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)

SONOMA, Calif. — 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.

Van Gisbergen also won Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250.

Russell beats Verstappen

SPIELBERG, Austria — George Russell showed he can stand the heat in more ways than one as he won the Austrian Grand Prix to revive his Formula 1 title chances.

Racing in a heatwave with a broken drinks system, Russell held off Max Verstappen and his own teammate Kimi Antonelli to turn his controversial pole position into a dominant win.

It’s the first win for Russell, excluding sprint races, since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Russell said it was “incredible” to win again after struggling to compete with Antonelli when his teammate racked up five straight victories earlier in the season.

“It’s been a tough couple of months with some really tricky races, with races that felt like everything was going against me, then some races with some tough performances,” he said.

Verstappen took the fight to Mercedes with his upgraded Red Bull car at the team’s home race, but couldn’t get close enough for a shot at Russell and finished on the defensive against Antonelli. The top three were separated by just two seconds at the finish.

Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari failed to build on his breakthrough win at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix last time out, fading badly in the race despite qualifying well, with the seven-time champion fifth and teammate Charles Leclerc eighth.

Russell takes back second in the standings from Hamilton with his seventh career win and cuts Antonelli’s lead to 40 points.

“I have a lot of confidence in myself, knowing I can do it. I have less confidence in being able to get everything aligned with the car, the set-up and the tires, because it’s just been so up and down for me,” Russell said.

Antonelli was left to rue mistakes he said cost him valuable seconds early in the race.

“It was a shame that I joined the party a bit too late,” the 19-year-old driver said.

Elsewhere:

n Maddi Gordon (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car), Aaron Stanfield (Pro Stock) and Richard Gadson (Pro Stock Motorcycle) won at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, on Sunday.