Trackhouse Racing star Shane van Gisbergen was the favorite to win the NASCAR Cup Series race in San Diego on Sunday but had to retire after a crash involving Connor Zilisch and Austin Hill. SVG came out ahead of the race weekend in Sonoma and detailed how he needed a couple of days to reset after the disappointing end to Coronado.
Despite taking the pole position, leading the race, and looking one of the strongest, SVG’s race weekend in San Diego ended on Lap 32 when Hill and Zilisch came together, which led to a massive nine-car wreck during the restart.
Speaking with NASCAR ahead of the race weekend at Sonoma, Shane van Gisbergen detailed the heartbreak and how it took a couple of days to reset.
“It took me a couple of days, for sure. Pretty pissed about that with a good opportunity gone wasted. The best thing about the sport is it either brings you back down to earth pretty quickly or picks you back up. You can race the next weekend and reset. I feel pretty reset today,” he said.
With the disappointment from San Diego behind him, Shane van Gisbergen is looking forward to having a strong weekend at Sonoma.
“I know I have a good opportunity to win the race, and we will look at the points after. We really need a good weekend. That hurt us on that cutline. Need to get some momentum going again, and hopefully this weekend starts it and puts us in a good position for the last few races,” said SVG.
The former Supercar driver currently sits P17 in the standings, just outside the Top 16 required to make “The Chase.” Strong results at the road/street courses in San Diego and Sonoma, before the Cup series returned to racing at ovals to conclude the regular season, were crucial for SVG to get into the top 16.
With the San Diego weekend ruined because of the crash, a strong performance in Sonoma is key to SVG’s hopes of making “the Chase.”
Shane van Gisbergen gets off to a strong start at Sonoma Raceway with O’Reilly series pole position
Shane van Gisbergen took the pole position for the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Sonoma Raceway in the No. 9 SuperFile Chevrolet for JR Motorsports. SVG set a laptime of 1:15.029, averaging 95.483 mph.
Brent Crews will be alongside SVG on the front row after setting a laptime 0.189 seconds slower than the No. 9 Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet. SVG’s Trackhouse Racing teammate Connor Zilisch faced a flat tire during his O’Reilly qualifying run and will start in P30.
Taylor Gray in the No. 54 Toyota, Anthony Alfredo in the No. 96 Chevrolet, and Parker Retzlaff in the No. 99 Chevrolet round out the top 5 starting positions for the Pit Boss/Foodmaxx 250 at Sonoma Raceway.
