Toyota/Save Mart 350: Shane van Gisbergen goes back-to-back, wins at Sonoma

SONOMA, Calif. — Trackhouse Racing driver Shane van Gisbergen made NASCAR Cup Series history at Sonoma Raceway, becoming the first driver since Jeff Gordon (1998-1999) to win three consecutive road-course races from pole position.

Van Gisbergen’s victory in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 was also his second straight victory in the Cup Series after winning the Chicago Street Race last weekend. He becomes the third driver to accomplish this in 2025, as Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin won two straight races earlier in the year.

“This is amazing,” van Gisbergen said. “This is why we go racing. I had a great time. It’s awesome to have Red Bull on the car this weekend. Trackhouse Racing gave me a great Chevrolet again. What a great couple of weeks! Just to execute, make no mistakes, have great pit stops, great strategy and be able to hold them off there at the end — it’s incredible. Chase (Briscoe) was driving really well. We had a lot of fun there.”

SVG led 97 laps, finished second in Stage 1 and won Stage 2, giving him 59 total points on the day, including six playoff points. After Sonoma, van Gisbergen now sits third in the Cup Series Playoffs standings, with 17 playoff points and three wins.

“I don’t dream about that stuff.. that’s why we work hard — to repay and reward everyone that helps make this happen,” van Gisbergen added. “It was a tough start to the season, but we’re getting better and better. To win three NASCAR Cup Series races is unbelievable.”

One driver who remained toward the front for most of the race in Northern California was JGR’s Chase Briscoe, who started second and scored 44 points en route to a runner-up finish.

“I don’t know,” Briscoe said when asked what else he needed out of the car to beat SVG. “I don’t know if I really saw everything he had, truthfully. I felt like every time I would get close; he would just start driving back away. We were definitely the second-best car. I don’t really know what more I need — maybe a little bit a grip, but even if I had a little more grip, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to gain the speed that he had. But overall, great day for the Bass Pro Shops Toyota. This is by far my worst race track, so to run second to him, it definitely means a lot, so proud of the day.”

Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott had another consistent day behind the wheel of the No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet. With a third-place finish, Elliott has now finished third, fourth, fifth, eighth and second in his last five races at Sonoma.

“I was obviously pushing really hard,” Elliott said. “I just got sliding and ran out of road, but I don’t know that it would have been enough anyways, to be honest. I wasn’t near as good that run than the run before. I’m not really sure why that was, but the call by Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) was great. It was nice to be on offense and give ourselves a shot.

“I wish I could have made it happen there. I was trying, but I just couldn’t get going like we needed to there at the end. We had a really fast No. 9 NAPA Chevrolet all day. I thought we were really solid. We probably needed a little bit more to get Shane (van Gisbergen) and Chase (Briscoe).”

Results from the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway are listed below:

Ty Gibbs, RFK Racing Controversy

Some controversy occurred between Ty Gibbs and RFK Racing at Sonoma Raceway. Chris Buescher moved Gibbs in Turn 11, and later in the race, Gibbs took what some believed to be an unnecessary route into the RFK pit stall, making slight contact with a tire that an RFK crew member was holding as Brad Keselowski came into his stall.

NASCAR ultimately decided not to penalize the No. 54 team, although crew members from both teams needed to be separated after an altercation on pit road broke out after the controversial moment.

Other Race Facts

The NASCAR In-Season Challenge is down to the final four drivers. Ty Dillon (No. 32 seed) upset Alex Bowman (No. 8 seed) and will now take on John Hunter Nemechek (No. 12 seed), who defeated Erik Jones (No. 20 seed). On the other side of the bracket, Tyler Reddick (No. 23 seed) beat Ryan Preece (No. 15 seed), and will now take on Ty Gibbs (No. 6 seed), who defeated Zane Smith (No. 14 seed).

Interestingly enough, all of the drivers named Ty or Tyler have made it to the final four. Also, those same four drivers have done at least one exhibition or regular-season race with 23XI Racing in the past.

However, for Dillon, the Kaulig Racing kept his incredible “Cinderella run” in the In-Season Challenge going after moving Alex Bowman out of the way in the last turn on the final lap.

“Alex (Bowman) and I race really clean,” Dillon said. “I told him — man, if it wasn’t for the million dollars, I probably wouldn’t have done that, but I had to. It’s been an incredible run for this No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet team. We’ve worked so hard for this opportunity. I can’t thank Matt Kaulig, Chris Rice, Ty Norris and Kaulig Racing for giving me the opportunity to shine again. I’ve worked so hard to get here and I’m just grateful. All of our partners that are on board, this has just been so much fun.

“We’re going to give it all we’ve got at Dover; put pressure on the guys. I think you’ve seen through this that our team doesn’t quit. I saw the No. 48 there at the end, and I knew it was our opportunity to race hard and go get him. Just proud of this team’s effort.”

The lowest running position for Shane van Gisbergen during the Toyota/Save Mart 350 was sixth, and that happened during green flag pit stops. His average running position was 1.2 during the race, and he set 39 of the fastest laps on the track.

Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell had a very quiet day en route to a fourth-place finish. McDowell started 15th and led three laps while playing the strategy game of running as long as possible before multiple cautions came out that benefited the team. With a fourth-place result, McDowell has now finished the last five races inside the top seven at Sonoma Raceway, with his previous finishes being fourth, second, seventh and third.

“We needed a little bit more pace out of our No. 71 Gainbridge Chevrolet,” McDowell said. “We had Project Zin on the car today, which was really cool. Qualifying really hurt us. I think we had decent pace, but we weren’t fast enough to get around the good cars. We got off strategy there, and that didn’t work. Thankfully, we caught a caution and we were able to tires on our Chevrolet and fight our way back. We salvaged a top-five day, but that’s not what we need.

“We all know what we need to do, and we just weren’t quite good enough to do it today. But this is part of the process. You have good weeks and bad weeks. Last weekend (at Chicago), we had a car that could win. Today, we were a little off. We’ll keep building on it.”

The race for the final playoff spots above the cutline did not change much at all. Ryan Preece, who currently sits 3 points below the cutline, scored 25 points and finished 12th. Bubba Wallace, who is three points above the cutline, finished 26th and scored 26 points because the team scored 15 stage points, which was the second most among all drivers.

The drivers who have won the last five Cup Series races (van Gisbergen, Chase Briscoe and Chase Elliott ) all finished inside the top three in Wine Country.

This was Katherine Legge’s fourth Cup Series race, and interestingly enough, she has beaten Carson Hocevar in all four races she’s competed in.

 

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