Shane van Gisbergen will make his first Cup Series start Sunday afternoon on the 1.99-mile Sonoma Raceway road course located outside of San Francisco, one week after a dominate weekend in the streets of Chicago. Van Gisbergen has one victory at the road course, a 2024 win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. He started from the pole, led 32 laps and captured his second victory of the season.
“I’m excited to get there,” commented van Gisbergen! I “‘ve never raced that track in a Cup car, so it’s going to be interesting to see how it races and what it’s like.
“I did the Xfinity race there last year and had a great time. It will be interesting with it being my second time in the Xfinity car and trying to understand how to make that car better.
“Then in the Cup car, it’s obviously a track everyone is going to be strong at because they’ve had so many reps there it’s going to be interesting to see if we still have a speed advantage. But looking forward to running double duty again. Excited to have Quad Lock on the Xfinity car and Red Bull on the Cup car. Both cars look epic!”
Last weekend on the streets of Chicago, Van Gisbergen started from the pole and led twice for 26 of the 75 laps. He took the lead with 16 laps remaining and persevered through two full-course cautions to capture his second Cup Series victory at Chicago. Van Gisbergen scored his second victory of the season (in addition to Mexico City last month) and third career victory in 33 races.
Only Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell have more victories in 2025 than Van Gisbergen.
Last Saturday, competing in the Xfinity Series, Van Gisbergen also started from the pole position. He dominated early, leading every lap in Stage 1 before pit strategy shuffled him through the field, before climbing back to second-place. On the final restart, Van Gisbergen took the lead in Turn 1 with two laps remaining to go and he held on to win his first Xfinity series race of the 2025 season and second at Chicago.
Three Cup Series wins in 33 starts for Van Gisbergen makes him the fastest a driver has reached this milestone since Jimmie Johnson in 2002. The Kiwi is the only driver not from the United States to win at least three NASCAR Cup Series races. He is also the first driver since Kyle Busch at Indianapolis in 2016 to sweep pole and race wins in both the Xfinity and Cup races at the same track on the same weekend.
Van Gisbergen has quickly become a top NASCAR driver on a road course. He has three victories, three pole positions, four top-fives, and seven top-10s while leading 150 laps.
After last weekend’s win in Chicago, Van Gisbergen now sits fifth in the 2025 Cup Series Playoff Standings. Mexico City victory locked him into the playoffs, his first-ever appearance in NASCAR’s post-season. He also clinched a playoff spot in his full-time season in the 2024 Xfinity Series.
Van Gisbergen will pilot the No. 9 Quad Lock Chevrolet for JR Motorsports in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Sonoma. This start marks two of three Xfinity races for SVG this season – Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International on August 9 is the other.
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