By Seth Eggert
The dominant win by Shane van Gisbergen at Sonoma Raceway marked a milestone for internationally born drivers in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The Kaulig Racing driver earned the 200th top-10 finish in Xfinity competition by drivers born outside of the United States.
While van Gisbergen was penciled in as the favorite to win entering the Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 250, the level of on-track domination was unexpected. The driver signed to Trackhouse Racing won his first career stage and then followed it up with a runner-up in the second stage. However, that put him further down the running order in the final stage.
The No. 97 WeatherTech Chevrolet Camaro SS was well ahead of ‘the big one’ that ended the race for his main rival throughout the event, Ty Gibbs. The New Zealander drove through the field and slammed his main rival in the series, Austin Hill out of the way for the lead in Turn 2 on the final restart. van Gisbergen never looked back and cruised to the win.
The victory also marked van Gisbergen’s fourth career top-10 finish in the Xfinity Series and his first win from the pole. That top-10 finish marked the 200th combined top-10 by internationally born NASCAR drivers in Xfinity. 2016 series champion, and fellow Trackhouse driver Daniel Suarez leads with 56 top-10 finishes.
“It was sort of predicted, even though we were the fastest car, really, it’s still never easy here and every race I’ve been in is an adventure,” van Gisbergen said. “You’re back and forth throughout the field and obviously. We stayed out on the stages and that put us back in traffic when the next stage started. I guess we’re in that position now and we just keep going for points, had to make some moves through the field, and had some really awesome racing with people and a lot of fun doing it.
“That last restart, I was just making a hole no matter what and it was a pretty cool move and hopefully it was good to watch. That was just hard, hard racing, so pretty stoked to come away with it and to see again how much it meant to everyone. Half of the team was missing last week. The pit crew guys and spotters were in Gateway, so to get one this week with them and share that moment, was really cool.”
van Gisbergen and Ed Jones scored the 198th and 199th top-10 finishes by internationally born drivers in the Xfinity Series at Portland International Raceway one week ago with a win and a fifth-place finish respectively. The Kaulig Racing driver became the 25th internationally born driver to score a top-10 in the Xfinity Series at Atlanta Motor Speedway earlier this season. Jones was the 26th to score a top-10.
Of the 200 top-10 finishes by internationally born drivers, 83 have come in the last decade with 117 in the first 34 years of the series. The uptick, in part, is due to NASCAR’s increased presence in Canada, Mexico, and Europe. The increasing number of road courses have also drawn more road course ringers from other series to compete as well.
van Gisbergen’s second win on the season firmly secures his spot in the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs. The next road course race on the schedule is The Loop 110 at the Chicago Street Course on Saturday, July 6.
