Shane Van Gisbergen Sweeps Poles Again -- This Time at Sonoma

It's becoming a recurring theme that when NASCAR heads to the road courses, Shane van Gisbergen is going to be the class of the field. On Saturday afternoon in NASCAR Cup Series qualifying van Gisbergen took the pole position for Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

Starting Lineup: NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma

Van Gisbergen scored the fourth pole position of his NASCAR Cup Series career with a blistering 74.594-second (96.040 mph) circuit around the 1.99-mile Sonoma Raceway road course. Van Gisbergen topped Chase Briscoe, the second-fastest qualifier, by a margin of 0.250 seconds.

"I'm shaking. That was pretty full-on," Van Gisbergen said after winning the pole. "I'm stoked to have RedBull on the car. Thank you to Trackhouse and Chevy, amazing car. We weren't very good in practice, but new tires fixed it. Hopefully we can be good for the race. But what a cool day."

The pole for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma marks a clean sweep for SVG in qualifying this weekend between the NASCAR Xfinity and NASCAR Cup Series events, which marks the second consecutive week he's accomplished the feat.

Now, the Trackhouse Racing driver will look to score the win in Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series race driving the No. 9 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports to give him a shot to sweep the poles and race wins in the NASCAR Cup Series in back-to-back weeks.

While Van Gisbergen wasn't super high on his race car in practice, it came to life in qualifying. Van Gisbergen talked about what he and his team need to find in the car between Saturday and Sunday's race to have him feel like they'll have the speed they need to win on Sunday.

"Just a bit more rear grip, and a good bit of balance. You know, the car has a bit of everything. Just tune it up a little bit, but we're in obviously not a bad spot to start," Van Gisbergen explained with a smile.

Last weekend, at the Chicago Street Course, Van Gisbergen became just the second driver in NASCAR history to sweep the poles and race wins in a NASCAR Cup Series/NASCAR Xfinity Series race weekend at a track, as he joined Kyle Busch, who pulled off the feat at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2016.

While it wasn't by a super close margin, Briscoe missed out on his fifth pole-winning run of the season, but he'll lineup alongside Van Gisbergen on the start for Sunday's race.

William Byron, who has seen his once comfortable regular-season point lead diminish over the last six races, will start the race from the third position, and he'll be joined in row two by Ross Chastain, the driver of the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.

AJ Allmendinger, who paced NASCAR Cup Series practice earlier in the day, clocked in fifth-fastest in Saturday's qualifying session in the No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet.

Practice Results: Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma

Ty Gibbs, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, and Christopher Bell rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma.

Katherine Legge, who dramatically made it into the field for last weekend's race at the Chicago Street Course, was unable to turn a lap in qualifying due to brake issues that cropped up on the No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet in practice. Fortunately, for Legge, the 19th-place finisher a weekend ago, there were only 37 cars on the entry list this weekend, which means she had no fear of missing the field due to the brake issues.