Give Van Gisbergen Another Pole Sweep In NASCAR

Shane van Gisbergen with the Busch Light Pole Award at Sonoma Raceway. (David Rosenblum/Nigel Kinrade Photgraphy)

SONOMA, Calif. – Though the NASCAR Cup Series visited a different road course for the second straight week, the car leading the field to green after Busch Light Pole Qualifying stayed the same.

Shane van Gisbergen remained the king of road racing in NASCAR, earning his fourth career Cup Series with a lap of one minute, 14.594 seconds (96.04 mph) to sweep the weekend in qualifying for the second straight race.

Van Gisbergen will start the afternoon’s Xfinity Series race at Sonoma from the pole in pursuit of his third straight NASCAR national series win overall.

On the Cup Series side, the 36-year-old van Gisbergen was a quarter second faster than outside polesitter Chase Briscoe in earning his third pole in a five-race span.

The Auckland, New Zealand native is the first driver to win his first four Cup Series poles on road courses.

“I’m shaking. That lap was pretty full on there. I’m so happy to have Red Bull on the car this week, and thank you to Trackhouse Racing and Chevrolet, because this is an amazing car,” said van Gisbergen. “We weren’t very good in practice, but new tires fixed things for us, so hopefully we can be good in the race.

“What a cool day.”

Van Gisbergen is also the fastest driver in the Cup Series to reach four career poles since 2006, doing so in his 34th series start. Denny Hamlin was the last to better that threshold, when he earned his fourth pole in 33 races at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.

Qualifying this weekend at Sonoma posed a difficult task. With the track getting repaved for the first time in over 23 years in 2024, a newer surface forced drivers to adjust.

With nearly 160 feet of elevation change while turning left and right, drivers were forced to find a balance to make a fast lap. The surface was extremely slick and there wasn’t much grip, with tires sliding across the fresh pavement.

Van Gisbergen was able to handle that challenge the best, but stated he will need a little bit more to try and win on Sunday.

“We just need a bit more rear grip and a bit better balance on the long run,” he said. “The car has got a bit of everything right now, so if we can tune it up a little bit, I think we’ll be even better. But we are not bad right now, for sure.”

Joining van Gisbergen and Briscoe near the front Sunday, William Byron and Ross Chastain qualified third and fourth, respectively. A.J. Allmendinger, who was fastest in Group B practice, rounded out the top five in time trials.

Sixth through 10th were Ty Gibbs, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Alex Bowman, and Christopher Bell.

Gibbs qualified inside the top 10 for the fifth time in the last six races, while Allmendinger starts inside the top five for the first time all season.

Notables starting deeper in the field include seven-time road course winner Chase Elliott (13th), Michael McDowell (15th), Denny Hamlin (16th), three-time and defending series champion Joey Logano (22nd), and Bubba Wallace (30th), who sits two points ahead of Ryan Preece for the last spot in the playoffs with seven races before the postseason reset.

Preece rolls off 10 positions ahead of Wallace for the race in 20th starting spot.

Katherine Legge did not make a qualifying lap due to brake issues and starts last in the 37-car field. All drivers made the race, with less than 40 cars entered.

Coverage of Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 from Sonoma begins at 3:30 p.m. ET, live on TNT Sports, the Performance Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.