Sonoma Raceway hosted opposite storylines. While Shane van Gisbergen won over fans’ trust after his dazzling performance, Kyle Larson lost the trust of an enraged rival. The Hendrick Motorsports driver brushed fenders with Noah Gragson after the Front Row Motorsports contender’s day started off dismally in 32nd, and no efforts to climb back up worked.

The incident sort of summed up Noah Gragson’s 2025 Cup Series season, as the No. 4 FRM Ford has encountered 5 DNFs so far. With only 3 top tens and 1 top five to make up for his losses, Gragson was not in a good mood when Kyle Larson rubbed salt in his wounds.

Noah Gragson’s tough day out

Most of the smoking wrecks were saved for the end at the Toyota/Save Mart 350. In the initial stages, all the skilled road course racers tested their talents against the invincible Shane van Gisbergen. Kyle Larson did the same at the end of stage 2, as he raced for the lead. His efforts fell through, though, as SVG pitted with two laps to go and yet overtook him for the stage win. That might have given the defending Sonoma race winner an extra edge of motivation, but that led to chaos.

On lap 99, Noah Gragson spun off Turn 3 seemingly due to Josh Berry’s moves. However, his bursting emotions on the radio blamed another rival for the multi-car melee: “Tell Larson I’m coming. He spends too much f—— time hitting people.” This set the stage for a possible vengeful comeback during the road course race. While SVG battled his way ahead, Noah Gragson aimed to make things tough for Kyle Larson. However, that was not meant to be.

With 10 laps to go, the No. 4 FRM car spun out again. This time, he did not go into the grass and was in the middle of traffic, which made the damage worse. Ryan Preece‘s No. 60 RFK Racing Ford hit Gragson’s car. So the FRM driver’s wish to get back at Larson went out the window. He hurled another round of expletives on the radio: “F—, I hate this s–t, man. So f—ing over this.”

Despite Noah Gragson’s lost chances, Kyle Larson had a chaotic incident coming his way, anyway. The No. 5 Chevy crashed on lap 107 along with Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Ford. Larson got major damage to the rear after contact with John Hunter Nemechek. As a consequence, Larson ended up finishing in 35th place, just two spots better than Gragson. This incident is hardly the first time Gragson had beef with an HMS driver. On lap 114 of the Nashville race, Alex Bowman slid his No. 48 into Gragson’s No. 4 car and forced them both into the wall. The mishap had caused heavy damage right in front of Larson’s race car.

His day went south, but Kyle Larson can console himself about one thing. He accurately predicted the fallout of the Sonoma race beforehand.

Witnessing the unabated potential

Well, it may be SVG’s world, and we are all living in it. The Kiwi speedster has been on a sparkling streak since picking up the first win of the season in Mexico City. After his dominance at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Shane Van Gisbergen picked up his fourth NASCAR national series win in Chicago, sweeping both Xfinity and Cup races that weekend.

He aimed for another doubleheader in Sonoma, but his Xfinity ambition just fell short. However, that fueled SVG’s motivation for the Cup race. Starting from the pole, he fended off the advances of fierce contenders like Kyle Larson and Michael McDowell. He dodged the round of late-race cautions to fend off Chase Briscoe and Chase Elliott in the end with a 1.3-second gap.

This marked Shane van Gisbergen’s third road course victory in a row in the Cup Series. Although the hints were already in place, Kyle Larson accurately predicted the Sonoma race a day earlier. “You know, he’s so good, and it’s rare that you see somebody stand out and distance himself from the competition as much as he is. He’s way, way, way better than us at the road course stuff. And he’s got his own technique, you can call it. Not his own because the rest of the world does it — right-foot braking, clutching, and all that stuff.” Larson added, “I hope that we’re much closer to him this week, but as good as he is, I expect him to be fastest in qualifying and execute in a good race again.”

Well, Kyle Larson accurately foresaw the end of the Sonoma race. However, he could not foresee the part before the end, where Noah Gragson swore revenge on him. Let us wait and see how this conflict resolves.