Shane van Gisbergen holds off Chase Briscoe, wins NASCAR Cup race at Sonoma
from Samuel Stubbs, with YardBarker.com/www.yardbarker.com
Chase Briscoe gave Shane van Gisbergen the biggest challenge any driver has given the New Zealand native on a road course in recent years, but van Gisbergen held off the Joe Gibbs Racing driver to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway.
Briscoe gained on SVG in the closing laps, but slipped just enough in turn 10 on the final lap to allow van Gisbergen to hold on. It’s the second year in a row that van Gisbergen and Briscoe finished 1-2 at Sonoma.
The victory is the eighth of van Gisbergen’s Cup Series career, his second of 2026 and his second at Sonoma. It also completes a weekend sweep for van Gisbergen, who won Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race as well.
“What a day,” van Gisbergen told TNT Sports. “These guys did an amazing job turning this car into a winner. 19 was coming. Pretty special win. Chase was really good. Couple more laps and we would’ve had a problem.”
Briscoe, polesitter and Stages 1 and 2 winner Ty Gibbs, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell rounded out the top five, with Ryan Blaney, Connor Zilisch, Ryan Preece, Michael McDowell and Alex Bowman completing the top 10.
Notable results
Other notable finishers include Carson Hocevar in 11th, Chase Elliott in 17th, Bubba Wallace in 22nd, Joey Logano in 24th and Daniel Suarez in 31st.
Denny Hamlin took over the series points lead despite a 26th-place finish after Tyler Reddick finished last (36th) with power steering issues. It’s the first time all season that a driver other than Reddick has led the standings.