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Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
'That guy is unbelievable' - SVG rules NASCAR roads
Three-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen has extended his NASCAR winning streak in the US to two straight and three victories in the last five weeks with yet another dominating run on a road course. The New Zealander once again showed he's in a completely different class on road and street courses than his rivals as he led 97 of 110 laps to win from pole at Sonoma Raceway in northern California on Sunday. All three of his wins this year have been from pole — which tied him with Jeff Gordon for a NASCAR record of three consecutive road course victories from the top starting spot. Gordon did it between the 1998 and 1999 seasons. Mexico City. 🏁Chicago. 🏁Sonoma. 🏁He's making it look easy on the road courses! — NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 13, 2025 Victory number four for van Gisbergen — who stunned NASCAR in 2023 when he popped into the debut Chicago street course race from Australian Supercars and won — seemed a given. His rivals have lamented that "SVG" has a unique braking technique he mastered Down Under that none of them — all oval specialists — can ever learn. That win in Chicago two years ago led van Gisbergen to move to the US for a career change driving stock cars for the Trackhouse Racing team. Van Gisbergen is the fastest driver to win four Cup Series races — in his 34th start — since Parnelli Jones in 1969. He's also the winningest driver born outside the US. "It means everything. That's why I race cars. I had an amazing time in Australia, and then to come here and the last couple weeks, or years, actually, has been a dream come true," said van Gisbergen. The sweet taste of @RaceSonoma victory for @shanevg97!He goes back-to-back in the NASCAR Cup Series! — NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 13, 2025 Although he dominated again on Sunday, van Gisbergen pitted from the lead with 27 laps remaining and then had to drive his way back to the front. He got it with a pass of Michael McDowell with 19 laps remaining, but two late cautions made van Gisbergen win restarts to close out the victory in his Chevrolet. Chase Briscoe was second in a Toyota. "I never played basketball against Michael Jordan in his prime, but I feel like that's probably what it was like," said Briscoe after not being able to pass van Gisbergen on the two late restarts — the last with five laps remaining. "That guy is unbelievable on road courses. He's just so good. He's really raised the bar on this entire series."
Washington Post
13-07-2025
- Automotive
- Washington Post
Shane van Gisbergen dominates on another road course, wins at Sonoma to extend streak
SONOMA, Calif. — Shane van Gisbergen extended his winning streak to two straight and three victories in the last five weeks with yet another dominating run on a road course. The New Zealander once again showed he's in a completely different class on road and street courses than his rivals as he led 97 of 110 laps Sunday to win from pole at Sonoma Raceway. All three of his wins this year have been from pole — which tied him with Jeff Gordon for a NASCAR record of three consecutive road course victories from the top starting spot.
Associated Press
13-07-2025
- Automotive
- Associated Press
Shane van Gisbergen dominates on another road course, wins at Sonoma to extend streak
SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — Shane van Gisbergen extended his winning streak to two straight and three victories in the last five weeks with yet another dominating run on a road course. The New Zealander once again showed he's in a completely different class on road and street courses than his rivals as he led 97 of 110 laps Sunday to win from pole at Sonoma Raceway. All three of his wins this year have been from pole — which tied him with Jeff Gordon for a NASCAR record of three consecutive road course victories from the top starting spot. Gordon did it between the 1998 and 1999 seasons. Victory number four for van Gisbergen — who stunned NASCAR in 2023 when he popped into the debut Chicago street course race from Australian V8 Supercars and won — seemed a given before teams even arrived at the picturesque course in California wine country. His rivals have lamented that 'SVG' has a unique braking technique he mastered Down Under that none of them — all oval specialists — can ever learn. That win in Chicago two years ago led van Gisbergen to move to the United States for a career change driving stock cars for Trackhouse Racing. He and Ross Chastain have pumped energy into the team over this summer stretch with Chastain kicking it off with a Memorial Day weekend victory at the Coca-Cola 600. Van Gisbergen is the fastest driver to win four Cup Series races since Parnelli Jones in 1969. The Sonoma win made it four victories for Trackhouse in eight weeks. Van Gisbergen was second from pole in Saturday's Xfinity Series race. Although he dominated again Sunday, van Gisbergen pitted from the lead with 27 laps remaining and then had to drive his way back to the front. He got it with a pass of Michael McDowell with 19 laps remaining, but two late cautions made van Gisbergen win restarts to close out the victory in his Chevrolet. Chase Briscoe was second in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing and was followed by Chase Elliott in a Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. McDowell in a Chevy for Spire Motorsports was fourth and Christopher Bell in a Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing was fifth. In-Season challenge The mid-season tournament that pays $1 million to the winner is down to four drivers. Alex Bowman finished 25th and eliminated Ty Dillon, who finished 26th. Tyler Reddick (11th) knocked out Ryan Preece (16th), John Hunter Nemecheck knocked out teammate Erik Jones as they finished 21st and 22nd, and Zane Smith, with a seventh-place finish, eliminated Ty Gibbs. Bowman, at eighth, is the highest-seeded driver still in the challenge, which debuted this year. Crew fight NASCAR officials had to separate the crews for Brad Keselowski and Ty Gibbs when members from the two teams scrapped on pit road during the race. Keselowski's crew confronted Gibbs' crew after Gibbs drove through their pit stall and narrowly missed hitting some of Keselowski's crew members already in place waiting for him. The confrontation appeared to be contained to pushing and shoving and NASCAR quickly stepped between them. Both crews were given an official warning for fighting but NASCAR said Gibbs did nothing wrong. Clean race — for awhile It took 61 of the 110 laps for the first caution for an on-track incident — when Ryan Blaney was knocked off the course and into the dirt early in the third stage. The contact from Chris Buescher left Blaney stranded, and right before NASCAR could throw the yellow, Bubba Wallace and Denny Hamlin both spun. It was technically the third caution of the race, but the first two were for natural stage breaks. The race ended with six cautions — two in the final stretch. Up next The Cup Series races Sunday at Dover Motor Speedway in Delaware, where Denny Hamlin won last year. ___ AP auto racing:
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
What to watch for in today's NASCAR Cup race at Sonoma
For the second weekend in a row, NASCAR Cup drivers will be racing on a road course. They'll compete today at the 1.99-mile Sonoma Raceway. Here are a few things to watch. Seeking to tie a Hall of Famer Shane van Gisbergen seeks to tie Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon's record for three consecutive Cup road course victories from the pole. Gordon did it from 1998-99. Advertisement 'We've had a really cool couple of weeks,' van Gisbergen said after winning the pole for today's race. 'You just feel the energy in the shop when you walk in on Monday and Tuesday. Even the stay-at-home guys and girls preparing the cars -- it's just a cool atmosphere in the shop. Everyone's lifted up. Ross (Chastain's) win kind of started it at the Coke 600, and we just got better and better. So yeah, it's really cool for everyone.' NASCAR: Toyota / Save Mart 350 How to watch Sunday's Cup race at Sonoma: Start time, TV info and weather The race in Northern California will be held in July for the first time. Already this season, van Gisbergen has won at Mexico and Chicago from the pole. He ranks second in the series in average finish (9.8) on road courses in the Next Gen era. Advertisement 'He's so good, and it's rare that you see somebody stand out and distance himself from the competition as much as he is,' Larson said about van Gisbergen. 'You know, he's way, way, way better than us at the road course stuff. 'And he's got his own technique, you can call it. Not his own because the rest of the world does it – you know, right-foot braking, clutching and all that stuff. You can't teach an old dog new tricks … like there's zero chance I can learn how to do that. And even if I did, like there's zero chance that I can have it be better than what I'm probably doing with left-foot braking.' What's up with Kyle Larson? The Hendrick Motorsports driver who won last year's race at Sonoma has not led in the last six races. It's the longest stretch he's gone in Cup without leading a lap since the end of the 2019 and beginning of the 2020 seasons when he also went six races without leading a lap. Advertisement Larson has not had much success on road courses this season. He finished 13th at Chicago, placed 36th after his car was damaged in an early accident triggered by Kyle Busch at Mexico and was 32nd at Circuit of the Americas after being issued a two-lap penalty for a wheel coming off his car. NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 - Qualifying NASCAR starting lineup: Shane van Gisbergen wins Cup pole at Sonoma Shane van Gisbergen scores his third pole of the season and fourth of his Cup career. Larson has three top-10 finishes in his last seven races. 'You know, just on paper, it looks like we're just very average, which we have been,' Larson said Saturday at Sonoma of his recent stretch of races. 'But, you know, we've taken days where we've been not a top-10 car and finished in the top-10 or even top five. Advertisement 'Those days, although they're not fun, they are rewarding at the end of it because I think, a lot of times in my past, I'll try even too hard and make big mistakes and crash, which I've done that here lately some also. But, yeah, I don't know. We just haven't been as strong as we've wanted to be here lately. 'We've gone to some tracks where when you look at results from the past, we haven't been quite competitive or have race winning speed and it's kind of carried over to this year at some of those places too.' Points races tighten The points race for the regular season championship and for the final playoff spot have tightened. Advertisement At the top of the standings, William Byron has seen his points lead shrink from 67 to 13 in the last three races. Byron has finished no better than 27th in the past three races. NASCAR Cup Series The Great American Getaway 400 - Qualifying Good news, bad news for NASCAR Cup drivers ahead of Sonoma weekend RFK Racing's Chris Buescher has scored three consecutive top-five finishes at Sonoma Raceway. He enters today's race 13 points ahead of teammate Chase Elliott and 19 points ahead of teammate Kyle Larson. Denny Hamlin trails Byron by 43 points and Tyler Reddick is 48 points from the top of the standings. There have been 12 different winners this season, leaving four playoff spots via points at this time. Bubba Wallace holds the final playoff spot. He's two points ahead of Ryan Preece, who gained 21 points on Wallace last weekend at Chicago. AJ Allmendinger is next, 43 points below the cutline. Kyle Busch is 46 points below the cutline.
News.com.au
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Tom Cruise returns to another popular 80s blockbuster
Tom Cruise is developing a sequel to another of his 80s blockbuster hits, after the success of Top Gun Maverick. With all the adrenaline, spectacular stunts, humour and heart of the first blockbuster, Top Gun Maverick also had an all-action storyline of bombs and baddies to beat Bond. When the sequel came out, it had been 36 years since we last saw Tom Cruise slipping out of his shirt and into his aviators as test pilot Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell in the original. And it was a great success, which is likely why the Hollywood star has now decided to develop another sequel to one of his 80s blockbuster films. Jerry Bruckheimer, co-producer to the F1 movie, has confirmed that a sequel to Days of Thunder is in the pipeline, which will of course star Tom. Days of Thunder is a 1990 American sports action drama film which is still beloved by NASCAR fans today. There has been a lot of hope for a sequel, as well as speculation, after Tom, 62, uploaded a throwback photo on X to mark the 35th anniversary of working with late director Tony Scott. Speaking about Days of Thunder 2 in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Jerry said: 'Well, there's always new technologies. There's always new ways to do things and to see things, and Tom is such a great individual - comes up with phenomenal ideas. 'So we'll have something really exciting for an audience once we pull it together.' Former NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon has also addressed a Days of Thunder 2 being made. The chairman of Hendrick Motorsports said: 'Let's do Days of Thunder 2, I am all for that. Tom Cruise has told me it's gonna happen, so let's make it happen. 'I can't go back to driving, I am too old for that, so gonna have to be one of our four or all four of our Hendrick drivers, Alex Bowman, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, William Byron. When I came into NASCAR, Days of Thunder had just come out. It played a huge role in the growth of NASCAR. 'So let's bring it back.' The US actor is always pushing the limits when it comes to his work. In May, he clambered onto the roof of the 82ft BMI Imax cinema — home to Britain's biggest screen — in a stunt to promote his latest film. Wrapped around the building in Waterloo, South London, was a giant advert for the movie, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. The 62-year-old Top Gun star was in the capital to receive an honorary British Film Institute Fellowship, the organisation's highest award.
