Shane van Gisbergen credits Connor Zilisch after epic finish at Sonoma Raceway

Just when everyone was ready for another sweep by Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch reminded us all just how good he is. Today, the NASCAR Xfinity Series rookie finished 1st over his teammate SVG. It was an epic battle at Sonoma.

Between the ARCA West finish and today’s Xfinity race, Sonoma has delivered this season. This track was paved between the 2023 and 2024 seasons. Last year, we saw insanely fast times. This time around, we saw fast times, but a lot less grip.

It was a two-man show today in wine country. Shane van Gisbergen did his best, but couldn’t mess Zilisch up down the finish. Multiple bumps proved futile in the last two laps.

After the race, SVG credited Zilisch for the win. He also congratulated the 18-year-old in Victory Lane.

“Yeah, but I didn’t want to be,” SVG said when asked if he could have been more aggressive. “Congrats to those guys. What an awesome race! I hope everyone enjoyed that. Yeah, I give him a bump into 7, wheel-hopped, and probably could have taken it, but I just waited. I didn’t want to do it like that, and then we raced down the hill, but what an awesome race. Thank you to QuadLock, Chevy, JR Motorsports. Yeah, I had a blast all day. So, really, really fun.”

In Chicago, Shane van Gisbergen got physical. He was aggressive. I’d argue he was just as aggressive today but it just didn’t work. Great sportsmanship to back off Zilisch after causing him to have a hiccup in Turn 7 there. But otherwise, it was a lot of pressure for a young driver to handle.

Let’s not forget, SVG is an 80-time winner in Supercars and has three championships. He is a legitimate world-class racer. We have seen him embarrass the Cup Series field multiple times already.

Next season, Trackhouse Racing is going to own the road course races. They have both SVG and Zilisch under contract. The two best road course racers in NASCAR right now. It will take special performances from the rest of the field to keep them from sweeping the road courses in 2026 together.

Shane van Gisbergen’s second sweep has been denied. He couldn’t repeat the perfect weekend again like he did at Chicago. Without Connor Zilisch in the Cup Series race this weekend, SVG is definitely the overwhelming favorite. But someone could have the perfect race and upset him.