Shane van Gisbergen picked up Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his daughter, Nicole Lorraine Earnhardt, en route to his victory lane ride. The road course ringer logged his second O’Reilly Series win at Sonoma Raceway in Saturday’s Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250.
Van Gisbergen has earned the moniker Sonoma superstar, leading 66 of the 79 laps in Wine Country. Driving JR Motorsports No.9 Chevy, SVG reigned supreme with a 1.324-second margin over teammate and runner-up finisher, Connor Zilisch.
Here’s a clip of the New Zealander’s post-race celebrations with Dale Jr. and his daughter. (via X/Sonoma Raceway).
In a post-race presser, Shane van Gisbergen opened up his ride to victory lane.
“I wanted to do more skids but she didn’t, so we just cruised to victory lane. Pretty special to have him in the car and to drive for his team. He’s a pretty amazing person and you can see how hands on and invested he’s still in the team….it’s pretty cool to drive for him,” he said via NASCAR’s official website.
SVG later apologised for a boring race with him constantly on the lead. Nonetheless, the road course ace was elated to grab yet another win for JRM.
The result marks JRM’s streak of having at least one car in the top-10 for 76 races. The team is now only three races behind eclipsing RFK Racing’s record.
Shane van Gisbergen takes a shot at Ryan Preece ahead of the In-Season Challenge
Shane van Gisbergen goes up against Ryan Preece in the first round of the In-Season Challenge. He’ll have to beat his matchups across four races to reach the champions round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
At San Diego, Preece reflected on finishing ahead of SVG in a road course and bragged that he ‘rattled his cage’. Notably, the No. 97 driver was collected in a multi-car wreck triggered by Austin Hill, while Preece went on to finish 11th.
Van Gisbergen remarked on Preece’s comments, saying,
“I see he’s been getting pretty lippy online, so that’s a bit of fun….But he’s a good dude. We had a little tussle last week.”
“But yeah, I look forward to it. It’s cool that there’s something else to focus on. and he’s been going really well on his road courses this year. I’m sure I’ll see him on Sunday, and it’ll be a tough but fair battle”
Shane van Gisbergen currently ranks one spot below 16th-ranking Ryan Preece. He dropped three places after his San Diego misfortune.
Preece is yet to place in the top 10 at Sonoma, while SVG is the reigning winner at the 11-turn track. However, the Trackhouse driver failed to capture the pole and secured sixth on Saturday’s qualifying.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs and Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar locked the front row. Preece starts further back in 19th.
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