Chase Briscoe and Shane van Gisbergen both felt it.
There they were on June 28, battling through the final laps of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. Unsurprisingly, SVG led. But Briscoe was giving NASCAR’s road king a real run for his money.
“It was odd,” Briscoe said afterward. “Not very many people have been that close to him at the end of one of these road-course races. Just frustrated with myself. I feel like I definitely had the better car. I didn’t do as good of a job as he did driving it.”
“A couple more laps, we would’ve had some problems,” van Gisbergen added.
In the end, van Gisbergen held on. His 0.357-second margin of victory was the closest of his eight career Cup Series wins.
Let’s break it down with three takeaways.
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1. Shane van Gisbergen makes good on betting odds at Sonoma
For the second straight Sunday, van Gisbergen entered as a massive favorite.
He got caught in a Stage 2 wreck last week at Naval Base Coronado, ending his day early with a 38th-place finish. But this go-around went more smoothly, with only three cautions. Two were for stage breaks.
SVG led 74 of the 110 laps.
Briscoe barreled down on him late, cutting the deficit under half a second. But with a few laps to go, Briscoe slipped in a corner, setting him back a second and allowing van Gisbergen just enough breathing room to escape with a victory.
He tied Tony Stewart for second on the all-time road-course wins list with eight. They trail only Jeff Gordon with nine.
“What a day,” van Gisbergen said. “We were really bad yesterday, and these guys did an amazing job turning this car into a winner. The 19 was coming. He was really, really good. I ran out at the end … Pretty special to make up for last week, too.”
2. Denny Hamlin overtakes Tyler Reddick in point standings
For the first time in 2026, Tyler Reddick is not the leader in the standings.
Denny Hamlin now sits one point in front of Reddick.
Hamlin remained eight points behind Reddick after the trip to Coronado. At Sonoma, Hamlin settled into 26th while Reddick fell multiple laps down due to a mechanical issue and dropped to a last-place 36th.
He did get one point back on Hamlin by laying down the fastest lap time of the afternoon.
Reddick had been in first since his Daytona 500 victory in February. He padded his résumé with four more wins by mid-April. Sunday’s finish was his worst of the season and his third of 25th or lower in the last four weeks.
Hamlin blazed to three consecutive wins before placing 14th and 26th the last two weeks on road courses.
3. NASCAR schedule returns to Chicagoland for next race
Following back-to-back roadies, NASCAR kicks off a long stretch on its bread-and-butter ovals next week. Its first stop: Chicagoland Speedway.
Chicagoland hasn’t hosted a Cup Series race since 2019. The circuit previously ran there every year from 2001 to 2019.
The eero 400 will receive the green flag at 6 p.m. on July 5. It will feature 267 laps around the 1.52-mile asphalt track and serve as the second of five events in the In-Season Challenge. The race will air on TNT.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR takeaways: SVG wins at Sonoma by his tightest margin ever
Reporting by Chris Vinel, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Chris Vinel, Daytona Beach News-Journal | USA TODAY Network
