Shane Van Gisbergen holds on late over Chase Briscoe to win the Toyota/Save Mart 350, and go back-to-back in Wine Country

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By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Eric Thompson (Shamboozled.com)

Kfost91197@gmail.com

Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews

Sonoma–There are some days when you have to earn a victory, and there are others when you just blow everyone away. But have you ever heard of a day that had both? 

In Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350, this is what Shane Van Gisbergen did as he won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway. 

While this race wasn’t nearly as dominant as his 2025 win at the track, he still led a race-high 74 laps 3 different times. Last season, he led 97 laps in this race. 

This is the first time in the four-year history of having one of the two other NASCAR National Series at the Northern California race track that there has been a weekend sweep. Van Gisbergen also won Saturday’s PitBoss/FoodMaxx 250 O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race. 

It is also the first time there has been a back-to-back winner of the race since Martin Truex Jr did so back in 2018 and 2019. All things considered, SVG is quietly rewriting the history books in Wine Country. It also moves him to a tie for fourth all-time on the track’s wins list and moves him into a tie with Ricky Rudd, Rusty Wallace, Ernie Irvan, Kyle Larson, and Kyle Busch. 

However, this race was far from a blowout as many had expected after last year’s throttling of the field. Van Gisbergen had to earn the victory over a hard-charging Chase Briscoe. 

On top of that, Van Gisbergen battled through a car that wasn’t up to his standards; he was looking for. Winning with a bad car shows how good a driver he is on road courses. 

“It was a pretty amazing day, really, to improve it as much as they did,” Van Gisbergen added. “I thought we were a lost cause. Yeah, the guys did a great job making setup changes, and as soon as the race started, I still felt average, but I saw other people had similar issues or worse.

Then that gave me confidence. Yeah, (Crew Chief) Stephen (Doran) made great calls all day. That group did an amazing job with the strategy and where I’d come out. Then even that last stop coming out in front and being able to manage my tires and manage that gap, it was really cool.”

It was also a much-needed good points day for the New Zealand driver. After wrecking in San Diego last week, this win puts him right back into the top 16 in points, which would qualify him for The Chase. 

The difference in the race was the fact that Briscoe missed the second turn going up the hill. Before this, he was reeling him in with a fishing line from Bass Pro Shops, which is a regular sponsor on the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19. 

“I could just see his car sliding around a lot, like he was sideways and countersteering, and I mean, we were all doing that to a certain extent,” Briscoe explained. “But I knew that my car wasn’t doing that near as bad, and just out of the corners I could always make better ground, I had more grip than him, and so, yeah, I knew that, like, even pass him, I didn’t think he’d be able to do anything with me, just because where I was better at, you know, it always was into one of the passing zones, so yeah, just like I said, frustrated with myself, this is gonna sting for a while.”

Even though he finished runner-up, this was his second straight finish in that spot after doing so last season. It’s pretty good considering this wasn’t a strong track for him before coming to JGR. 

“It’s definitely ironic because before coming to JGR, this was like my least favorite place to come,” Briscoe added. “I think my best finish was like 23rd here, and just never had a clue what to do to go fast, and yeah, (Crew Chief) James (Small) and the whole 19 group just did a really good job last year, kind of explained to me how to approach the racetrack. My whole approach was so wrong, and then now you know, just being able to fine-tune what we had last year has made it where we can run with those guys. So yeah, just continue to build on it and see if we can be a little bit better next year.” 

After starting on pole, no one accumulated more points than third-place finisher Ty Gibbs. He won both stages and finished third to vault to fourth in the points standings.  

Finishing in fourth and registering his fourth straight top-5 finish was Larson. As the summer continues, the No. 5 team continues to show its speed despite being on a 42-race winless drought. 

“It’s been good,” Larson said. “It’s been consistent the last five or six weeks or so. So, yeah, I’ve been happy about that. It’s been a lot of fun again with the track. So, just really proud of our team. They’ve been working hard on these gray scars, and yeah, I’d say all four of us are getting more consistent and faster, so yeah, we just got to keep up.” 

The series will be back in action next week at Chicagoland Speedway on TNT.