NASCAR Toyota/Save Mart 350 takeaways: Shane van Gisbergen fends off Chase Briscoe for Sonoma win

Van Gisbergen still led 74 of the 110 laps and continues to stand out among the sport's greats on road courses. He is now tied with Tony Stewart for the second-most road course wins (eight), only trailing Jeff Gordon (nine) for the most in series history. His 16 starts are also the fewest to eight career road course victories, well ahead of Gordon's 23 and Stewart's 33.

After a disappointing weekend at Naval Base Coronado, van Gisbergen rebounded with a vengeance, jumping three spots to 14th in the standings (+36) over Erik Jones. Now it's all about continuing to improve on the ovals and locking up a "Chase" berth.

Denny Hamlin overtakes Tyler Reddick for points lead

Since the drop of the green flag at Daytona, Reddick has held the points lead this season. That all changed on Sunday when power-steering issues produced a last-place finish in 36th, opening the door for Hamlin to take a one-point lead with eight regular-season races remaining.

It was not a cakewalk for Hamlin, though, who was spun by Carson Hocevar in Turn 7 with 47 laps to go and finished 26th.

While it was a missed opportunity for Hamlin to build a bigger points lead, he was among the top 10 for the majority of the race until the spin. With road courses out of the way the remainder of the season, Hamlin is positioned well to make a run at the regular-season title.

Christopher Bell goes the distance with fractured wrist

Although Bell ran all 400 miles at Pocono in the first race since he fractured his left wrist at Michigan, many wondered if he would run all 110 laps at Sonoma after swapping out with O'Reilly Auto Parts Series driver Brent Crews during the first caution at San Diego.

Even with some hiccups on pit road, Bell recovered for a fifth-place finish, gaining two spots in the standings to 10th and getting his season back on track after a rough couple of weeks.

In-Season Challenge begins with a pair of upsets

The second installment of the head-to-head, bracket-style competition for $1M featured two key upsets on Sunday as No. 32 seed Alex Bowman (10th) eliminated Reddick (36th) and No. 25 seed Todd Gilliland (29th) got the best of No. 8 seed Daniel Suarez (31st).

While many of the favorites advanced as expected, the first of five races in the challenge still featured a few surprises out in the desert when the dust settled.