Shane van Gisbergen is NASCAR’s leading active winner on road and street courses with Sonoma victory

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — Shane van Gisbergen continued his remarkable run on the twistiest tracks in NASCAR, but this was no easy Sunday drive.

The Trackhouse Racing driver became the winningest active Cup Series driver on road and street courses with his second consecutive victory at Sonoma Raceway. Though he led 74 of the final 83 laps after starting sixth on the 1.99-mile road course north of San Francisco, van Gisbergen had to fend off a charge by runner-up Chase Briscoe with a No. 97 Chevrolet that hadn't been entirely to his liking since practice a day earlier.

“We were really bad yesterday, and these guys did an amazing job turning this car into a winner,” said van Gisbergen, who celebrated with a massive burnout for the grandstands. “(Briscoe) was coming. He was really, really good, and I ran out at the end. Yeah, a couple more laps, we would have had some problems.”

Finishing second to van Gisbergen at Sonoma for the second consecutive year, Briscoe came up 0.357 seconds short and was left lamenting a mistake in getting his No. 19 Toyota into Turn 1 with four laps remaining.

“Not very many people get that close to him at the end of one of these road course races,” Briscoe said. “Just frustrated with myself. I felt like I definitely had the better car. I didn’t do as good of a job as he did driving. I was having to push so hard, and that was where I would make up my ground. It was just such a razor’s edge, and I about crashed. If I don’t make that mistake, I’m probably ahead of him at the end.

“Just bummed that it was my fault we didn’t win with the best car. Against that guy, you've got to be absolutely perfect.”

Van Gisbergen notched the eighth victory of his career on the tracks that require left and right turns, breaking a tie with 2020 Cup champion Chase Elliott.

With his second win this season, van Gisbergen improved three spots to 14th in the points standings, moving back into a provisional spot in the Chase.

But there are no road or street courses remaining over the final 18 races of the season, so the New Zealand native will need to diversify his skillset after entering NASCAR three years ago with no experience on ovals.

“I need to really step it up on the ovals,” he said. “This is an oval championship, and I need to keep getting better at them.”

Pole-sitter Ty Gibbs finished third, and Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell rounded out the top five.

For the second year in a row, the top seed was knocked off in the opening race of the In-Season Challenge, the bracket-style tournament that pits 32 drivers head to head with the top finisher advancing.

Tyler Reddick finished four laps down in 36th because of a power steering problem. That turned his first-round matchup into a walkover for 10th-place finisher Alex Bowman, who nabbed the 32nd and final seed in the In-Season Challenge despite missing four races with vertigo.

“It’s just a very odd issue,” Reddick said. “Everything seemed fine when we left the pit stall, and then the steering just really got notchy with the power steering going in and out. It was just really really hard to make any kind of lap time with it.”

The 23XI Racing driver salvaged a point by setting the race’s fastest lap after the team made repairs. After leading the Chase standings since winning the Daytona 500 season opener, Reddick fell one point behind Denny Hamlin with eight races remaining in the regular season.

“I’d say we got pretty fortunate,” Reddick said. “All things considered, for the issues that we had, we were very fortunate to only lose nine points to Denny while finishing last.”

Second-seeded Hamlin advanced despite a 26th-place finish, avenging a first-round upset by Ty Dillon last year.

In a rematch, Dillon was ahead of Hamlin for most of Sunday’s race until he lost power steering with 15 laps remaining and fell to 35th. Hamlin rebounded from being spun from seventh by Carson Hocevar on a restart with 46 laps remaining.

“I had a really fast car, a top-five car on speed,” Hamlin said. “Once we got spun, it just lost all the downforce, and we struggled.”

Hocevar, who was also involved in a separate incident with Bell, apologized for the contact with Hamlin.

“I was watching my mirror the whole time, and I wasn’t even seeing that I was hitting Denny,” said Hocevar, who has tangled with several veterans this year. “I was happy to hear that I wasn’t the difference maker of Ty beating Denny because I would be looked at for sports fixing probably with the way I was singing Ty’s praises.”

NASCAR will return to Chicagoland Speedway for the first time in seven years with a 400-mile race on July 5. In the most recent Cup race on the 1.5-mile oval in Joliet, Illinois, Alex Bowman earned his first victory in NASCAR’s premier series by beating future teammate Kyle Larson on June 30, 2019.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Shane van Gisbergen celebrates after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Sonoma Raceway, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in Sonoma, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Shane van Gisbergen celebrates after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Sonoma Raceway, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in Sonoma, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Shane van Gisbergen celebrates after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Sonoma Raceway, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in Sonoma, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

A tribute to Kyle Busch is displayed during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Sonoma Raceway, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in Sonoma, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

The pit crew for Chase Elliott works on the car during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Sonoma Raceway, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in Sonoma, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Shane van Gisbergen (97) drives during a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Sonoma Raceway, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in Sonoma, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Robbie Ray outpitched Chris Sale in a matchup of Cy Young Award winners and the San Francisco Giants held off the Atlanta Braves 3-2 on Sunday.

Ray allowed just four hits and an unearned run in eight innings. Caleb Kilian entered with a 3-1 lead in the ninth and gave up a leadoff double to Matt Chapman, who scored after two groundouts.

Pinch-hitter Dominic Smith singled off the glove of shortstop Casey Schmitt and pinch-runner Jorge Mateo stole second, but Kilian struck out former Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski swinging for his sixth save.

With a pair of outstanding pitching performances, San Francisco (35-48) won the last two games of the three-game series against the slumping Braves (49-33), who have dropped six of seven and 12 of 16. They lead the NL East by three games over surging Philadelphia.

Ray (7-6) didn't permit a baserunner until Matt Olson's leadoff single in the fifth and gave up his only run in the eighth following a fielding error by Chapman at third base. The left-hander struck out two, walked one and threw 95 pitches.

Ray also went eight innings in his previous start, giving up two hits and an unearned run in a 3-1 win over the Athletics.

Sale (8-6) struck out 10 and walked one in six innings. He allowed eight hits but only two runs, one earned.

Luis Arraez and Heliot Ramos singled off the Atlanta ace to begin the sixth. Rafael Devers reached on an infield single, and Arraez scored the first run on a throwing error by third baseman Austin Riley.

Sale fanned Willy Adames and Victor Bericoto, but Jung Hoo Lee made it 2-0 with another infield single. Sale struck out Eric Haase to end the inning.

Drew Gilbert had a pinch-hit single off Braves reliever Didier Fuentes to start the seventh. Chapman doubled in front of Arraez's sacrifice fly for a 3-0 lead.

Adames left with an apparent injury after striking out to end the inning.

Michael Harris II put Atlanta on the board with a sacrifice fly in the eighth. Riley's groundout trimmed it to 3-2 in the ninth.

Olson had three of Atlanta’s six hits. The Braves went 1-5 on their road trip.

Giants RHP Tyler Mahle (1-7, 5.49 ERA) starts Monday at Arizona opposite LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (6-2, 2.27).

The Braves host St. Louis on Tuesday. LHP Matthew Liberatore (3-5, 5.56 ERA) pitches for the Cardinals.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

San Francisco Giants' Heliot Ramos scores in the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in San Francisco (AP Photo/Justine Willard)

San Francisco Giants' Eric Haase, left, and Caleb Kilian, right, hug after their team defeated the Atlanta Braves in a baseball game, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in San Francisco (AP Photo/Justine Willard)

San Francisco Giants' Heliot Ramos, left, and Matt Chapman, right, celebrate after their team defeated the Atlanta Braves in a baseball game, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in San Francisco (AP Photo/Justine Willard)

Atlanta Braves pitcher Chris Sale throws to a San Francisco Giants batter during the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in San Francisco (AP Photo/Justine Willard)

San Francisco Giants pitcher Robbie Ray throws to a Atlanta Braves batter during the first inning of a baseball game, Sunday, June 28, 2026, in San Francisco (AP Photo/Justine Willard)