Shane van Gisbergen goes back-to-back, dominates Sonoma Cup Series race

97 laps led today out of 110. The only time that Shane van Gisbergen was not leading today was when he flipped the stages. And still, he pitted early in Stage 2 and was able to drive back up to the front and beat Kyle Larson for the stage win. That is unheard of in modern-day road course racing.

SVG was compared to Michael Jordan by Chase Briscoe. He was frankly more impressive and more dominant today than he was at Mexico City or Chicago, at least in my opinion. This is a track that the entire Cup Series field knows better than he does. Drivers like Larson, Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick, and Daniel Suárez are expected to perform well.

Shane van Gisbergen beat experience at Sonoma

Despite an overwhelming advantage in experience, the field had nothing on van Gisbergen today. Not on a restart, not on a short run, not on a long run, not down pit road – nowhere. It was hard to tell if SVG was even pushing his car to the limit. Drivers were taking care of their tires more today than usual, as the rears were burning up quickly. So, who knows if the 88 was even going full speed today or not?

Today was an all-time great performance by Shane van Gisbergen. He has three wins this season. That makes him tied with Larson, Denny Hamlin, and Christopher Bell for most wins in the Cup Series this season.

This win puts SVG on another level this season. He is the winningest international driver ever in Cup Series history, and that only continues to grow. If there was one lesson we learned today, Connor Zilisch is the only driver in NASCAR capable of hanging with SVG consistently.

Watkins Glen remains in the future for Shane van Gisbergen. He might end up with enough points to make it through the Round of 16 without much of a problem. The Roval is in the Round of 12. The final race of that round. He can win that race and advance to the Round of 8. From there, who knows what happens?