Shane van Gisbergen, known as “SVG” by many of the other drivers, collected his second consecutive NASCAR Cup series event win at the Toyota-Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on July 13.
The win extended his consecutive road course wins to three, with all three wins occurring by qualifying on the pole and winning the race. This achievement ties him with Jeff Gordon for scoring three consecutive road course wins, starting from the pole. He has now done this all-in-one season, while Gordon’s effort occurred between the 1998-1999 seasons. Driving for the Trackhouse Racing team, van Gisbergen collected his first career back-to-back win, as he took the pole in qualifying and dominated in Sonoma. At the previous event, Chicago Street Course, he qualified on the pole and won both the Cup Series and Xfinity Series events. In Sonoma, he led 97 of the 110 laps. The only laps he did not lead were when he made pit stops for tires and fuel and the time it took for him to retake the lead position following the pit stops.
With a trio of road course wins this year and his first NASCAR road course win in Chicago two years ago, van Gisbergen is the fastest driver to win four NASCAR Cup races in just 34 starts, since Parnelli Jones in 1969. Having been born New Zealand, he is the winningest NASCAR driver born outside the United States. His four NASCAR Cup series wins include Mexico City and Sonoma and two in Chicago.
His secret to success, he said, is his self-learned “toe-heel” braking method. His rivals know about it, but being primarily oval drivers, they so far have been unable to master it. This technique allows van Gisbergen to get into and out of the turns quicker than anyone else. It is a skill that he developed while racing in the Australian Super 8 series, where he won three championships.
His dominating performance, in the #88 Red Bull Camaro, joins him with Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell as the only drivers with three wins this season. The victory also moved van Gisbergen into third for the playoff seeding.
Chase Briscoe was second in the #19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Chase Elliott, in the #9 Camaro for Hendrick Motorsports was third, followed by Michael McDowell (#71) Chevy for Spire Motorsports and Christopher Bell (#20) Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing rounding out the top five.
