NASCAR
Shane van Gisbergen Wins Second-Straight Xfinity Race at Sonoma
SONOMA, Calif. – The most recent Xfinity Series winner reigned supreme and remains undefeated in Sonoma. Shane van Gisbergen turned his maiden pole into another win on the California road course. The Kaulig Racing driver was not without adversity however, battling through mechanical issues. Has a new road course king been crowned in Xfinity? SVG appears to be firing on all cylinders.
From his first career pole, last week’s winner Shane van Gisbergen took Stage 1. The Kaulig Racing No. 97 won this opening stint by 13 seconds, despite tire pressure issues. SVG would restart eighth for Stage 2, and raced his way to second behind only Ty Gibbs.
Gibbs’ day went from 100 to zero really quick, with a slow pit stop setting him back for Stage 3. The No. 19 Toyota was then in the hornet’s net for a restart spin, getting taken out as an innocent bystander. In total 14 cars would be involved in this big melee.
SVG would make his pounce on a restart with 11 laps left, punting Austin Hill out of the way.
For 10 laps van Gisbergen was able to build up a large lead and cruise uncontested to a second-straight Xfinity Series win.
“First I got to thank these guys so much at Kaulig Racing,” van Gisbergen said. “Our WeatherTech Camaro got beat up again, but man what a race. Adventure up and down all day, and that last restart I just gave it all I had. Just two guys going for the same real estate come together. It was pretty awesome though. Lot of fun, I hope everyone enjoyed the show, pretty awesome back-to-back weeks for us.”
“It’s awesome and the work we did between weeks made the car better again. It was awesome racing Ty Gibbs at the start, we were really pushing each other. It’s special to win two road courses in a row. One day dream about winning on an oval.”
Behind SVG at the finish was Sheldon Creed, who passed Sam Mayer for second in the closing laps. Austin Green and Austin Hill rounded out the top-five. After seeing a replay of SVG’s winning move, Hill “pled the fifth” on his response. Justin Allgaier, Chandler Smith, John Hunter Nemechek, Cole Custer, and Parker Kligerman were the top-10.
The Xfinity Series wrapped up their Fox Sports chunk of 2024, now moving to the NBC family of networks. Sonoma also ended a 10-plus year run of Xfinity Series calling Fox home. The HyVee Perks 250 goes green from Iowa Speedway next Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. Xfinity races at Iowa were always a great show, the first in five years should be a welcome homecoming.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Meg Oliphant/Getty Images
