“I didn’t want to do it like that”: Shane van Gisbergen sends clear message on his race ethics after Connor Zilisch’s Sonoma victory

JR Motorsports driver Shane van Gisbergen had a good run at the Sonoma Raceway on Saturday, July 12, 2025. However, his teammate and NASCAR prodigy Connor Zilisch took the lead from Gisbergen in the final stage of the race.

The duo had a solid qualifying session at the 79-lap race. The New Zealand-based driver took the pole position with a best lap time of 75.26 seconds and a top speed of 95.19 mph, while Zilisch was 0.24 seconds behind his teammate and began the race from second place.

The race was about Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch right from the beginning. The duo led 70 laps of the 79-lap race, with the #9 Chevy driver leading 24 and the #88 Chevy driver leading 46. Gisbergen ran his teammate wide in turn two and tried to take the lead from him, but Zilisch managed to maintain his lead and won the race.

Reflecting on the same, during a post-race interview with NASCAR, the Auckland native stated:

“I gave him a bump into 7, and he wheel-hopped, and I probably could have taken it, but I just waited, the defending race winner. I didn’t want to do it like that, and then we raced down the hill. What an awesome race.

Connor Zilisch crossed the finish line ahead of his teammate, stopping him to take his fourth career and third Xfinity Series season win. Zilisch had a minor lead of 0.438 seconds and earned 46 valuable points.

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Shane van Gisbergen elucidates the difference between stock car racing and the Supercars Series

Ahead of the Sonoma Raceway event, Shane van Gisbergen was featured in an interview with former NASCAR Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick's 'Happy Hour' podcast on YouTube. During the interaction, the duo discussed how Supercars weekends are much shorter than NASCAR's but packed with 'epic' pre-race rituals.

Following the same, the #88 Chevy driver stated:

"I guess just the efficiency of everything on a weekend. Like the weekends are so much shorter, but there's so much more racing stuff involved. The driver intros the anthem like the pre-race stuff here that they do is fantastic, like you get so wound up before the race." [18:35 onwards] "My favorite pre-race is Talladega; you see how emotional everyone is and the anthem's pumping, and then this truck just comes roaring through with the big flag on. It's epic, you know. So, we don't really do that as much at home," he added..

Shane van Gisbergen ranks 27th on the Cup Series points table with 308 points to his credit. He has secured two wins, three top-ten finishes, and two top-five finishes with two pole positions in 19 starts this season.

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Edited by Pratham K Sharma