Shane van Gisbergen Wins Sonoma After Leading 74 of 110 Laps

Q: Now one win shy of Jeff Gordon's record, can Shane van Gisbergen become NASCAR's all-time greatest road course driver?

Yes. By Cup Series road-course win count, Shane van Gisbergen is already on the doorstep of the record and has a credible case to become the standard. His Sonoma victory gave him eight Cup road-course wins, tying Tony Stewart for second all-time and leaving him one behind Jeff Gordon’s nine. What makes the push especially compelling is the rate and manner of his success: all eight of his Cup wins have come on road courses, and at Sonoma he led 74 of 110 laps despite what his team called a less-than-ideal car. Rivals continue to point to his braking precision and tire conservation as the difference, and Chase Briscoe’s remark that “you’ve got to be perfect against him” underscored how narrow the margin is when van Gisbergen is in contention. If he gets to 10, the statistical argument becomes straightforward. He would own the most Cup road-course wins outright, and he is doing it in an era with more road and street races on the schedule, giving him repeated chances to extend the mark. His weekend sweep at Sonoma also reinforced that his edge is not a one-off but a repeatable strength. The larger “greatest” debate is more nuanced than raw wins. Gordon’s record was built over a longer Cup career and in a broader all-around résumé. But if the question is specifically road-course greatness in NASCAR’s top series, van Gisbergen is one victory from tying the benchmark and well positioned to surpass it soon.

3 articles · Updated · FOX Sports · Jun 29

Trackhouse Racing's Shane van Gisbergen rebounded from last week's wreck-out to claim his second win of 2026, controlling Sonoma despite saying the No. 97 was not a dominant car.
74 of 110 laps led underscored how he won anyway: van Gisbergen leaned on braking and tire management, then held off Chase Briscoe by 0.357 seconds after Briscoe's late downshift mistake.
The victory was van Gisbergen's second straight Sonoma Cup win, his eighth career Cup victory and another road-course-only triumph; he also won Saturday's O'Reilly Series race at the track.
Denny Hamlin finished 26th after being turned but still left Sonoma as points leader, one point ahead of Tyler Reddick after Reddick's power-steering issue.
Christopher Bell, racing with a broken wrist, finished fifth and moved from 60 points above the playoff cutline to 83 as NASCAR heads next to Chicagoland Speedway for its first visit since 2019.