NASCAR
Shane van Gisbergen Puts on Another Road Course Clinic in Sonoma
SONOMA, Calif. – If there was ever any question of Shane van Gisbergen’s road course mastery, those doubts were put to rest on Saturday. JR Motorsports’ No. 9 Chevrolet led 66 of 79 laps in the O’Reilly Series race from the pole. This is Sonoma Saturday win number two for SVG, and his sixth overall O’Reilly win. The Kiwi conquered Wine Country once again, flexing his strength on all road and street circuits.
Engine Engine Number 9 only ever gave up the lead to short-pit both stages. The Stage wins went to Anthony Alfredo and Connor Zilisch respectively. SVG’s teammate in the No. 1 had to rebound from the rear of the field twice before winning the second Stage, and soon retook second-place in the final run to the checkers. Try as hard as Zilisch could, the Cup rookie could never close in enough to pressure the New Zealand ace. Zilisch ultimately rounded out a 1-2 finish for JRM.
“Luckily enough I think I saved enough [fuel] earlier,” van Gisbergen said. “Sorry it wasn’t the most exciting, I guess boring’s good when you’re the one leading. Thank you to SuperFile and JR Motorsports and Chevy, what an amazing car to lead like that. The car was just so good the whole race and stoked to get another one for these guys.”
Behind the JRM duo at the finish were: Brent Crews, Anthony Alfredo, and Parker Retzlaff. The rest of the Sonoma top-10 were: Carson Kvapil, Corey Day, Sam Mayer, Jesse Love, and Sheldon Creed. Not listed here was points leader Justin Allgaier, who finished 26th after multiple issues.
Allgaier’s championship lead did drop slightly to 207 points now over Jesse Love, who now leads Corey Day by only six markers. At the Chase cut line, Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Taylor Gray and William Sawalich are 20 points apart. Seven races remain in the O’Reilly Series regular season until their 12-man title fight begins.
O’Reilly Series competitors will be back in action on July 4th at Chicagoland Speedway. The Magnificent Mile and a Half will hold its first race of any kind in seven years, letting freedom ring on America’s 250th birthday. The green flag will fly at 5:30 p.m. ET on The CW, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo credits to James Gilbert/Getty Images
