There are days when a race is a tactical masterpiece, a chess match on asphalt. Then there are days when someone shows up, takes everyone’s lunch money, and still has enough time to do a burnout with their sandwich in one hand. Sunday at Sonoma was the latter—and Shane van Gisbergen was the schoolyard bully with a Red Bull logo on his backpack.
From the moment the green flag dropped, it wasn’t a question of if SVG would win, it was whether the broadcast should even bother showing anyone else. The New Zealander led 97 of the 110 laps. The only reason he didn’t lead more was because his team voluntarily pulled the plug on Stage 1 with two laps to go—essentially handing the stage win to Ross Chastain the way one might pass the ketchup at a barbecue.
Perfect? Not exactly. But damn close.
This wasn’t just a Sunday drive, either. Van Gisbergen spent the weekend conducting a masterclass in race domination, narrowly missing a weekend sweep after coming up one spot short in the Xfinity race on Saturday. Otherwise, it was SVG all the way: poles in both series, fastest laps—and that unmistakable aura of you’re all wasting your time trying to catch me.
In Stage 1, van Gisbergen built a 5.5-second lead before ducking into the pits ahead of the competition. Ross Chastain stayed out, inherited the stage win, and Bubba Wallace—playing the long game with his Playoff calculator—grabbed third after giving SVG a love tap in the final corner. It was the closest anyone came to putting a mark on him all afternoon.
Stage 2 was more of the same. SVG at the front, Briscoe and Byron doing their best to hang on like a pair of jet skiers behind a nuclear submarine. Behind them, it was a bar brawl on wheels: dirt flying, bumpers crunching, AJ Allmendinger doing AJ Allmendinger things, and Daniel Suárez getting sent off course by his soon-to-be-former teammate Chastain in a moment rich in irony and paint-swapping.
Van Gisbergen once again played the pit strategy to perfection, ducking in just before the end of the stage. Kyle Larson tried to stay out and steal the points, but fresh tires and SVG’s complete lack of mercy put a stop to that. He took Stage 2, just to remind everyone that yes, he could win stages when he wanted to.
Then came the chaos.
Lap 62 brought the first caution for cause—Chris Buescher went full rodeo out of Turn 2, Ryan Blaney ended up beached on a hill, Wallace spun then Denny Hamlin spun himself around just for the vibes. During the ensuing pit stops, Ty Gibbs decided the best way into his pit stall was through Brad Keselowski’s, clobbering a tire in the hands of RFK crewman Telvin McClurkin. The result? A slow stop, a bit of shoving, and NASCAR officials stepping in like angry nightclub bouncers. No penalties were issued, but egos were definitely bruised.
As if that weren’t enough, Cody Ware’s rear tire soon went rogue—apparently allergic to being properly secured—and turned the track into a bowling alley with 14 laps to go.
SVG and Briscoe stayed out. Chase Elliott pitted from third and restarted 14th armed with fresh tires and a full head of steam. It was the classic late-race gamble, and for a brief moment, it looked like it might work.
But this is NASCAR. And NASCAR giveth, then takes away with a vengeance.
On the restart, chaos erupted again. Noah Gragson was spun in Turn 7, Ryan Preece turned his Mustang into a battering ram, and Larson, Josh Berry, Wallace, and Erik Jones all got caught up in the mess. Gragson’s race ended then and there, while Elliott quietly tiptoed up to 11th.
With seven laps left, they tried again. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., running 10th, was bumped by Gibbs and cannonballed into the tire barrier. He was able to continue. The tire barrier? Less so. But rather than stop the race, NASCAR let the field crawl under yellow, a move that prompted more than a few angry group texts.
The race finally went green again with four laps to go. Elliott had clawed his way to fourth. But just as he looked poised to mount a late charge, he ran wide and lost momentum. That, as they say, was that.
Van Gisbergen took the white flag with a 1.3-second cushion and cruised across the line like a man who knew the ending to the movie all along. Chase Briscoe was second. Elliott, despite everything, still took third. Michael McDowell and Christopher Bell rounded out the top five.
And in the “midfield madness” portion of the broadcast, Ty Dillon channeled his inner Cinderella and muscled past Alex Bowman for 17th in the $1 million Challenge—because apparently that was also happening.
Chase Briscoe Calls Battling SVG Like Trying to Guard Michael Jordan in His Prime
The rest of the top ten? Tyler Reddick, Gibbs, Byron, Logano, and Kyle Busch. You know, the usual suspects who all just spent the day watching SVG disappear into the horizon.
After the race, van Gisbergen was composed, humble, and about as stoked as a man from New Zealand can sound without breaking into a haka on live television.
“It was pretty tough stuff,” SVG said. “We had an amazing car. Chase Briscoe, what a great racer and gave me respect… it was pretty tense, but amazing. So stoked for Red Bull, Trackhouse, Chevy.”
Five weeks ago, this team didn’t have a win. Now he’s the No. 3 seed in the Playoffs. And the doubters? He hasn’t forgotten about them.
“We built up all year, got better and better, and now we need to keep getting better on the ovals and start proving some people wrong.”
He’s already a legend back home—81 Supercar wins, a handful of titles—but it’s what comes next that excites him.
“To come here… it’s been a dream come true,” he said. “I hope I’m here for a long time to come.”
Frankly, so does everyone else—except the rest of the field, who probably just want a weekend without Shane van Gisbergen turning the Cup Series into his personal highlight reel.
Next up? Dover. Concrete. One mile. Maybe, just maybe, someone else will get a turn.
But don’t bet your sandwich on it.
Greg was a writer for DriveTribe supporting Amazon's The Grand Tour and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, and a Masters degree in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek and a regular contributor to Forbes.
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