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Van Gisbergen flies to Xfinity pole, storm hits IndyCar

van gisbergen sonoma

By Thomas Miles

Date posted: 12 July 2025

Shane van Gisbergen has let the good times roll by taking a crushing NASCAR Xfinity Series pole at Sonoma, while a storm cancelled all IndyCar running at Iowa.

As the Supercars race around Townsville, van Gisbergen is carrying on his NASCAR journey at Sonoma by again doubling up in the Xfinity and Cup Series.

After achieving a historic double at Chicago last weekend, the Kiwi has given himself the best chance of doing it again.

SVG claimed Xfinity Series pole with a 1:15.259s time as the only driver to hit 95mph average speed.

He overcame Trackhouse Racing rival Connor Zilisch, who is a highly rated youngster and already regarded as one of the better local road course steerers.

Van Gisbergen enjoyed a two-and-a-half tenth margin whilst the top two were well clear of next best Sam Mayer and Jesse Love.

In an ominous sign for the rest of the field, van Gisbergen won last year’s Xfinity Series race from pole.

“Our race runs were okay, but qualifying to be front row for our team, JR Motorsports, thank you to them because the car is really good,” van Gisbergen said.

“I was having fun out there and looking forward to racing tomorrow.”

The Xfinity Race will start at 6.30 AEST Sunday morning aand will be broadcast on Fox Sports.

Over at Iowa Raceway, there was no on-track action in IndyCar due to some wild storms.

Scott McLaughlin posted a photo of what appeared to be a tornado and as a result, the schedule has been tweaked slightly.

Qualifying will move to 3.30 AEST Sunday and the race remains unchanged for 3.00 Monday AEST

In Indy NXT the storms also robbed Australia’s Lochie Hughes the chance of fighitng for pole.

With qualifying rained out, the grid was set from entrant points leading in.

This sees title rival Dennis Hauger head the field from Hughes.

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