Shane van Gisbergen wins Sonoma after second duel with Austin Hill
SONOMA, Cali. — Shane van Gisbergen earned NASCAR Xfinity Series win number two as he claimed victory in round two of his rivalry with Austin Hill.
Van Gisbergen took the lead from Hill during a restart with 11 laps to go. He did so with a divebomb in turn one that harkened back to Circuit of the Americas.
In overtime there, Hill pulled a strong divebomb on van Gisbergen in turn one. Van Gisbergen wasn’t having anything of it, as he bumped Hill out of the way on the final lap, putting Kyle Larson in victory lane.
van Gisbergen was later penalized for cutting the course while Hill finished second. Duel number one to Hill.
Fast forward to Sonoma and van Gisbergen had to switch his ignition after his volts started to drop with 20 laps to go while battling Hill. The switch worked as he closed on Hill but couldn’t find a way around him.
It appeared Hill had the upperhand in this second duel. Until a caution came out for Jesse Love spinning in turn 10 with 13 laps to go.
On the subsequent restart, van Gisbergen made sure he wasn’t going to lose this duel. He made the pass on Hill, with some contact, and cruised to the win.
“To me, we’ve both taken a win off each other now,” van Gisbergen said. “I wasn’t going into the corner to take him out.”
Hill lost six positions but recovered to fifth. Van Gisbergen made sure Hill knew that he didn’t win. Van Gisbergen did his future-classic full-track drift burnout behind him.
Hill, likely thinking of the money and points he lost two weeks ago, chose to invoke the U.S. Constitution in his post-race interview.
“I didn’t really see the replay the best. I’m gonna leave it to the keyboard warriors to figure out what happened. I’m sure, no matter what comment I say, it’ll be wrong. Yea, I mean, I don’t know. I plead the Fifth,” Hill said.
TOP-10: van Gisbergen, Sheldon Creed, Sam Mayer, Austin Green, Hill, Justin Allgaier, Chandler Smith, John Hunter Nemechek, Cole Custer, Parker Kligerman
The 79-lap race had no cautions for incident through the first two stages. Shane van Gisbergen claimed stage one. Then, Ty Gibbs claimed stage two after pitting at the end of stage one.
STAGE ONE TOP-10: Shane van Gisbergen, AJ Allmendinger, Austin Hill, Parker Kligerman, John Hunter Nemechek, Chandler Smith, Sammy Smith, Anthony Alfredo, Parker Retzlaff, Riley Herbst
STAGE TWO TOP-10: Ty Gibbs, van Gisbergen, Jesse Love, Sheldon Creed, Cole Custer, C. Smith, Nemechek, Kligerman, Justin Allgaier, Retzlaff
Then, stage three came. Before it began, Gibbs lost 10 positions thanks to a left-rear tire issue on pit road. That then put him right in the eye of a massive pileup that took him and four other drivers out of the race and collected 10 other drivers.
It all started when Jeb Burton spun Chandler Smith exiting turn two and blocked the track.
Gibbs, Burton, Josh Williams, Brandon Jones and Thomas Annunziata fell out of the race. Ed Jones, Kyle Weatherman, Josh Bilicki, Ryan Sieg, Preston Pardus, Riley Herbst, Boris Said and Parker Retzlaff were also involved in the wreck but continued.
The wreck put Brandon Jones in an even tougher spot for trying to get into the playoffs with 12 races to go until they begin.
The next race for the NASCAR Xfinity Series June 15 at Iowa Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET; USA/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com