New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen has taken his second Nascar XFinity Series win in a row.

Van Gisbergen took pole for the 79-lap road course race at Sonoma Raceway and led every lap of the opening stage to convert his maiden pole into his first career stage win by 12 seconds over AJ Allmendinger.

Ty Gibbs, who had pressured the Kiwi over the opening 20 laps, pitted ahead of the end of a stage caution and assumed track position at the front for stage 2, with van Gisbergen taking the restart eighth.

The Kiwi quickly worked forward and was fourth by the end of Lap 26. He closed the gap within 10 laps to be second at the end of Stage 2 on Lap 40.

Van Gisbergen emerged from his stop under the caution in fifth for the 30-lap run to the flag, with Austin Hill holding the lead.
Holding fourth place when a large pile-up caught out several drivers behind him, the Kiwi then carved through to third at the restart behind Hill and AJ Allmendinger with 24 laps to run. He passed Allmendinger to close in on Hill.

At the final caution Hill got the best of the restart and had his car’s nose in front at turn 1 but van Gisbergen held the outside line for the sprint to the next corner.

The cars made side-on contact mid-corner with Hill knocked off-line as he tried to cover Van Gisbergen’s aggressive move.
Van Gisbergen took and held the lead, Hill dropping to sixth at the chequered flag.

The 35-year-old Kiwi led a race-best 32 laps.

“Man, what a race  – an adventure up and down and up and down all day,” said van Gisbergen, who, as he did in Portland, celebrated his win by signing a rugby ball and kicking it into the grandstands.

“But that last restart I was just giving it all I had and two guys going for the same real estate came together.

“It was pretty awesome though, a lot of fun. Hope everyone enjoyed the show. Pretty awesome back-to-back weeks for us.”