Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway confirmed unequivocally what everyone who follows NASCAR racing already knew—that Shane van Gisbergen is the best road/street course racer in the sport.
There was already a surfeit of evidence. From van Gisbergen’s 2023 win on the Chicago Street Course in his NASCAR debut to his wins from the pole at Chicago and Mexico City this year, his credentials entering Sunday’s race were impeccable.
SVG came to Sonoma fresh from a sweep of the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series races in Chicago. When Kyle Larson took questions from the media on Saturday, the 2024 Sonoma winner sounded as if he would be racing for second place.
“I would say the competition’s a little closer to him as we come to more normal road courses, like COTA (Circuit of the Americas) and hopefully Sonoma… In Mexico, he was super good. And then, yeah, Chicago, I think he’s just really, really, really familiar with the size of his car and what it takes to push the limits and not be over the limit.
“So, yeah, I don’t know. We’ll see. I hope that we’re much closer to him this week, but as good as he is, I expect him to be fastest in qualifying and execute in a good race again.”
That’s exactly what happened. The New Zealander won the pole and the race, leading a record 97 of 110 laps and surviving three late restarts to claim his third victory of the season.
Nothing in the race changed the perception of van Gisbergen in the NASCAR garage. Runner-up Chase Briscoe, happy with his second-place result, was ready to anoint SVG as the G.O.A.T.
“I never played basketball against Michael Jordan in his prime, but I feel like that’s probably what it was like,” Briscoe said. “That guy is unbelievable on road courses. He’s just so good. He’s really raised the bar on this entire series.”
At this point, SVG has proven his superiority on a Chicago Street Course where the Cup Series has raced three time, winning twice; on a Mexico City Grand Prix course where the Cup Series had never raced before, winning the inaugural event; and on a technical Sonoma track where NASCAR regulars have raced for years, winning in his first Cup start there.
Suffice it to say that, whenever NASCAR goes to a road course, van Gisbergen will have an enormous psychological edge over his competitors.
If the trip to wine country confirmed the superiority of the best road course racer in the NASCAR ranks, the Sonoma weekend may also have identified the second best.
The only blemish on van Gisbergen’s record in the past two weeks is a loss to Connor Zilisch in a nail-biting Xfinity Series thriller on Saturday. Zilisch drove for JR Motorsports at Sonoma, but he’s under contract to Trackhouse Racing, the same organization that fields SVG’s Cup cars.
With Daniel Suarez vacating the No. 99 Trackhouse Chevrolet at season’s end, there’s already talk that Zilisch may fill the seat.
Asked what he would say to Zilisch the next time they talk, van Gisbergen quipped, “Thank you for not being in the (Cup) race,” before turning serious about his young competitor, who turns 19 next Tuesday.
“I don’t know, I’m going to have to race him a lot in the future, right?” van Gisbergen added. “He’s a star of the sport or going to be, even more so. Racing him (Saturday), he doesn’t look like he’s 18.
“He’s placing the car in perfect spots and drives amazing, and he’s an awesome young kid. If he ends up being my teammate or not next year—I hope he does—it’ll be a lot of fun.”
Fun for SVG and Zilisch, certainly. For other race teams in the Cup garage, not so much.
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