Shane van Gisbergen finally looked vulnerable at a road course — but he won anyway

Shane van Gisbergen finally looked human in a NASCAR Cup Series road-course race Sunday at Sonoma Raceway. 

In the closing laps as he tried to hold on and cap a dominant performance at the California road course, Chase Briscoe began filling up his rearview mirror. And unlike previous runs during the race, it wasn't a case of van Gisbergen saving tire until it was time to go. 

There was a real, legitimate battle for the victort in the final laps that van Gisbergen held on to win, even if he said he would've lost had the race distance been 111 laps instead of 110. 

Had it not been for a mistake Briscoe made going into turn 1 with four laps to go, van Gisbergen may not have walked out of Wine Country a winner.

"I felt good for a while, and then [with] ten laps to go I started feeling my tires start to slip," van Gisbergen said. "I think he made an error with four or five to go. I was, like, okay. Then the next lap I just saw the gap eating away. I start s------ myself."

Van Gisbergen also had to deal with the lapped cars of Cody Ware and Daniel Suarez, the latter of which presented van Gisbergen with a challenge as he tried to stay on the lead lap.

"The 7 came out in front of me, and he was just wobbling all over the place and dropping wheels," van Gisbergen said of Suarez. "I thought, 'Oh, he’s saving tires,' but then he kept going off. I don’t know what was happening...every time I’d see him go off, then I’d slip the next corner on his dirt. That was a pain in the a--."

Shane van Gisbergen was in unusual spot at Sonoma

With the handling on van Gisbergen's car fading and traffic playing a role, NASCAR's best-ever road course racer was suddenly in a position he's not often in on road courses: one of vulnerability.

Chief among his vulnerabilities in the closing laps was how close Briscoe was to his back bumper. Had Briscoe been able to get slightly closer to SVG on the final lap, there may have been a Tony Stewart/Denny Hamlin 2016-esque finish with Briscoe nudging van Gisbergen out of the way in the final corner. 

"I don’t think he’s that sort of driver, but if there was a lap or two more and he would have been closer, I would have been in trouble," van Gisbergen said. "Then I would have had to start defending and probably deserved to get moved.

"I’m really thankful it wasn’t one or two laps longer, but he’s a guy I have a lot of respect for, and it seems to come back the other way too. Every time I race him, he’s awesome to race against. I knew it would have been a good battle if he did get there."

The good news for the Cup Series field is that there isn't another road course race on the schedule in 2026, meaning another SVG masterclass is at least nine months away. 

Quotes provided by NASCAR Media.