Shane Van Gisbergen – Team Chevy Photo
The road course ringer, Shane van Gisbergen, conquered the California
circuit for the second-straight season – driving his No. 97 Trackhouse
Racing Chevrolet to the checkered flag in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at
Sonoma Raceway. The victory, Chevrolet’s sixth of the season and 16th
all-time in NASCAR’s premier series at Sonoma, brings the New Zealand
native to eight career road course wins in the division – a feat that
ties Tony Stewart for second on the all-time road course wins list.
The checkered flag for the final road course race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup
Series season saw the Bowtie brigade earn half of the top-10 finishing
positions. The hometown hero, Kyle Larson, concluded the California
swing with a fourth-place result – extending the No. 5 Hendrick
Motorsports Chevrolet team’s top-five streak to four-straight.
Competing in his rookie campaign, Trackhouse Racing’s Connor Zilisch
collected a strong seventh-place result to earn his career-best finish
in NASCAR’s top division. Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell came
home ninth, with Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman rounding out the
top-10.
Stage One:
A strong Saturday in Sonoma for the Bowtie brigade saw six Team Chevy
drivers earn a top-10 starting position for the series final road course
race of the season. With his road course prowess on display early,
Michael McDowell drove his Chevrolet from fourth to second on the
opening lap of Stage One – keeping the polesitter, Ty Gibbs, within
striking distance under an 1.5-second margin throughout the first green
flag run. But to no surprise, the halfway mark of Stage One saw the
track’s defending winner, Shane van Gisbergen, climb into the
runner-up position and quickly go to work to track down the leader.
Sitting at a one-second margin when he took over the position, the New
Zealand native made a progressive gain towards the top position early in
the second-half of Stage One – ultimately reaching the bumper of Gibbs
as they crossed the line to mark five laps to go in the stage. With the
call to flip the stage by crew chief Stephen Doran, the No. 97 Chevrolet
dove to pit road as he was completing Lap 22 for four tires and fuel –
cycling back up into the seventh position to take the first green-white
checkered flag of the race.
Stage Two:
Early pit strategy put Van Gisbergen and the hometown hero, Kyle Larson,
on the front row to lead the field to the green flag for Stage Two. It
took just two corners around the circuit for Van Gisbergen to clear his
Team Chevy teammate for the top position, going on to lead the opening
lap of the stage and his first laps of the race. While Larson was able
to keep Van Gisbergen within reach early in the run, a challenge for
position by Chase Briscoe in third enabled the Trackhouse Racing driver
to quickly build his lead to a 3.2-second cushion as the field
approached the halfway mark of the stage. Continuing to set an
impressive pace, Van Gisbergen went on to build a double-digit lead en
route to a similar pit strategy from the opening stage. Making the turn
into pit road just before two laps to go in the stage, the No. 97 team
made their second four tire and fuel stop before rejoining the field to
collect back-to-back seventh-place stage points. With a points-earning
agenda from atop the No. 16 Kaulig Racing pit box, it was AJ
Allmendinger that led Team Chevy to the second green-white checkered
flag from the third position.
Final Stage:
The final stage saw yesterday’s one-two finishers, Van Gisbergen and
Zilisch, takeover the front row to lead the field to the green flag. In
similar fashion, a masterful restart saw the New Zealander inherit the
lead once again to start the final run of the race. While Van Gisbergen
started to set sail, his rookie teammate quickly engaged in a tight
battle for the second position with Briscoe. Sitting comfortable in the
top position, Van Gisbergen was clicking off laps nearly two-tenths
faster than the field as they approached a 10-lap window for the
potential of a green flag pit cycle. Despite setting a strong pace, the
driver reported that he was struggling with the handling in both the
front and rears of his No. 97 Chevrolet. With 28 laps to go, Van
Gisbergen was among the leaders that made the trip to pit road for what
could be the last stop of the race. With four tires, fuel and a round of
adjustments, Van Gisbergen re-entered the 1.99-mile circuit just outside
of the top-10, but ultimately cycled back up into the lead just six laps
later. Going green to the checkered flag, Van Gisbergen continued to
hold off a hard-charging Briscoe to complete the Sonoma weekend sweep.
Post-Race Driver Quotes:
Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 27th
“Yeah, we have a lot of work to do coming out of Sonoma Raceway. The entire
No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Supreme Long Range Chevrolet team gave
it their all today, but after we lost track position due to a speeding
penalty early in the race, we just couldn’t get ahead. The team was
making the needed adjustments, and it was coming in towards the end of
the race, especially through Turn 10, but we’d just lost too much
ground. We’re going to go back to Welcome, North Carolina and reset
for next weekend.”
Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 4th
How physically demanding was this race at Sonoma Raceway today?
“Yeah, it was just a lot of green flag runs. It was hot, but it was a
lot of fun. It was fun to get long runs like that where you have to
manage your equipment. I thought we had a really good No. 5
HendrickCars.com Chevrolet. I felt like I learned the kind of sequence
that it took to be a little bit better on the long run. I thought our
pit strategy there was going to pay off, but those two guys up in front
of us (Shane van Gisbergen and Chase Briscoe) and Ty Gibbs were just
better than me on the long run. We’ll take another top-five finish.
It’s been a good stretch for this team.”
AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 16th
“Yeah, on the road courses this season, it seems like no matter what I do, I
can’t make the tires last and it hits that cliff. Once it hits that
cliff, I think we fall harder than most. The first run, it went away
really bad. I thought we generally made our No. 16 EchoPark Automotive
Chevrolet better as the race went on, but that same issue was always
there. It’s like I was always trying to manage tires early in the run
and not use them up too much, just knowing that cliff was going to hit.
I thought we got everything out of it that we could. Trent (Owens, crew
chief) did a good job of keeping me out for stage points. We wanted to
try to get points both stages. I thought he made a good call there to
get points in the second stage because, honestly, even how the race
played out, I don’t think we were better than a top-15 anyways, so we
came home with a 16th-place finish and eight extra points.”
Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 34th
“Unfortunate finish for our zone x am pm Chevrolet team. We played a
fuel strategy that had us saving with 40 laps to go, so just managed
what we could without losing a ton of time to the fresher tires before
pitting with eight laps to go. After qualifying 12th, I felt like our
car had top-15, top-20 speed. The balance definitely got better as the
race went on, but I had trouble keeping the rears on it. I would four
wheel slide and lose the front and rear under braking. We had speed
though which is a testament to everyone who works at RCR and ECR. Shame
the finish doesn’t show it, but we’ll keep building and learning
together.”
Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
Finished: 9th
“We just didn’t quite have the speed that we needed in our No. 71
Delaware Life Chevrolet, especially on the long runs. We fired off
pretty well, but then around 15 laps into the run, I would start losing
the rears pretty quickly and fading back. We did a decent job maximizing
our points with getting points in that first stage, but we just didn’t
quite have enough today to really challenge for the win. It’s
disappointing, but we’ll take a top-10 finish for two-straight weeks.
It’s not the points we needed, but overall, we executed a good day.”
Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 7th
“I felt like I could have been a little better there on that last run.
We just got really loose. We’ll have to look at it and see, but it was
a good day for this No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet team. At the end, we
just needed more rear grip. Overall, our Chevy was good all day, but
with that last set of tires, we struggled. It felt good to have a clean
run. We needed a day like this to go into next week with something to
build on.”
Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
Finished: 1st
I listened to you this whole race. You actually weren’t that happy and
pleased with the car. I would hate to see if your car wasn’t running
well. What was it about today? How were you able to just get the job
done?
“I think my No. 97 Red Bull Chevrolet team just did an excellent job
making it drivable. Yesterday, I wasn’t very good at all. There were
still better cars than us, but Stephen (Doran, crew chief) and the guys
called a great strategy and we had awesome pit stops all day. To get Red
Bull in victory lane again, I’m stoked. I am also stoked it wasn’t two
laps longer, it would have been interesting with Chase (Briscoe)
there.”
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