Hard Racing & Heated Moments in Sonoma | 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Extended Highlights

Front row, Shane Van Gisbergen, Chase Risco. Gorgeous day here in Northern California. Green flag is out at Sonoma. Reaction on the breaking goal of Turn 2. Watching the cars now through Turns 3 and 3A up over the hill. Right in front, Shane Van Gisbergen with a 1.3 second lead over William Byron. That SVG was a little concerned about his car in practice. It wasn't the early part of the run that we're in right now. It was the later part of the run in losing rear grip. He did mention a moment ago confidence in the rear right now, but he's kind of managing it a little bit better. But, Junior, it's crazy to me that SVG could be looking possibly at his third win of the season if he can pull it off here in Sonoma today. That re-seed currently in the Cup Series playoffs coming up later this year, and they didn't have a win five weeks ago. So that begs the question, Junior. Is it fair with the current system and the way it is at NASCAR for a driver 27th in points to possibly be the number three seed as what Shane Van Gisbergen would be as of now? Meanwhile, Bell from 10th to 6th early in the race. Allen? And they're liking their road course package this year. Of course, they won at Kota, finished second in Mexico City. Not a great race last week in Chicago, but Adam Stevens was one of many crew chiefs, Christopher Bell's crew chief, who told me how surprised they were with what they planned on coming here with. They show up yesterday in practice, and the track was far more looser and far slower than they had anticipated. So that's what they were working on throughout the night. Both Bell and all his JGR teammates, like Chase Griscoe there of the ninth team. Everyone taken a bit by surprise by how much this track had changed over one year. Yeah, Stevie. We've seen Chase Elliott crack the top ten after qualifying 13th. Not surprising to his crew chief, Alex Zin. He said with the lack of grip and amount of fall off for this time. The 88 of SBG down the S's right here. He will have to decide. And then if he stays out, I think the 24 is committed. He's so far back. Let's see what the 88 does this time. Left turn. As we watch 88 get behind him, the 24. That's the next story. 24.19. Will they follow the 88 on pit road? 88 is Shane Van Gisbergen. Started on the pole strong to begin this race, and here he is making his stop under green. Two to go on the stage, Marty. Yeah, Adam. You know, it's funny. I've talked to Steven Dorn about this. Last week, he said in Chicago, if we were in a position to get a playoff point, we wanted it. He told me today, this week here at Sonoma, we cannot give up the track position. It's not worth the playoff point. SBG, just like everybody else, no rear grip in the car. So four fresh Goodyear tires before the end of stage one. Seeing our pylon. Be ready. Pylon and his pit stop, you saw that. Briscoe did as well. There you see those two on pit road. Trying to get to the end. SBG exits pit road. Up the hill, here's the one of Chastain, who's the leader of the race. Think about that, the 88 pitted, and he's going to rejoin in second. Chastain is on pace to do that. Another car worth talking about, though. He's 21 seconds back. Look at the pylon. Third place, Bubba Wallace. We keep talking about the playoff situation. Bubba Wallace qualified poorly. This is finding a win inside this race here today. If he can hold on the last little bit, this is going to be a big thing. As you see, the one wins the stage. Maybe a little bit about the 19. As the 19 is trying to get left, to be able to set up the turn into four. Just got to put Blaney a little bit off track. Gathered it in, though. Usually you see those cars spin out. Got a lot of contact down there in turn one and ten. A live shot. Bouncing off each other's bumpers. There you see Blaney getting squeezed. Appreciate that. I would say the temperature has changed inside the 12 since we went green, right? Plenty of motivation there. Vibrant hanging with SDP. And, man, Allmendinger was top five after they had the early slide. He's off track. And it's out of turn two. Allen, what you got on the 12? Well, Ryan Blaney has recovered nicely since getting tagged on that restart. But he has not forgotten what happened. He had a message for Chase Briscoe over his team radio. Listen. Trying to handle those emotions. Ryan Blaney only two spots now behind Chase Briscoe. Briscoe shouldn't be losing too much. Ryan Blaney right there. Think of the emotion for the 99, right? He's won here before, but then he comes here looking for a ride for next year. It's been announced that he will not return to track house. Chastain is back. Oh, Chastain! Oh, man! Suarez goes around. This is turn 11. Bowman trying to take advantage and drive through. His own teammate. It was a stack-up, obviously not on purpose. I'm going to have to take another look at it, whether Logano kind of checks Suarez up. I like this. Now they kind of turn the valve on to the 88 and see if you can pit and win the stage. This has got to be a little bit of a precursor for what we see. Can the 88 run him down with only a lap to go? Well, it's also a little bit of a role reversal because if you go back to 2021, Larson won stage two and then won the race. In fact, he swept the stages. It's kind of unheard of, but here is SVG. Made his pit stop contact as they come up the hill to 3A. Larson's got to fight back because he knows this is the point, but I just don't know if he has the tires to fight with. Third career stage win, Shane Van Gisbergen. And he won a stage earlier this year at Mexico City. Went on to win. Front row for the restart to begin this final stage, Shane Van Gisbergen, Chase Briscoe. 52 to go. Everyone needs a pit stop. Just win, you can make it. They go about 40 on fuel. A lot of decisions. Here are the drivers in the Echo Park automotive restart zone. That's a really good launch right there by the 19 of Briscoe. SVG is going to be in a great spot though at the top of the hill. But still, first time he's really had a battle side by side out of turn two. Now the 19 of Briscoe is on the inside of the preferred line. How aggressive does he get? Shane's going to be on the inside now. Turn 3A going to take the spot away. This track has been racy today. I mean, Van Gisbergen has been in control out front. Really behind. Oh, look at this. Sideways. There goes Blaney. Blaney's off of the dirt. Contact with Buescher. Into the barrier. Oh, he's high-sided this. He's stuck. Not going to get that 12 car out of there. The 23 is around out of turn two. Caution is out. First one for incident today. Third yellow of the afternoon. The 11 of Amlin. His day continues to get worse. Front row just like the last time. Van Gisbergen in the control car next to chase Briscoe. Here they come to the echo park automotive restart zone. Still inside door. 29 laps left here at Sonoma Raceway. The first of the top five cars coming to pit road. Chris Buescher, who again said does not want any changes. He's going to go to fresh Goodyear tires here. He will obviously be able to make it to the end of the race and have a little tire advantage, Danielle, over those who pitted earlier. Redick is coming in for his scheduled stop. Running 10th. He's complaining on the radio that he is really tight. We'll see if Billy Scott can make some adjustments and get him back up there looking for that first win of the season. Yeah, calling it right up the middle here for Steve Endor. When they saw the 19 pit, to your point, Steve, they said now we're going to come down pit road. We saw the off-track excursion for SVG a little bit earlier. He said to the team, I'm such an idiot. Said that was totally my fault. But for fresh Goodyear tires going on for Shane Van Gisbergen, who has led all but seven laps at this point with 26 to go. Get a good acceleration out right here. Be right on this bumper, and here he goes. Into the braking zone. Matt McDowell knows now the best thing he can do is not slow himself down. Right. His plan is to try to run this long into a top ten finish. So don't race the 88 or do anything that's actually going to cost both of you time unnecessarily. His body weight and the inertia crushed that steering wheel. Luckily, he was okay. He was back in the gym working out on Monday and Tuesday. I asked his crew chief, Billy Floyd, what's in the description. He's got a wheel coming off, Danielle. Danielle, he's lost a wheel. You saw the wheel nut come off. We saw a wheel nut come off that car going through turn three, and so it finally leaves the vehicle, and everybody's trying to avoid. And there's the caution. It's going to roll down the hill here into turn four. Green light's open, bottom right of your screen. So this is the choice. What do you do? Last minute. Look at Frisco. I love it. Frisco. Pit. Oh, I want to pit. I love it. Come get tires. McDowell, Brad Keselowski, Ty Gibbs, a whole bunch of drivers coming down. I will say, there's going to be some insurance. You're going to get a restart, say, 12 laps to go, but tires mean so much. SVG with a great launch through the gears. Still there. The 17 gets a little loose there. He's going to have company. See Bell to the inside now on the outside. See Bell trying to switch it up, cross him over for the braking zone in turn four. Zane Smith racing Hosovar. The balance of old tires versus new tires and those drivers trying to come through. And do they have time to get there? Big stack up there. Caught by Spock. Fours around. Four and threes around. Big contact. Noah Braxton gets ran into. I think that was maybe possibly an orange car. I couldn't tell who it was. He's got big damage. With the in-season challenge too. Front row, seven to go. He's in control with Chase Briscoe to his left. Time to settle it in wide country. 19 draws even right there. Briscoe up the hill. Turn two and he's right there. A little bit of contact. He's going to fight hard to try to stay on the inside for turn three. And now Shane has the inside for 3A in turn four. The 19 tries to do a crossover. Can't get the power down. Now three wide. Stenhouse has a little trouble right there. Oh, Stenhouse around. Stenhouse into the tire barrier. Bounces off the tire barrier. Can he get the car started? Probably going to be a yellow because they have to work on that tire pack. Might even turn red. Six caution of the day. Little money in the bank. Collect on that interest here. Taking a chance. Putting themselves in position. Do they have time to get there? Will this be the final restart? SVG. Getting a shot from behind by Christopher Bell. Here we go one more time. Up the hill. More contact right there. SVG runs him wide a little bit. Down to turn three. Shane Van Gisbergen has the lead. Two seconds. I'm talking about Van Gisbergen back to chase Elliott on those pressure tires. Briscoe in between. Oh, the 9's off in the gravel. The 20's got to come back by him right here. That is huge for Shane Van Gisbergen. It absolutely is. I think he has enough car to stay out front. The only question was the tires, but now that he's lost the spot, McDowell behind him is coming as well. I don't know what the phrasing is in New Zealand for woodshed, but that's where SVG has taken him today. It's a road course runaway. Shane Van Gisbergen dominates and wins Sonoma. You are unbelievable, man. Awesome job, boys. Awesome job. What a run we're on. Shane Van Gisbergen hits him right between the eyes. Leads 97 laps. Starts on the pole, wins the stage, and claims victory for the second consecutive week. Fastest driver to reach four cup wins since Parnelli Jones Riverside 1967. It's remarkable what this guy is doing. 36 years old from Auckland, New Zealand. Where did he come from? His first ever cup start. Opened last year, and just like in his rookie campaign in Xfinity, his rookie year in cup. He's gone three straight on the road, and he's going to burn it down in his first cup start here in wine country. Celebration coming, Marty. Adam, we're running out of superlatives for the Kiwi. Shane Van Gisbergen. Another master class. Three wins in the last five weeks. And you mentioned tying that record from Jeff Gordon. And he proves every week as well. Not only is he a generational talent on the road and street courses, he's got a pretty good leg too. That was a big one today. Not quite to the grandstands, but that's okay when you put on a performance like that.