All four Joe Gibbs Racing teams left with something to celebrate in Sonoma

It was a good weekend at Sonoma Raceway for all drivers involved with Joe Gibbs Racing, albeit with an asterisk for the team’s star driver.

In a race predictably dominated by road course savant Shane van Gisbergen, JGR’s quartet emerged as the top drivers to challenge the Kiwi’s supremacy at Sonoma Raceway.

The success started early, with Ty Gibbs securing his first road course pole, but it was Chase Briscoe that ultimately gave the Trackhouse Racing star a true scare in the closing laps.

After methodically working his way forward through the race, Briscoe chased down a fading van Gisbergen in traffic as the laps wound down. He spent the final two laps within a second of the veteran, closing to within lunging distance heading into the track’s final hairpin.

He was as surprised as anyone to be in that position in the race’s closing moments. “It was odd,” Briscoe said afterward. “Not very many people get that close to him at the end of one of these road course races.”

Briscoe sent his No. 19 Toyota as deep as he could muster into the corner, but ultimately fell just short of van Gisbergen’s rear bumper. The Hoosier had to settle for the runner-up spot for the second straight year at Sonoma, but was much closer to truly defeating the tour’s road course master in his second attempt.

His only disappointment was his own performance behind the wheel.

“I’m just frustrated with myself,” Briscoe said. “I felt like I definitely had the better car. I didn’t do as good of a job as he did driving.

“I just made a mistake with three or four to go getting into [Turn] 1. I was having to push so hard. That was where I would make up my ground, but it was such a razor’s edge. I about crashed and gave up [about] a second and was able to run him back down at the end.

“If I don’t make that mistake, I’m probably ahead of him, I feel like, at the end. [I’m] just bummed that at the end of the day, it was my fault that we didn’t win. But it was an amazing car.”

Taking the checkered flag just a few seconds back from the lead pair was Gibbs, who had the best points haul of the group. While van Gisbergen and others came to pit road to flip the opening stage, Gibbs elected to stay out from the lead and take the 10 points for winning the stage.

He did the same in Stage 2 and followed it up with third to take home an impressive 54-point haul from his best road course performance to date. It was a near-perfect day that only stung because it could’ve ended in victory with a different strategic plan.

“Obviously we come here to win, and unfortunately we didn’t,” Gibbs said. “But we had a really fast Saia Toyota Camry. … We needed to be on a different strategy there.

“I definitely felt like we were capable, had the speed to go win. I wish we would’ve, but we’ll keep working hard and keep going.”

Kyle Larson was next up in the running order, but it was Christopher Bell that capped off the top-five in a fight through injury. Bell has been racing with a fractured left wrist since his vicious crash at Michigan International Speedway on June 9.

The Oklahoman elected to leave his car early last week in San Diego, making way for Brent Crews, but he soldiered on with a similar strategy to Gibbs in Sonoma to rise back into the top 10 in points.

Last among the group was Denny Hamlin, who ultimately didn’t have the day he wanted in Sonoma. The Virginian was showing solid pace on the challenging 1.99-mile course, but ended up going for a final stage spin off the nose of Carson Hocevar as the field stacked up going into Turn 7.

The incident doomed Hamlin’s day and relegated him to 26th at race’s end. But the disappointment came with one massive cause for optimism: the points lead. Power steering issues for championship frontrunner Tyler Reddick relegated the Daytona 500 winner to last (36th) at day’s end.

With only eight points separating the pair coming into the day, Hamlin’s small rally earned him enough points to leave Sonoma with a one-point edge in the standings.

In the end, all four drivers left with their Chase odds improved. Hamlin took a slim points lead. Gibbs overtook Larson for fourth in the standings behind him. Bell was able to sneak his way back into 10th. And while he took that position from Briscoe, the No. 19 team also made gains on the cutline while showing it has the ability to win on a road course.

Winning has been the expectation for this program through much of the 2026 season, but Sunday still provided much for Gibbs’ fans to be optimistic about as NASCAR leaves road courses behind for the year.