The expected met the unexpected as Shane van Gisbergen won Saturday at Sonoma Raceway and led a pair of historic top-five runs for one NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series organization.
SONOMA, Cali. -- The expected met the unexpected as Shane van Gisbergen won Saturday at Sonoma Raceway and led a pair of historic top-five runs for one NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series organization.
SVG was in vintage form Saturday. His No. 9 JR Motorsports team stayed the course, starting on the pole, keeping everyone close enough to see them as they flipped the stages and then pulling away in the final run of the race when leading mattered most.
SVG led four times for 66 of the 79 laps run Saturday. He kept it somewhat interesting at the end, needing to save fuel and shrinking the margin of victory to 1.324 seconds at the checkered flag.
"Sorry it wasn't the most exciting seeing me lead," SVG said. "This car was amazing, thanks to all my guys for that one."
Teammate Connor Zilisch finished second after starting further back in the pack and getting a speeding penalty following a pit stop to flip the first stage. He pitted under the second stage, which gave him fresher tires to drive all the way to second.
"The numbers Rodney got on the box let us be aggressive but a caution to bunch us up would've been nice. We were matching each other the entire run and then he was saving fuel, giving us hope, but I'll believe we had something for him," Zilisch joked.
Brent Crews rounded out the trifecta of NOAPS road course aces, in third. He earned the most points of any driver, boosting him to +21 to the Chase cutline.
"Felt like we passed 190 cars today but overall a good day for us, got the most overall points. If we were in a little different points position, maybe we could've short-pitted and raced a little more with the 9... but overall I'm happy," Crews said.
Viking Motorsports had the best day of their existence, rounding out the top-five with Anthony Alfredo and Parker Retzlaff finishing fourth and fifth.
Alfredo led the second-most laps (5) and won the first stage, collecting his and Viking's first career stage win.
"This is exactly how I thought last week [San Diego] would've went until we got taken out. To bounce back and have the same speed, I had to save fuel at the end but... This is the best opportunity I've ever had. I've been in the dirt back there and to be up there with the best, and finish third to some of the best road course guys, is great," Alfredo said.
Meanwhile, Parker Retzlaff finished fourth in the first stage and stayed in the game all day to come up fifth. He boosted several career-high season marks with the finish: top-five finishes (3), top-10 finishes (9), average finish (13.4) and points position (ninth).
"I think it's really cool. We got the second- and third-most points for Viking Motorsports. It's all the great people we surround ourselves with. I'm not a road course guy but we've worked on it a lot at Viking Motorsports and for us to run like this, we're only in our second year, we're building something special," Retzlaff said.
Retzlaff is 61 points above the Chase cutline with five races until the Chase begins.
Carson Kvapil finished sixth for DGM Racing. He is averaging a 12th-place finish in four starts with the team -- by far a new high mark for the independent team.
TOP-10 FINISHERS (LAP 79): Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch, Brent Crews, Anthony Alfredo, Parker Retzlaff, Carson Kvapil, Corey Day, Sam Mayer, Jesse Love, Sheldon Creed.
Taylor Gray was running fourth on the final lap but ran out of gas and finished 30th. That dropped him to just 20 points above the cutline.
Teammate Brandon Jones finished 36th, 11 laps down, after an issue early on in the race. Ross Chastain finished behind, 37th, out after 29 laps.
Austin Green finished 12th with a backup car after a hard crash in turn 11 in practice after his brakes went out.
The first stage went caution-free, aside from a lap 8 caution for Kyle Sieg dropping a tire carcass on the track. Shane van Gisbergen started up front but flipped the stage.
STAGE ONE TOP-10 (LAP 20): Anthony Alfredo, Brent Crews, Taylor Gray, Parker Retzlaff, Corey Day, Austin Hill, Ross Chastain, Will Rodgers, Josh Bilicki, Alex Labbe.
The only caution in stage two flew for Ross Chastain slowing on track with fire and fluid coming from his car, on lap 31. SVG again flipped the stage.
STAGE TWO TOP-10 (LAP 45): Connor Zilisch, Sammy Smith, Sheldon Creed, Brent Crews, Carson Kvapil, Sam Mayer, Rajah Caruth, Ryan Sieg, Alex Labbe, Will Rodgers.
SVG took the lead to start the final stage and never looked back, saving enough fuel and leading the final 32 laps to claim his sixth career NOAPS win and 13th of his NASCAR career, dating back to his NASCAR debut in Cup in Chicago.
Here are the points standings from NASCAR timing and scoring and the race rundown from NASCAR:
