Kiwi driver Shane van Gisbergen continues to dominate Nascar on road courses with a second consecutive Xfinity Series win, this time at Sonoma in northern California.
Van Gisbergen, who did not have things his own way in the race, returning to the lead on a restart with 11 of 79 laps remaining after going door-to-door-with then-leader Austin Hill.
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However, van Gisbergen then kept Sam Mayer at bay and then edged Sheldon Creed by 1.323 seconds to claim his second straight Xfinity win. His first was last week at Portland.
The 35-year-old now has three Nascar victories, all on road courses. He won last year’s inaugural Cup Series Chicago Street Race in his first Nascar start.
“The car got beat up again but what a race,” he said. “On that last restart, I was giving it all I had and two guys going for the same real estate come together. It was pretty awesome, though.
“When you’re out front you hear all the little noises. What a race. Really good battles with everyone all day, had a blast.”
Regarding his clash with Hill, the New Zealander was careful with his words.
“I saw the replay, I don’t know. I’m going to leave it to the keyboard warriors on this one. It seems like every time I make a comment, it’s wrong,” he said. “I knew it was going to be tough to hold him off but I thought we could do it.
“I plead the fifth. I’m not going to say anything about it.”
Mayer ended up third, Austin Green finished a career-best fourth and Hill – after briefly going off course in the skirmish with van Gisbergen – ended up fifth.
The next race is June 15 in Iowa.
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