’s only good at one type of track and he won’t go far in the playoffs.
Maybe those are solid points, but in the end, this is a historic performance never seen before in 77 years of NASCAR racing. So, please, just for now, shut up and enjoy it.
With three wins already in 2025, SVG already has matched the record of wins from a Cup Series rookie set by both Tony Stewart in 1999 and Jimmie Johnson in 2002.
“Hark, Dalton!” I hear you exclaim. “He’s only won on road courses. Those don’t count!”
Why not?
Yes, NASCAR’s bread and butter is and always will be the oval track. However, nobody can deny that road racing has become a bigger part of the season schedule. With six circuits out of the calendar’s 36 races having both left and right turns, it makes up exactly a sixth of the season. So, if one driver can dominate a sixth of the schedule, doesn’t that make him a NASCAR superstar regardless of how well he runs anywhere else?
Not to mention, like ovals, road racing has always been a part of NASCAR’s culture. After all, NASCAR’s second ever race held in its history was one of them on the sands of Daytona Beach, Fla., in 1949.
So, should we discount a driver’s success simply because it’s on a track type that isn’t as prominent as others in the past?
No, and when it’s on a level of dominance like this, hell no.
Don’t agree? Ask the drivers themselves.
Who Stood Out?
It was a historic win for SVG, to be sure. The Kiwi was almost completely flawless when it came to the Sonoma weekend. The only thing the No. 88 didn’t win was stage one during Sunday’s race; he finished second there.
In addition, the former Supercars champion led a whopping 97 of the 110 laps – eclipsing the track record set by Jeff Gordon in 2004 when the four-time champion led for 92 circuits.
Yes, SVG was the star of the last two weeks, and I’m sure he’ll be in the headlines again when the series visits its next road course at Watkins Glen International in August.
Next week, however, the series will surely be talking about Ty Dillon.
That No. 10 Kaulig Racing team has become the underdog story of the NASCAR In-Season Bracket Challenge. Dillon entered the tournament as the No. 32 seed – last – and has had to overcome some of the toughest competitors and got away with it.
At Atlanta Motor Speedway, he survived a crash that bracket rival Denny Hamlin did not. At the Chicago street course, fortune struck again when Brad Keselowski was caught in an early crash.
Sunday? He simply flat-out outdrove Alex Bowman.
There was a time near the end on Sunday when Bowman was in the top 10 while Dillon was mired back outside of the top 25. All hope appeared to be lost.
Yet a couple of chaotic, field-shuffling restarts brought Dillon higher in the rankings while Bowman slipped backward. On the final lap, they found each other in the last corner of the race.
Dillon did exactly what he needed to keep his tournament hopes alive against the Hendrick Motorsports Goliath.
The story appears to be the highlight of the entire challenge. Additionally, his semi-final rival will be a Legacy Motor Club-powered John Hunter Nemechek at Dover Motor Speedway next weekend.
Not the easiest matchup, but certainly not an impossible task, either.
Who Fell Flat?
With two wins at Sonoma in his career, if there was a list of favorites to win aside from van Gisbergen entering this weekend, there’s a good chance Kyle Larson was on that list.
After four weeks that have resulted in only one top-10 result and no laps led since Charlotte Motor Speedway all the way back in May, he needed a strong showing on Sunday.
But he didn’t get one.
Larson began the day from 11th position and dropped to nearly 20th position before the end of stage one and pitted. Afterward, it appeared to be a game of catchup for the No. 5 team.
In stage two, crew chief Cliff Daniels left the native Californian on the track in an attempt win stage two. However, van Gisbergen, who had already pitted from the lead, came back out only a couple of seconds behind the Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and made quick work of him before the end of the segment.
It wasn’t a stage win, but it was at least nine extra points toward Larson’s regular season championship efforts.
Yet that would be almost all the team had to show for their efforts on Sunday.
Larson was mire in traffic for almost the entire rest of the race and couldn’t seem to return to the top 10. At the final restart with only four laps to go, the No. 5 Chevrolet was 20th.
Upon entering middle of the circuit, however, he was caught in a late scuffle with Ryan Blaney that sent him into the tire barrier.
With no yellow flag, he returned to pit road and finished the race 35th, two laps down.
Paint Scheme of the Race
It was another one of those weeks.
There were a number of designs that stood out this weekend; however, only one appeared to spark conversation among some on social media.
Maybe it was the bright, vibrant green primary color of AJ Allmendinger‘s Big Sipz Chevrolet that made it stand out. Then again, the marketing behind the brand’s 16% alcohol content matching with Allmendinger’s number was also a nice touch made by the team.
Further, music artist Waka Flocka’s ambassadorship turned heads as well, making this perhaps one of the most well-marketed Kaulig Racing cars in some time.
What’s Next?
The Cup Series heads to the Monster Mile.
NASCAR returns to Dover Motor Speedway for its annual 400-mile race on Sunday, July 20th. TNT and HBO Max will broadcast the event live with coverage beginning at 2 p.m. ET.
Dalton Hopkins began writing for Frontstretch in April 2021. Currently, he is the lead writer for the weekly Thinkin' Out Loud column, co-host of the Frontstretch Happy Hour podcast, and one of our lead reporters. Beforehand, he wrote for IMSA shortly after graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 2019. Simultaneously, he also serves as a Captain in the US Army.
Follow Dalton on Twitter @PitLaneCPT
“Shut up”? Young man, I don’t think that being insulting and rude to your readership is the best way to sway anyone to your point of view. I would have expected more of a “captain”.
Army reserves
Regardless, it’s unbecoming of an officer.
Or a gentleman? Careful now! NA$CAR suits can’t handle the truth!
It doesn’t bother me at all, and the level of dominance cannot be overstated. SVG is in very good but not great equipment. (Imagine him in a Hendrick car. He might lap the field every stage. I’m embellishing here, but not by much.) He has less Cup experience than the vast majority of the field. He’s not a young phenom, with the reaction times for car correction which come with youth.
Simply, he is showing the Cup drivers are severely lacking in road course skills.
Even more interesting, SVG was elite in Australian touring cars, but he had peers there, who could match him, and sometimes best him. Yet in the Cup garage, no one is anywhere close. I don’t know if Allmendinger is just finally losing his edge due to age, or if his equipment is the problem, but he was the one driver I thought would routinely be battling with SVG.
Interestingly, the one driver who has shown he can match skills with SVG resides in the Xfinity series, as we saw this weekend. It makes all the more clear that replacing Suarez with Zilisch is the correct decision. Only Zilisch has shown the speed to challenge SVG.
It’s kinda unfair to say NASCAR drivers are severely lacking in road course skills when the US is almost exclusively oval for stock cars. I can’t think of many late model series running road courses, so until they reach the ARCA level they won’t be getting anywhere near the experience someone like SVG would at a comparable age. It would also be unfair to say SVG is severely lacking in oval skills, except everyone around the world makes fun of NASCAR drivers for “only turning left.”
I don’t think it’s at all unfair to say SVG is lacking in oval course skills. What does it take to win most races? Skill.
SVG has it on road courses, and the other drivers clearly do not. Can’t regularly compete against someone else in similar equipment? Skill is obviously the limitation.
Racing is no different than any other skilled labor. Experience helps, though it’s not everything.
You’re right when you say skill isn’t everything. SVG doesn’t need to learn how to race on ovals because the championship format is so easily exploitable. Guys like Juan Pablo Montoya didn’t have the luxury of a quarter of the schedule being tailor made to their skillset and actually needed to expand their repertoire or else look like washouts.
Maybe take the hero worship of this guy down a notch. The dude has 3 wins and he’s still 26th in the point standings. If we weren’t counting wins, he still wouldn’t qualify for the playoffs. The fact that he’s 3rd in the playoff structure is more a product of the stupid playoffs than anything else.
The guys a great road course racer and terrible on ovals. I know this site loves to hero worship whoever the weekly winner is, but this guy would get a bit more respect if he had more success on ovals.
And oh yeah, insulting your audience doesn’t help either, considering you have been asking people for money to keep the site going.
You can’t compare his wins to Johnson and Stewart’s rookie seasons. There were only two road courses back then. He is bottom 10 on ovals.
SVG is outstanding on a road course. These races are still tough to win. SVG makes it look easy. I’m not big on what defines “historic” these days. Just another word that is overhyped by the media, IMO.
Dalton, thank you for serving your country and achieving the rank of Captain. I’m a veteran (USAF) and I salute you.
Dillion did not outdrive Bowman he drove through him. Outdriving would indicate being ahead most of the race and then finishing well ahead in positions not just one position better.
Yeah, we certainly witnessed more NASCAR history alright, another boring road course race where we had a winner who has won/dominated 3 straight boring road course races this year. The stands sure looked empty yesterday too, which tells me that fans are getting tired of NASCAR and their lousy decisions.
I don’t see SVG’s road-course expertise any different than Kyle Larson’s expertise at 1.5 mile tracks, or various drivers’ skills at drafting tracks. Some drivers are very good at one thing, and he’s it.
I love the road courses, even if one guy is winning them all.
Completely agree. It seems you and I see eye to eye often on here, whereas most just rage post 90+% of the time. It’s funny though, I don’t recall everyone having hate for the road courses when Chase Elliott was winning most of them a few years ago.
But, let a guy from New Zealand come over and dominate a type of course which still remains a minority on the schedule, and suddenly road courses are “boring”, and “not really NASCAR”, and everyone is going on about NASCAR being “stupid”. Oh, and some love the ever so clever “NA$CAR” spelling. I smirk every time I see it. They’re sure sticking it to the man with that!
I enjoy auto racing in nearly all forms. I’ve been a NASCAR fan for over 40 years, and the hate around this place over the sport evolving over time, as all things do, is hilarious to me. The part I don’t understand is they still apparently watch many of the races, which makes no sense if they truly hate it all so much.
I’m sure I’ll get a ton of thumbs down for this comment, and possibly a few choice replies, but again, I tend to find all the absolutely unhinged anger hilarious. So have at it if you like, folks! It’s fun to read!
Hey now! It is absolutely necessary to call out NA$CAR for selling out and ditching the long term fans chasing the trendy Cali crowd dollars with the “$”. They earned it, trying desperately to appeal to a group who doesn’t even know they exist while dumping on those who loved them. Does it make a difference or matter really? No. Is it silly and immature? Yeah. Do I still do it? Yeah. Why? Because I’m an old man who still acts 14 more often than I’d like to admit! ;-)
No thumbs down from me, though!
Kinda surprised. Figured I’d get clobbered for that comment. Shows ya what I know! Thumbs up from me!
Yes, there are several very good road course drivers however Shane has a slight advantage most miss. Go back and watch Shane when he is on the inside of a hard braking zone. Most drivers when in too deep lock up the fronts and slide up the track, (8 tires are better than 4) SVG modulates the brakes preventing a lockup allowing the front tires to roll which allows the car to turn vs. sliding up the track. He also, as reported, uses the clutch to decouple the rears when needed, allowing the tries to roll and removes the influence of the drivetrain, like when you downshift too quickly and your rears want to lock. My point is of instead of throwing a hissy fit like entitled Connor Zilisch, drivers should watch and learn. Connor cried like a baby, Briscoe praised Shane…
I got the impression SVG was going just as hard as he needed to go to stay in front. The tire wear was a big factor for cars chasing him.