Shane van Gisbergen continued his dominance on road courses Sunday at Sonoma with his third win in the last five races, all of which have come on road and street courses. van Gisbergen led 97 of the 110 laps and even bagged 19 stage points and a Stage 2 win despite short-pitting toward the end of each stage to get track position.
Prior to his win in Mexico City, van Gisbergen was outside the top 30 in points and in desperate need of a win to turn his season around. Fast forward to now and he sits tied atop the wins list (three) with Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell, and he also has the third-most playoff points (17) of any driver.
Behind van Gisbergen in the final running order were Chase Briscoe, Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell and Bell, with Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs, William Byron, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch rounding out the top 10 in Wine Country.
The In-Season Challenge featured more dramatics and is now down to the Final Four of Reddick, Gibbs, John Hunter Nemechek and the last seed in the tournament, Ty Dillon, after a last-lap bump-and-run to Alex Bowman.
A bold move to make the semifinals! @tydillon moves @Alex_Bowman to advance in the In-Season Challenge! pic.twitter.com/qdylBL60RS
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) July 13, 2025
NASCAR Cup Series regular season points and playoff picture after Sonoma
Six races remain in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season. Those include one-mile Dover Motor Speedway (July 20), 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway (July 27), 0.88-mile Iowa Speedway (Aug. 3), 2.45-mile road course Watkins Glen (Aug. 10), 0.75-mile Richmond Raceway (Aug. 16) and 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway (Aug. 23).
Updated Cup Series standings after the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway
Driver Standings | Points | Behind |
|---|---|---|
1. William Byron | 668 | 0 |
2. Chase Elliott | 654 | -14 |
3. Kyle Larson | 624 | -44 |
4. Tyler Reddick | 615 | -53 |
5. Denny Hamlin | 606 | -62 |
6. Christopher Bell | 597 | -71 |
7. Ryan Blaney | 545 | -123 |
8. Chase Briscoe | 526 | -142 |
9. Ross Chastain | 513 | -155 |
10. Chris Buescher | 500 | -168 |
It was a solid day for Byron at Sonoma, with a much-needed top-10 finish (eighth) after three straight finishes of 27th or worse. That was enough to maintain his points lead over teammates Elliott and Kyle Larson. Reddick leapfrogs Denny Hamlin for fourth. At the bottom of the top 10, Briscoe jumps ahead of Chastain for eighth and Buescher moves into the 10th spot in place of Bowman, who came home 19th at Sonoma.
Notable drivers outside the top 10 in the overall standings include Logano (11th), Bowman (12th), Bubba Wallace (13th), Busch (15th), Gibbs (17th), Brad Keselowski (27th) and Daniel Suarez (29th). Austin Cindric (20th), Josh Berry (21st) and van Gisbergen (26th) are in the bottom half of the overall standings, but are locked into the playoff field as things currently stand due to their wins this season.
NASCAR Cup Series playoff picture after Sonoma
Position | Driver | Wins/points above or below cut line |
|---|---|---|
1. | Kyle Larson | 3 wins |
2. | Denny Hamlin | 3 wins |
3. | Shane van Gisbergen | 3 wins |
4. | Christopher Bell | 3 wins |
5. | William Byron | 1 win |
6. | Chase Elliott | 1 win |
7. | Ryan Blaney | 1 win |
8. | Chase Briscoe | 1 win |
9. | Ross Chastain | 1 win |
10. | Joey Logano | 1 win |
11. | Austin Cindric | 1 win |
12. | Josh Berry | 1 win |
13. | Tyler Reddick | +149 points |
14. | Chris Buescher | +34 points |
15. | Alex Bowman | +32 points |
16. | Bubba Wallace | +3 points |
17. | Ryan Preece | -3 points |
18. | Kyle Busch | -37 points |
19. | AJ Allmendinger | -50 points |
20. | Ty Gibbs | -60 points |
No one separated themselves on the bubble at Sonoma, with Wallace holding on to a slim advantage over Preece for the final playoff spot with six regular-season races to go. Bowman dropped down to 15th after his subpar run and Gibbs moved into 20th after another solid run in seventh.
One thing to keep in mind is the importance of both regular-season points standings and playoff standings. While drivers with wins vault to the top of the points standings and guarantee themselves a playoff spot, assuming there are no more than 16 winners, the overall points are equally important.
The regular-season champion by season's end will earn an additional 15 playoff points, second place will get 10 and drivers third-to-10th in points will receive points in descending order down to one point for 10th.