Shane van Gisbergen Dominates O’Reilly Race at Sonoma

Shane van Gisbergen dominated the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Sonoma Raceway, leading all but 13 of the 79 laps to earn his sixth series victory and second win on the season.

“I think I saved enough early. Sorry it wasn’t the most exciting, I guess boring is good when you’re the one leading,” van Gisbergen said. “Thank you to Superfile and JR Motorsports for giving me an amazing car. To lead like that, we were just so good the whole race. Stoked to get another one for these guys.”

Cup series teammate Connor Zilisch finished runner up. Brent Crews finished third, and the Viking Motorsports teammates of Anthony Alfredo and Parker Retzlaff rounded out the top-5.

“I feel like our Roto-Rooters Chevrolet was fast enough to compete,” Zilisch said, “but we were just matching each other the entire run. He was probably saving fuel and managing his stuff and giving me hope, but I’ll at least believe that we had something for him.”

The Race

SVG maintained the lead from the pole at the first start. On Lap 8, a caution came out for a tire carcass from Kyle Sieg’s car. He continued to lead on the restart, and led until he pit with two laps to go. Alfredo assumed the race lead and went on to win his first career stage ahead of Crews, Taylor Gray, Retzlaff, and Corey Day.

Pit strategy allowed Harrison Burton to lead the field to the green for Stage 2, and maintained the lead for about a lap before van Gisbergen retook the lead. Burton’s luck did not last long, as he spun four laps later following contact from Sammy Smith. The caution came out Lap 30 due to fluid on the track from the third Trackhouse Racing driver, Ross Chastain’s, car. Chastain, driving for Jordan Anderson Racing, was out of the race following this.

Jesse Love battled SVG for the lead, but the Kiwi retook it. Zilisch stayed out to win Stage 2 ahead of Sammy Smith, Sheldon Creed, Crews, and Carson Kvapil.

SVG and Love battled once again during Stage 3, but SVG once again took the lead and drove off into the sunset.

Points Outlook

Justin Allgaier spun on Lap 25, but did not hit anything and was able to continue. Once again on Lap 62, Allgaier spun into the dirt. Due to these difficulties, Allgaier ended up finishing 26th. This is the second consecutive finish outside the top-25, as the driver of the No. 7 finished 32nd at Naval Base Coronado. Despite this, Allgaier maintains a 207 point lead over second place of Love with five races to go until the Chase.

Taylor Gray was set to finish top-5 and sit over 40 points above the Chase cutline. However, due to running out of fuel on the last lap, Gray sits 12th in points, a mere 20 points to the good of teammate William Sawalich. Strong days from Retzlaff, Mayer, and Crews extend their leads on 13th place Sawalich. Rajah Caruth and Ryan Sieg, despite respectable 14th and 15th place finishes, sit 26 and 46 points below the Chase cutoff line.

Results