Chase Briscoe likens Shane Van Gisbergen's road course dominance to $3.5B-worth NBA icon Michael Jordan's prime 

Chase Briscoe had glowing praise for Shane Van Gisbergen after losing out to him in Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. SVG has reigned supreme in road courses so far, leaving Briscoe to wonder if this is how it would've felt going against prime Michael Jordan.

At his peak, Jordan had a stranglehold over NBA during his three-peat with the Chicago Bulls. Compared to him, Van Gisbergen's talents went unnoticed until he reached road courses in the Cup Series calendar.

The 36-year-old has won three out of four road courses this year, with the latest win coming at Sonoma Raceway, where he led a dominant 97 out of 110 laps. It marked his first back-to-back win after last week's triumph at Chicago.

Coming in a full second behind SVG, Briscoe had this to say about the former's road course dominance (via X/Jeff Gluck),

"I never played basketball against Michael Jordan in his prime, but I feel like that's what it was probably like. That guy is just unbelievable on road courses. He's raised the bar for this entire series."

In his part, Shane Van Gisbergen acknowledged Briscoe's hard racing in the final laps

"Chase (Briscoe) was driving really well. We had a lot of fun there. … On the last restart, I thought he (Briscoe) jumped a little bit. I was just trying to do what I could to get in position in Turn 2. That last one, I had to give him a bit of rub, but that was it," he added. (via Yahoo Sports)

The results have placed SVG third in the playoff standings, alongside fellow three-time winners Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell. Notably, everytime SVG won a race this year, a JGR driver has been forced to settle for second.

However, the Kiwi driver is still ways off from the frontrunners in the driver's standings, as he currently ranks 26th with 367 points.

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Connor Zilisch drops a message for Shane Van Gisbergen after Sonoma win

During Saturday's Xfinity Series race at Sonoma, Connor Zilisch held off a charging Shane Van Gisbergen to take his third win of the season, making him the only driver to overcome the Kiwi in a road course duel. With a combined lead of 70 laps, the two drivers were in a class of their own.

That said, Zilisch took to X on Sunday to congragulate his JRM teammate.

"I knew you’d get one of them this weekend @shanevg97😀nice job mate!"

As Trackhouse Racing's development driver, it's widely believed that Zilisch will replace Daniel Suarez next season. After his win on Saturday, Dale Earnhardt Jr. hinted that Zilisch will more than likely pair up with Shane Van Gisbergen under the Trackhouse banner.

Up next, the duo are set for a rematch at Watkins Glen International, a track where the 18-year-old won his first race.

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Edited by Pratham K Sharma