Shane Van Gisbergen Resumes His NASCAR Road Course Dominance at Sonoma

Sonoma Raceway, Sonoma, CA — June 28, 2026

The NASCAR circuit moves up the California coast from San Diego to Sonoma for the second road course race in a row. The Save Mart 350 runs at Sonoma Raceway today for 218.9 miles on the 1.99-mile road course.

A total of 110 laps make up the distance, with Stages set for 25/30/55 laps. The Sonoma road course features more than 160 ft. of elevation change from its highest point (Turn 3, 174 ft.) to its lowest point (Turn 10, 14 ft.) – the largest of any track on the NASCAR circuit.

Prime Video concluded its portion of the television schedule, which now shifts to NBC, with today’s race being televised on TNT. This is the 37th Cup race to be held at Sonoma Raceway. Here is some Sonoma facts.

• AJ Allmendinger will be making his 500th Cup start at Sonoma
• Kyle Larson (2), Daniel Suarez (1) and Shane van Gisbergen (1) are the only active Sonoma winners
• Last year, Shane van Gisbergen became the first pole winner to win at Sonoma since 2004
• Kyle Larson (two) and Martin Truex Jr. (four) are the only repeat winners in the last 16 Sonoma races
• The pass for the win came in the final 10 laps in each of the last two Sonoma races
• Ford last won at Sonoma in June 2017 with Kevin Harvick, their longest drought among active tracks
• Chase Elliott finished Top 10 in the last five Sonoma races and Top 5 in the last three, both the longest active streaks

Ty Gibbs starts on the pole today, beside Carson Hocevar who is making his second front row start in a row.

Road course superstar Shane van Gisbergen (SVG) starts sixth today. Bubba Wallace qualified 26th but will move to the rear of the field after smashing the front end of his race car into a concrete barrier during qualifying yesterday.

This week’s race begins the In-Season Challenge. The bracket style competition that runs through Chicagoland, Atlanta, and North Wilkesboro before concluding at Indy.

Stage One

Ty Gibbs(54) and Carson Hocevar(77) battled for the lead at the start of the race, trading blows through several corners. Gibbs won the opening fight and moved away from the pack. Michael McDowell(71) moved up from his fourth place starting position to hound Gibbs while Hocevar faded into the pack. SVG(97) advanced to the third spot, but was well off the bumpers of the two leaders.

Just like last week at the Naval Base, tire wear will be a factor today. Whoever can manage the handle on their race car and make the right moves on pit road will be a contender at the end of the day.

SVG took over the second spot at the mid-point of the Stage. Gibbs has led every lap and looks not just fast but smooth as he navigates the 11 turns of the course.

Several drivers outside of the top ten opted to flip the Stage, pitting with three laps to go. Gibbs stayed out and maintained the lead, SVG pitted before pit road was closed.

Results of Stage One

Stage Two

SVG inherited the lead when drivers that stayed out came to pit road during the Stage ending caution. Kyle Larson(5), Chase Briscoe(19), Denny Hamlin(11), and Ryan Blaney(12)  followed the new leader.

Hamlin has made up 121 points on points leader Tyler Reddick(45) in the last five races. He may be the new points leader after today’s race as Reddick sits in the pits with a mechanical problem as the race resumes. Reddick returned to the track six laps down after his crew sorted through the problem

The top four remained the same, but William Byron(24) replaced Hamlin in fifth. SVG is not pulling away. That may be by design as he is a master at conserving tires while getting just enough out of his race car to run at the front making right turns as well as turning left.

Halfway through Stage Two Ty Gibbs was running 12th after staying out to take the 10 points for the Stage One win.

Tire wear was becoming a real issue 20 laps into the Stage. Drivers were sliding off the course and door to door contact became more frequent.

As laps wound down in the Stage SVG grew his lead to 7.5-seconds over Blaney. Connor Zilisch(88) made an appearance in the top five for the first time today running third. Briscoe and Larson remained in the lead group.

Most of the leaders opted to flip the Stage as 22 cars came to pit road early. That and the fact that the field was so strung out allowed SVG, Zilisch, Briscoe, and Blaney to flip and still gain Stage points.

Ty Gibbs inherited the lead and will go back to back sweeping the first two Stages.

Results of Stage Two

The Final Stage

SVG, Zilisch, Briscoe, and Blaney were joined by Kyle Larson at the front for the restart. The 55 laps in Stage Three will require a pit stop to finish the race.

Josh Berry(21) spun off the bumper of Noah Gragson(4) shortly after the green flag resumed racing. A panel of someone’s car landed in the middle of the pavement forcing NASCAR to display the first caution for cause on the afternoon.

On the next restart Denny Hamlin and Todd Gilliland spun sending them to the rear of the tightly bunched pack.

With 35 laps to go SVG was consistently running the fastest laps on the track. He had built a two second lead over Briscoe running in second. The fuel window was open so pit stops could occur at any time. Teams will try and manage tire wear with laps remaining to give them the biggest handling advantage.

Green flag pit stops began with 29 laps to go. Teams running at the back of the pack come in before the leaders hoping a caution will jumble the field. Zilisch and Briscoe were the first of the leader to pit on lap 83 of 110. Zilisch stalled his car trying to leave his pit stall costing valuable seconds and positions on the track. SVG pitted from the lead one lap later. Larson, Blaney, and Gibbs pitted on lap 87. This final segment of the race will be the longest they have run on a set of tires during the race.

When pit stops were complete SVG held a 1.6-second advantage over Briscoe and five seconds over Zilisch with 20 laps to go.

With 10 laps to go Briscoe had cut SVG’s advantage to less than one second. Larson ran third. Gibbs and Bell run fourth and fifth. With their 1-2 finishes in the first and second Stages they will score more points today than any of the current top three in the race.

With seven laps to go the leaders encounter lapped traffic for the first time today. Everyone plays nice and the back markers move aside so as not to become a negative factor in the outcome.

As Briscoe begins to push hard in an attempt to catch SVG, the driver of the #19 overcooks turn one and looses about a half second on the leader.

With two laps to go SVG catches Reddick, who is three laps down. Reddick does not yield, making SVG loose time. Briscoe closes and almost gets to SVG’s bumper on the final lap. However the road course king holds on for the victory giving him 8 road course wins in 16 starts tying Tony Stewart (33-starts) for second on the all time list. Jeff Gordon holds the top spot with 9 wins in 23 road course starts.

NASCAR Cup Series Points Standings

Results of the Save Mart 350 from Sonoma Raceway