Ricky Stenhouse Jr. reacts to Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen’s Sonoma thriller

NASCAR Cup Series driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. recently reacted to the intense battle between teammates Shane van Gisbergen and Connor Zilisch at the Sonoma Raceway. Gisbergen had a good run at the 79-lap race, but his teammate Zilisch took the lead from him in the final stage of the race.

Since the beginning, the race was solely focused on the duo, with Gisbergen securing the pole position. He had the best lap time of 75.26 seconds and a top speed of 95.19 mph, while his teammate Zilisch was one spot behind him with 0.24 seconds, which he made up for in the final moments.

The duo led 70 laps of the 79-lap race at the Sonoma Raceway, with the New Zealand-based driver leading 24 and the NASCAR prodigy leading 46. Zilisch broke Gisbergen's dominating lead at road courses with his latest win and held him on turn two while the #9 Chevy driver went wide to take the lead. However, the #88 Chevy driver maintained his lead and took home the win.

Reflecting on the same, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. commented on X and stated:

"Wow that was fun to watch, Connor and SVG put on a show @NASCAR_Xfinity"

Connor Zilisch crossed the finish line 0.438 seconds ahead of Shane van Gisbergen, stopping him from scoring his fourth career win. On the other hand, Zilisch earned 46 valuable points and his third win of the season.

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"Smart move by the way": NASCAR insider gave his take on Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s way of dealing with his feud with Carson Hocevar at the Mexico City race

During the Viva Mexico 250 at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez on June 15, 2025, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Carson Hocevar had a heated moment on the track. Following that, NASCAR insider Jeff Gluck claimed that Stenhouse Jr. did the right thing, avoiding physical confrontation with Hocevar on foreign soil.

The Spire Motorsports driver spun Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for the second time during the Mexico City race. The repetitive contact with Hocevar made the Hyak Motorsports driver furious and led to a post-race confrontation.

Following Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s feud with the #77 Chevy Camaro ZL1 driver, Jeff Gluck stated:

"Smart move, by the way. Do not get yourself arrested in Mexico and find yourself in a Mexican prison while everybody else in the industry leaves for assaulting somebody; you don't know the laws here." via YouTube/The Teardown. [57:05 onwards]

The NASCAR journalist pointed out that the Hyak Motorsports driver backed off during the Nashville Superspeedway crash. But the second spin at the Mexico City race made him confront Hocevar for his actions.

"In Ricky's mind he's going to say, 'Well now if I don't follow through, I said, "Okay, I'll listen to this, and it doesn't do us any good, but if you do it again," now he did it again, and now he's been captured on audio. And Carson's like, Yeah, I screwed up, but it doesn't matter at this point," Gluck added.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. ranks 25th on the Cup Series points table with three top-ten finishes and one top-five finish in 19 starts this season. Additionally, he has an average start of 27 and an average finish of 19.579.

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Edited by Tushhita Barua