Shane van Gisbergen dominates on another road course, wins at Sonoma to extend streak
The New Zealander once again showed he's in a completely different class on road and street courses than his rivals as he led 97 of 110 laps Sunday to win from pole at Sonoma Raceway. All three of his wins this year have been from pole — which tied him with Jeff Gordon for a NASCAR record of three consecutive road course victories from the top starting spot.
Gordon did it between the 1998 and 1999 seasons.
Victory number four for van Gisbergen — who stunned NASCAR in 2023 when he popped into the debut Chicago street course race from Australian V8 Supercars and won — seemed a given before teams even arrived at the picturesque course in California wine country. His rivals have lamented that 'SVG' has a unique braking technique he mastered Down Under that none of them — all oval specialists — can ever learn.
That win in Chicago two years ago led van Gisbergen to move to the United States for a career change driving stock cars for Trackhouse Racing. He and Ross Chastain have pumped energy into the team over this summer stretch with Chastain kicking it off with a Memorial Day weekend victory at the Coca-Cola 600.
Van Gisbergen is the fastest driver to win four Cup Series races since Parnelli Jones in 1969.
The Sonoma win made it four victories for Trackhouse in eight weeks. Van Gisbergen was second from pole in Saturday's Xfinity Series race.
Although he dominated again Sunday, van Gisbergen pitted from the lead with 27 laps remaining and then had to drive his way back to the front. He got it with a pass of Michael McDowell with 19 laps remaining, but two late cautions made van Gisbergen win restarts to close out the victory in his Chevrolet.
Chase Briscoe was second in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing and was followed by Chase Elliott in a Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. McDowell in a Chevy for Spire Motorsports was fourth and Christopher Bell in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing was fifth.
In-Season challenge
The mid-season tournament that pays $1 million to the winner is down to four drivers.
Alex Bowman finished 25th and eliminated Ty Dillon, who finished 26th. Tyler Reddick (11th) knocked out Ryan Preece (16th), John Hunter Nemecheck knocked out teammate Erik Jones as they finished 21st and 22nd, and Zane Smith, with a seventh-place finish, eliminated Ty Gibbs.
Bowman, at eighth, is the highest-seeded driver still in the challenge, which debuted this year.
Crew fight
NASCAR officials had to separate the crews for Brad Keselowski and Ty Gibbs when members from the two teams scrapped on pit road during the race.
Keselowski's crew confronted Gibbs' crew after Gibbs drove through their pit stall and narrowly missed hitting some of Keselowski's crew members already in place waiting for him.
The confrontation appeared to be contained to pushing and shoving and NASCAR quickly stepped between them. Both crews were given an official warning for fighting but NASCAR said Gibbs did nothing wrong.
Clean race — for awhile
It took 61 of the 110 laps for the first caution for an on-track incident — when Ryan Blaney was knocked off the course and into the dirt early in the third stage. The contact from Chris Buescher left Blaney stranded, and right before NASCAR could throw the yellow, Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin both spun.
It was technically the third caution of the race, but the first two were for natural stage breaks.
The race ended with six cautions — two in the final stretch.
Up next
The Cup Series races Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware, where Denny Hamlin won last year.
___
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Nearly every postgame question had something to do with his rookie quarterback's performance — asking how Stefanski rated it, what it meant for Sanders' future, how the quarterback slotting might be impacted … on and on. For the most part, the Browns head coach was gently complimentary, often choosing to steer many of his answers to the overall team by using phrases like 'the guys' and 'the players.' It wasn't a ham-handed attempt to keep from focusing solely on Sanders, but it wasn't exactly subtle, either. And within it, you could feel a continued effort to put the screws down on a wider quarterback conversation. 'We're really just focused on developing our players,' Stefanski said at one point, when asked specifically about a potential impact to the quarterback depth chart. 'We're in evaluation mode. I'm pleased with where the guys are, but I'm not diving into the quarterback competition.' The one thing Stefanski did allow? Sanders' preseason opportunity is going to extend to next week's game against the Philadelphia Eagles. 'He'll get a ton of reps next week as well,' Stefanski said. 'That's all a part of our development of our young players.' For Sanders' part, he remained diplomatic and focused inward — which has been his base line attitude from the moment Cleveland's training camp began. 'I just think about when I get out there just doing what I gotta do,' Sanders said. 'Everything else is out of my hands, so why worry about it? I just don't think that deep into everything because it's something that you're not able to control. So why put energy into something you can't control? The most you could do is whenever you get your opportunity and your number is called, is perform and at least do the bare minimum and win the game. That's what I feel like we did today and there's definitely things that I could grow off of.' At the very least, it's an approach based in reality. Two months ago, when the Browns were heading into their full squad minicamp, it was clear Sanders was only going to be able to control the opportunities the Cleveland staff offered to him. And at the time, it didn't sound like there would be a landslide of chances to make a difference. There was a strong insinuation that he should be viewed as nothing more than fourth-string quarterback who had a short list of things that needed to focus on. He needed to learn Stefanski's scheme and take advantage of whatever reps were provided — even if they were few and far between. He had to master NFL terminology and play-calling verbiage and treat it like a first language. And above all, if the time came and he was given opportunities in preseason games, he had to make the very most out of every single snap. On Friday night, he did that. And come Saturday morning, the quarterback conversation in Cleveland will have just gotten started.
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'You ask God for something. It's there,' he said. 'And you're going to complain about it? So, it's two ways you can look at it. You can look at it and be thankful and take full advantage of the opportunity. Or you can look at it like 'Dang. This is what I've been asking for, but I'm not prepared.' I've been able to sleep at night, knowing I was going to be playing. And then I just prepared as normal. Then that switch kicked in. When you're out there on the field, it feels different. Ball's ball. Ball has never been a problem for me.' Shedeur Sanders debut winners, losers: How Browns QB's performance impacts team Sanders may have just played himself into a serious contender for the Browns' starting job. After all, Browns coach Kevin Stefanski has maintained that it's an 'open' competition. And if that's the case, Sanders, who played 45 snaps on nine series (excluding a kneel-down at the end of the first half), has at least earned the chance to get reps with the 1's and 2's. Stefanski evaded that question when I asked during his postgame news conference and also wouldn't touch the topic of the competition. The rookie wouldn't light a match, either. Sanders: 'I just think about when I got out there, doing what I've got to do. Everything else is not in my hand, so why worry about it? I just don't think that deep into everything because it's nothing you're going to be able to control. Why put energy into something that you can't control? The most you can do is hey, man, if you get your opportunity and your number's called, perform it. At least to the bare minimum to win the game.' There's fresh videotape out there now, however, showing Sanders making splash plays like he did at Colorado and demonstrating keen instincts during his big audition. It's a starting point. Never mind that the Browns didn't play starters and Carolina played first-teamers for only a couple series. As LeBron James so eloquently put it in a post on X, Sanders' performance shouldn't be discounted because he didn't play with or much against starters. Ah, social media. Sanders was such a trending topic on Friday night, just as he was during the NFL draft. His famous father, aka Coach Prime, didn't hesitate to put out a post amid the buzz. 'What now?' Deion asked on X. Stefanski and his staff – including Bill Musgrave, the Browns quarterbacks coach who was a teammate of Deion's on the San Francisco 49ers squad that won Super Bowl 29 – can assess so many layers of Sanders' performance. If you wanted to script a test to cover all of the bases, the Browns couldn't have done much better than compiling the 'situational football' scenarios from Friday night. Sanders operated in a nine-play drive and a two-play drive. On another possession, he faced back-to-back third-and-long plays, converting the first one after he rolled out and bolted from the pocket for a 9-yard run. Another time he powered under the pile to convert a quarterback sneak. Both of his TD passes came while positioned in the red zone. Another series had him backed up deep in his own end, then throwing from the end zone. At the end of the half, a hurry-up drill. Said Stefanski: 'The situations were invaluable for Shedeur, for all of our offense.' Then there's this other situation, reflecting uncharted territory for Sanders. Someone asked about his patience, given the scant opportunities while buried on the depth chart. 'It's different things and different life lessons you've got to go through,' he said. 'And I haven't gone through this situation that I'm in, ever. So, it's really just a test from God. I was just thankful that I was able to see the light of day and get out there and play.' Still, it's so striking that he produced so much from so few practice reps. 'I'm comfortable with being uncomfortable,' he declared. 'That's what it is. I've got pockets of finding my rhythm. I've got to get into that quicker, regardless of anything. But overall, I felt like me out there. 'I couldn't do it without the time, I couldn't do it without the play-calling,' he added. 'So, I'm just thankful to have the joy of just being on the field overall. And carrying the responsibility to do the right thing. So, that's two badges under my belt already.' And with that, Sanders re-wrote the narrative. 'My vow is to definitely make change,' he said. 'And change was made.' Which adds some major intrigue to the Browns' quarterback situation. Contact Jarrett Bell at jbell@ or follow on social media: On X: @JarrettBell; On Bluesky: This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Could Shedeur Sanders performance shake up Browns QB depth chart?
