Shane van Gisbergen continued his road course dominance in Sunday’s race at Sonoma Raceway, but an ill-handling car and hot pursuit from Chase Briscoe made him work for it in a race that only featured one caution for incident.
Here are four takeaways from the NASCAR Cup Series’ Toyota/Save Mart 350:
Shane van Gisbergen hangs on for Sonoma win
The New Zealander has been in a different league on road courses since he arrived on the scene at the 2023 Chicago Street Race. While he prevailed on Sunday for his eighth career road course win (in 16 starts) and second of the season, it took everything he had to hold off a hard-charging Briscoe in the closing laps.
As van Gisbergen dealt with handling issues trying to maintain the lead, Briscoe got to within striking distance before a loose moment in Turn 10 put him too far back to make one last move in a nail-biting finish at the 1.99-mile road course.