| MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom |
| The road course ringer, Shane van Gisbergen, conquered the California circuit for the second-straight season – driving his No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet to the checkered flag in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. The victory, Chevrolet’s sixth of the season and 16th all-time in NASCAR’s premier series at Sonoma, brings the New Zealand native to eight career road course wins in the division – a feat that ties Tony Stewart for second on the all-time road course wins list. The checkered flag for the final road course race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season saw the Bowtie brigade earn half of the top-10 finishing positions. The hometown hero, Kyle Larson, concluded the California swing with a fourth-place result – extending the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team’s top-five streak to four-straight. Competing in his rookie campaign, Trackhouse Racing’s Connor Zilisch collected a strong seventh-place result to earn his career-best finish in NASCAR’s top division. Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell came home ninth, with Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman rounding out the top-10. RACE RECAP: Stage One: A strong Saturday in Sonoma for the Bowtie brigade saw six Team Chevy drivers earn a top-10 starting position for the series final road course race of the season. With his road course prowess on display early, Michael McDowell drove his Chevrolet from fourth to second on the opening lap of Stage One – keeping the polesitter, Ty Gibbs, within striking distance under an 1.5-second margin throughout the first green flag run. But to no surprise, the halfway mark of Stage One saw the track’s defending winner, Shane van Gisbergen, climb into the runner-up position and quickly go to work to track down the leader. Sitting at an one-second margin when he took over the position, the New Zealand native made a progressive gain towards the top position early in the second-half of Stage One – ultimately reaching the bumper of Gibbs as they crossed the line to mark five laps to go in the stage. With the call to flip the stage by crew chief Stephen Doran, the No. 97 Chevrolet dove to pit road as he was completing Lap 22 for four tires and fuel – cycling back up into the seventh position to take the first green-white checkered flag of the race. Stage Two: Early pit strategy put Van Gisbergen and the hometown hero, Kyle Larson, on the front row to lead the field to the green flag for Stage Two. It took just two corners around the circuit for Van Gisbergen to clear his Team Chevy teammate for the top position, going on to lead the opening lap of the stage and his first laps of the race. While Larson was able to keep Van Gisbergen within reach early in the run, a challenge for position by Chase Briscoe in third enabled the Trackhouse Racing driver to quickly build his lead to a 3.2-second cushion as the field approached the halfway mark of the stage. Continuing to set an impressive pace, Van Gisbergen went on to build a double-digit lead en route to a similar pit strategy from the opening stage. Making the turn into pit road just before two laps to go in the stage, the No. 97 team made their second four tire and fuel stop before rejoining the field to collect back-to-back seventh-place stage points. With a points-earning agenda from atop the No. 16 Kaulig Racing pit box, it was AJ Allmendinger that led Team Chevy to the second green-white checkered flag from the third position. Final Stage: The final stage saw yesterday’s one-two finishers, Van Gisbergen and Zilisch, takeover the front row to lead the field to the green flag. In similar fashion, a masterful restart saw the New Zealander inherit the lead once again to start the final run of the race. While Van Gisbergen started to set sail, his rookie teammate quickly engaged in a tight battle for the second position with Briscoe. Sitting comfortable in the top position, Van Gisbergen was clicking off laps nearly two-tenths faster than the field as they approached a 10-lap window for the potential of a green flag pit cycle. Despite setting a strong pace, the driver reported that he was struggling with the handling in both the front and rears of his No. 97 Chevrolet. With 28 laps to go, Van Gisbergen was among the leaders that made the trip to pit road for what could be the last stop of the race. With four tires, fuel and a round of adjustments, Van Gisbergen re-entered the 1.99-mile circuit just outside of the top-10, but ultimately cycled back up into the lead just six laps later. Going green to the checkered flag, Van Gisbergen continued to hold off a hard-charging Briscoe to complete the Sonoma weekend sweep. |
| Team Chevy Unofficial Top-10 ResultsPos. Driver 1st – Shane van Gisbergen4th – Kyle Larson7th – Connor Zilisch9th – Michael McDowell10th – Alex Bowman  Chevrolet’s season statistics with 18 NASCAR Cup Series races complete:Wins: 6Poles: 4Top-Fives: 34Top 10s: 66Stage Wins: 13 |
| The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Chicagoland Speedway with the eero 400 on Sunday, July 5, at 6 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on TNT Sports, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. |
| Van Gisbergen Drives Chevrolet to Weekend Sweep at Sonoma Raceway |
| MEDIA RESOURCES: Photo Gallery | Race AdvancesChevrolet Newsroom |
| The road course ringer, Shane van Gisbergen, conquered the California circuit for the second-straight season – driving his No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet to the checkered flag in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. The victory, Chevrolet’s sixth of the season and 16th all-time in NASCAR’s premier series at Sonoma, brings the New Zealand native to eight career road course wins in the division – a feat that ties Tony Stewart for second on the all-time road course wins list. The checkered flag for the final road course race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season saw the Bowtie brigade earn half of the top-10 finishing positions. The hometown hero, Kyle Larson, concluded the California swing with a fourth-place result – extending the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet team’s top-five streak to four-straight. Competing in his rookie campaign, Trackhouse Racing’s Connor Zilisch collected a strong seventh-place result to earn his career-best finish in NASCAR’s top division. Spire Motorsports’ Michael McDowell came home ninth, with Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman rounding out the top-10. RACE RECAP: Stage One: A strong Saturday in Sonoma for the Bowtie brigade saw six Team Chevy drivers earn a top-10 starting position for the series final road course race of the season. With his road course prowess on display early, Michael McDowell drove his Chevrolet from fourth to second on the opening lap of Stage One – keeping the polesitter, Ty Gibbs, within striking distance under an 1.5-second margin throughout the first green flag run. But to no surprise, the halfway mark of Stage One saw the track’s defending winner, Shane van Gisbergen, climb into the runner-up position and quickly go to work to track down the leader. Sitting at an one-second margin when he took over the position, the New Zealand native made a progressive gain towards the top position early in the second-half of Stage One – ultimately reaching the bumper of Gibbs as they crossed the line to mark five laps to go in the stage. With the call to flip the stage by crew chief Stephen Doran, the No. 97 Chevrolet dove to pit road as he was completing Lap 22 for four tires and fuel – cycling back up into the seventh position to take the first green-white checkered flag of the race. Stage Two: Early pit strategy put Van Gisbergen and the hometown hero, Kyle Larson, on the front row to lead the field to the green flag for Stage Two. It took just two corners around the circuit for Van Gisbergen to clear his Team Chevy teammate for the top position, going on to lead the opening lap of the stage and his first laps of the race. While Larson was able to keep Van Gisbergen within reach early in the run, a challenge for position by Chase Briscoe in third enabled the Trackhouse Racing driver to quickly build his lead to a 3.2-second cushion as the field approached the halfway mark of the stage. Continuing to set an impressive pace, Van Gisbergen went on to build a double-digit lead en route to a similar pit strategy from the opening stage. Making the turn into pit road just before two laps to go in the stage, the No. 97 team made their second four tire and fuel stop before rejoining the field to collect back-to-back seventh-place stage points. With a points-earning agenda from atop the No. 16 Kaulig Racing pit box, it was AJ Allmendinger that led Team Chevy to the second green-white checkered flag from the third position. Final Stage: The final stage saw yesterday’s one-two finishers, Van Gisbergen and Zilisch, takeover the front row to lead the field to the green flag. In similar fashion, a masterful restart saw the New Zealander inherit the lead once again to start the final run of the race. While Van Gisbergen started to set sail, his rookie teammate quickly engaged in a tight battle for the second position with Briscoe. Sitting comfortable in the top position, Van Gisbergen was clicking off laps nearly two-tenths faster than the field as they approached a 10-lap window for the potential of a green flag pit cycle. Despite setting a strong pace, the driver reported that he was struggling with the handling in both the front and rears of his No. 97 Chevrolet. With 28 laps to go, Van Gisbergen was among the leaders that made the trip to pit road for what could be the last stop of the race. With four tires, fuel and a round of adjustments, Van Gisbergen re-entered the 1.99-mile circuit just outside of the top-10, but ultimately cycled back up into the lead just six laps later. Going green to the checkered flag, Van Gisbergen continued to hold off a hard-charging Briscoe to complete the Sonoma weekend sweep. |
| Team Chevy Unofficial Top-10 ResultsPos. Driver 1st – Shane van Gisbergen4th – Kyle Larson7th – Connor Zilisch9th – Michael McDowell10th – Alex Bowman Chevrolet’s season statistics with 18 NASCAR Cup Series races complete:Wins: 6Poles: 4Top-Fives: 34Top 10s: 66Stage Wins: 13 |
| The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season continues at Chicagoland Speedway with the eero 400 on Sunday, July 5, at 6 p.m. ET. Live coverage can be found on TNT Sports, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. |
| Post-Race Driver Quotes: Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing ChevroletFinished: 27th“We have a lot of work to do coming out of Sonoma Raceway. The entire No. 3 Bass Pro Shops/Winchester Supreme Long Range Chevrolet team gave it their all today, but after we lost track position due to a speeding penalty early in the race, we just couldn’t get ahead. The team was making the needed adjustments, and it was coming in towards the end of the race, especially through Turn 10, but we’d just lost too much ground. We’re going to go back to Welcome, North Carolina and reset for next weekend.” Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 4thHow physically demanding was this race at Sonoma Raceway today? “Yeah, it was just a lot of green flag runs. It was hot, but it was a lot of fun. It was fun to get long runs like that where you have to manage your equipment. I thought we had a really good No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet. I felt like I learned the kind of sequence that it took to be a little bit better on the long run. I thought our pit strategy there was going to pay off, but those two guys up in front of us (Shane van Gisbergen and Chase Briscoe) and Ty Gibbs were just better than me on the long run. We’ll take another top-five finish. It’s been a good stretch for this team.” AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing ChevroletFinished: 16th“On the road courses this season, it seems like no matter what I do, I can’t make the tires last and it hits that cliff. Once it hits that cliff, I think we fall harder than most. The first run, it went away really bad. I thought we generally made our No. 16 EchoPark Automotive Chevrolet better as the race went on, but that same issue was always there. It’s like I was always trying to manage tires early in the run and not use them up too much, just knowing that cliff was going to hit. I thought we got everything out of it that we could. Trent (Owens, crew chief) did a good job of keeping me out for stage points. We wanted to try to get points both stages. I thought he made a good call there to get points in the second stage because, honestly, even how the race played out, I don’t think we were better than a top-15 anyways, so we came home with a 16th-place finish and eight extra points.” Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing ChevroletFinished: 34th “Unfortunate finish for our zone x am pm Chevrolet team. We played a fuel strategy that had us saving with 40 laps to go, so just managed what we could without losing a ton of time to the fresher tires before pitting with eight laps to go. After qualifying 12th, I felt like our car had top-15, top-20 speed. The balance definitely got better as the race went on, but I had trouble keeping the rears on it. I would four wheel slide and lose the front and rear under braking. We had speed though which is a testament to everyone who works at RCR and ECR. Shame the finish doesn’t show it, but we’ll keep building and learning together.” Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports ChevroletFinished: 9th “We just didn’t quite have the speed that we needed in our No. 71 Delaware Life Chevrolet, especially on the long runs. We fired off pretty well, but then around 15 laps into the run, I would start losing the rears pretty quickly and fading back. We did a decent job maximizing our points with getting points in that first stage, but we just didn’t quite have enough today to really challenge for the win. It’s disappointing, but we’ll take a top-10 finish for two-straight weeks. It’s not the points we needed, but overall, we executed a good day.” Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 7th“I felt like I could have been a little better there on that last run. We just got really loose. We’ll have to look at it and see, but it was a good day for this No. 88 WeatherTech Chevrolet team. At the end, we just needed more rear grip. Overall, our Chevy was good all day, but with that last set of tires, we struggled. It felt good to have a clean run. We needed a day like this to go into next week with something to build on.” Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing ChevroletFinished: 1stI listened to you this whole race. You actually weren’t that happy and pleased with the car. I would hate to see if your car wasn’t running well. What was it about today? How were you able to just get the job done?“I think my No. 97 Red Bull Chevrolet team just did an excellent job making it drivable. Yesterday, I wasn’t very good at all. There were still better cars than us, but Stephen (Doran, crew chief) and the guys called a great strategy and we had awesome pit stops all day. To get Red Bull in victory lane again, I’m stoked. I am also stoked it wasn’t two laps longer, it would have been interesting with Chase (Briscoe) there.” |