Shane van Gisbergen converted his pole position to race victory in this afternoon’s 79-lap outing at Sonoma Raceway. It’s his second win in succession.
The Kaulig Racing driver led every lap of the opening stage, converting his maiden pole into his first career stage win. The time difference over AJ Allmendinger was 12 seconds.
Ty Gibbs, who had pressured the Kiwi over the opening 20 laps, came in for his stop ahead of the end of a stage caution. He assumed track position at the front for Stage 2, with van Gisbergen taking the restart following his stop in eighth.
The Kiwi quickly worked forward and was fourth by the end of Lap 26, over two seconds behind the top three.
He closed the gap within 10 laps to take second, behind only Gibbs, at the end of Stage 2 on Lap 40.
Van Gisbergen emerged from his stop under the caution in fifth for the 30-lap run to the flag, with Austin Hill assuming the lead.
Once green flag racing resumed, Van Gisbergen snuck through to fourth place at Turn 2. Moments later a large pile-up caught out several drivers in the midfield and lower packs. A lengthy caution was required to remove debris and damaged cars.
In the crash, Kaulig Racing’s Josh Williams was forced out of the race. Stage 2 winner Gibbs was also involved.
Van Gisbergen worked his way to third off the following restart, trailing only Hill and AJ Allmendinger with 24 laps to run.
He passed Allmendinger at Turn 11 and remained on the tail of Hill.
Jesse Love then turned on Lap 64 at Turn 10, bringing the day’s final caution.
Hill got the better restart with 11 laps to run and had his nose in front at the Turn 1 left-hander. However, van Gisbergen retained the outside line to run up the inside at Turn 2.
With one of van Gisbergen’s wheels in the dirt, the two leaders made side-on contact, with Hill knocked off-line as he tried to cover van Gisbergen’s aggressive move, dropping him down to sixth.
From there, the Kiwi went on to win from Sheldon Creed, Sam Mayer, Austin Green, Hill, Justin Allgaier, and Chandler Smith.
Van Gisbergen capped off another impressive race with a signature burnout before signing a rugby ball and kicking it into the crowd.
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