Shane van Gisbergen won Sunday’s (June 28) Toyota/Save Mart 350, holding off a hard-charging Chase Briscoe in the closing laps.
Despite an driving an ill-handling car while lapped traffic made things difficult in front of him, van Gisbergen held on for his second Sonoma Raceway win in a row.
Briscoe got close enough in the final corner to ship it into turn 11 but was not close enough to make contact, ensuring SVG’s eighth career win in the NASCAR Cup Series. All of them have been on road and street courses, where he’s won an astonishing 50% of his starts on this track type.
“What a day,” van Gisbergen told TNT. “These guys did an amazing job turning this car into a winner. No. 19 [Briscoe] was coming. Pretty special win. Chase was really good.”
van Gisbergen pulled ahead by nearly three seconds ahead of the final round of green flag pit stops, retaining the advantage despite Briscoe and Connor Zilisch undercutting him by one lap. But Briscoe put together a series of fast, consistent laps that gave him a chance to catch and pass SVG down the stretch.
It just wasn’t enough, as the New Zealander launched himself not only into victory lane but back on the right side of The Chase cutline. He leaves Sonoma 14th in the standings, a nice rebound from his DNF last week at the Naval Base Coronado in San Diego.
“Just frustrated with myself,” Briscoe told TNT. “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 [laps] 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 call to 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.”
Briscoe, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Zilisch, Ryan Preece, Michael McDowell and Alex Bowman rounded out the top-10 finishers. It was the first top 10 of Zilisch’s career.
Blaney went to the infield care center post race after his cool shirt malfunctioned during the race. Per the TNT telecast, he was cramping and sitting down by his car after climbing out. He was later given fluids and released from the care center.
Gibbs swept the stages for the first time in his Cup career, opting to stay out as the leaders pitted in order to collect some bonus points.
A race devoid of contact and close competition early came alive during the final stage. The caution flew on lap 61 for a spinning Josh Berry in turn 3, turned in part by contact from Austin Cindric. Noah Gragson and Bubba Wallace were also involved in the crash.
On the following restart, Denny Hamlin spun on lap 64 in front of the pack from contact from Carson Hocevar, though no one hit him and the race continued under green. That appeared to put him in jeopardy of getting eliminated by Ty Dillon again this year in the first race of the In-Season Challenge. That was until Dillon had power steering issues in the closing laps and fell behind the No. 11.
There was, however, a big upset at the top of the bracket. Tyler Reddick had a power steering issue under the first caution of the day and sat on pit road for multiple laps while his team looked under the hood. He finished 36th, four laps down, and was the only driver to not finish on the lead lap. 32nd-seeded Bowman finished in the top 10, meaning the number one seed in the tournament was knocked out in the first round for a second straight year.
Reddick’s disastrous day also cost him the point lead for the first time this year. He slipped to one point behind Hamlin with eight races remaining in the regular season.
Toyota/Save Mart 350 Results
The Cup Series now heads back to the ovals, returning to race 1.5-mile oval Chicagoland Speedway on Sunday, July 5. Race coverage will begin at 6 p.m. ET on TNT, as the track hosts NASCAR for the first time since 2019.
A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.
Note to TNT, Too many cooks spoil the broadcast. Kudos on ditching coats and ties thou. OBTW don’t invite ol 7 time back and please buy out McMurray.
I didn’t find the race enjoyable. It wasn’t TNT’s broadcast, it was SVG. He’s a master at racing on road courses and I give him his due. But I’d rather watch paint dry than watch SVG put a whuppin’ on everybody else. It just ain’t fun to watch. But that’s just me.