Van Gisbergen soars to second O'Reilly Series win at Sonoma

Shane van Gisbergen asserted his road course mastery once again with a convincing victory in Saturday’s Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250 at Sonoma Raceway.

The New Zealander crossed the finish line at the 1.99-mile, 11-turn road course 1.324s ahead of runner-up Connor Zilisch, who had to come from the rear of the field twice to achieve the second-place result.

Van Gisbergen’s victory was his second at Sonoma in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the sixth of his career, all on road or street courses.

With van Gisbergen and Zilisch running 1-2, JR Motorsports extended its streak of at least one car in the top 10 to 76 races, three behind all-time series leader RFK Racing (2008-2010).

Van Gisbergen led 66 of 79 laps, short-pitting the second stage on lap 43 to regain the top spot after the stage break. From that point to the finish, he saved fuel while maintaining the gap to Zilisch until the final lap, when Zilisch closed in as SVG was content to run behind traffic to the finish line.

“Luckily enough, I think I saved enough [fuel] early,” said van Gisbergen, after executing his signature rugby ball kick into the grandstands. “Sorry it wasn’t the most exciting — I guess boring’s good when you’re the one leading…

“What an amazing car, to lead like that. The car was so good the whole race. It’s great to get another one for these guys.”

If van Gisbergen spent most of the afternoon at the front of the field in the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, Zilisch spent the bulk of the race passing cars and working his way to the front.

He started in the rear after changing a tire that had leaked air during qualifying — an unapproved adjustment. After cracking the top 15 in the opening stage, Zilisch short-pitted the 20-lap stage on lap 17 but sped on pit road, earning a pass-through penalty that left him 33rd in the running order at the start of Stage 2.

Another march through the field brought him to second behind van Gisbergen on lap 35, and when van Gisbergen brought his car to pit road on lap 43, Zilisch had the lead in the No. 1 JR Motorsports Camaro and went on to win the stage.

After pitting, Zilisch restarted 10th and quickly dispatched the cars in front of him, passing Jesse Love for second on lap 57. But there was no catching van Gisbergen over the final 21 circuits.

“A caution or something to bunch us back up [on the final run] would have been nice,” Zilisch said. “Our Chevrolet was fast enough to compete, but we were just matching each other the entire run there, and he was probably saving fuel and managing his stuff and giving me hope.

“I’ll always believe we had something for him.”

Brent Crews finished third in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, scoring a race-high 50 points and moving back into a Chase-eligible position (11th) in the O’Reilly Series standings.

“We maximized our day with stage points and stuff like that, which was kind of the name of the game for us today, so we can race the next couple of weeks,” the 18-year-old Crews said.

“Just trying to get a little buffer in case something would happen. Overall, happy for our team. We ran well all day, got stage points and finished in the top three. Ultimately, had a good day. Not what we are striving for. Overall, our goal is to win, but we did about as good as we could do there.”

Viking Motorsports enjoyed a banner day on Saturday, with drivers Anthony Alfredo and Parker Retzlaff finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.

Carson Kvapil, Corey Day, Sam Mayer, Love and Sheldon Creed completed the top 10.

The race featured eight lead changes among six drivers and four cautions for 11 laps. The final stage ran caution-free for 30 laps.

For the second straight race, series leader Justin Allgaier struggled, but he maintained a 207-point lead over second-place Love despite finishing 26th.

The O’Reilly Series races next on July 4 at Chicagoland Speedway (5:30 p.m. ET on CW, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

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