Sonoma Sweeper
Toyota / Save Mart 350: Shane Van Gisbergen picked up his second win of the 2026 season on Sunday afternoon at Sonoma Raceway by holding off a hard-charging Chase Briscoe. It was SVG's second straight win in Wine Country, and he picked up the weekend sweep after dominating both the Cup race and the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series race on Saturday driving for JR Motorsports. It was his 8th career win (all on road courses), and he is one win away from tying Jeff Gordon for the most road/street course wins in NASCAR history.
At first glance, this race may appear to be a snoozefest. There was only one caution for cause, and SVG led 74 of 110 laps. However, there was still a good bit of racing action. The race was largely dominated by pit strategy, with drivers and teams trying to find the optimal approach that kept them fast and put them out front. For stages one and two, it looked to be a Ty Gibbs show in the making. Gibbs was fast, won both stages, and was right there with SVG on speed. But SVG was flipping stages to set himself up better for the win, and so was Chase Briscoe. Even with that, Gibbs was able to drive up to third at the checkered flag. There was also plenty of bumping and banging throughout the field as drivers jockeyed for position and battled their cars as their tires started to fade further and further into a run. Once the green flag was waved for stage three, it looked like it was going to be an SVG battle with Zilisch or maybe even Kyle Larson. Yet, SVG started to pull away, and Zilisch started to fade as Larson just settled in to the back half of the top 5. There was even a brief second when it looked like CBell, with his broken wrist, was going to have a miracle top-2 run given his casted hand. But no dice on that front, and it looked like SVG was managing his speed to cruise to the win. But Briscoe started chipping away and getting closer to the 97 car. It was now looking like a dogfight between Briscoe and the road-course god that is Shane Van Gisbergen. But with just a few laps to go, Briscoe made a costly mistake, and SVG never slipped a tire once. Briscoe did have enough for a final lap charge, but it was not enough to get by the road course master of SVG, as SVG held him off and charged to the checkered flag to pick up the win at Sonoma Raceway in the Toyota / Save Mart 350.
Next up, NASCAR returns to Chicagoland Speedway for the first time since 2019 with on-track action Saturday and Sunday from the NASCAR O'Reilly Series and NASCAR Cup Series, as the Craftsman Truck Series enjoys another weekend off. The O'Reilly Series takes to the track on Saturday evening at 5:30 p.m. EST on The CW with the Cuervo 300. The Cup Series hits the track on Sunday evening at 6 p.m. EST on TNT with the eero 400.
Chicagoland Picks: Trucks = OFF
NOAPS = Chase Elliott
Cup = Denny Hamlin
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