Posted on by Reid Spencer

SONOMA, Calif. – Winning poles at Sonoma Raceway is nothing new for Kyle Larson, who proved that definitively on Saturday, powering his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet to his third straight top starting spot at the 2.52-mile road course, which features the addition of the carousel this year.

What has been far less predictable is Larson’s finishing position in the Toyota/Save Mart 350, a statistic Larson hopes to rectify on Sunday (3 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Larson has finished 26th and 14th in his last two outings at Sonoma and has never run better than 12th in five Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts at the track.

RELATED: See every car in the field | Qualifying results

“I guess the trend with my three poles is winning a pole and then struggling in the race,” said the 26-year-old from Elk Grove, California, who claimed his first Busch Pole Award of the season and the eighth of his career and tied Ricky Rudd for most consecutive poles at the track. “Hopefully, we’ll have something different for tomorrow. I feel good.

“We did a mock (qualifying) run yesterday in practice and ran a good lap. I kind of over-drove the first session and then the next session I said, ‘I’m going to calm down and not make any mistakes,’ and I probably under-drove just a little. In the carousel, I think I gave up a little speed, but I feel like I made up some time in other areas, too. It’s cool to get a third pole in a row here at my home track.”

Larson toured the 12-turn circuit in 94.784 seconds (95.712 mph), edging fellow Chevrolet driver William Byron (95.669 mph) by .043 seconds. Joey Logano qualified third at 95.618 mph in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

“I feel like my lap was pretty good,” said Logano, who was .094 seconds off the pole speed. “I was just a little loose. I feel like I got through it mainly pretty decent. I got a little loose off of (Turn) 10. If I could find one spot, I got too loose off 10 trying to throttle up too aggressively and stuck half my left sides up in the dirt and got loose and knocked a few mile an hour off on the exit, compared to what I would have been.

“Maybe that’s a tenth (of a second), maybe a half a tenth. I don’t know. I have to go back and look. All I needed was nine-hundredths, so that’s probably the spot I’m looking at.”

Chase Elliott qualified fourth, ahead of Daniel Suarez. Sixth-place Denny Hamlin had the fastest Toyota, edging Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., the defending race winner. Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, Jimmie Johnson and Alex Bowman also advanced to the second round of time trials and will start ninth through 12th, respectively.

Posted on by Holly Cain

Kyle Larson’s success at the famed Sonoma Raceway is to some extent, a microcosm of his season.

He’s won the pole position for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at the track for the past two years, but hasn’t been there at the finish to take home the big trophy. Similarly, the popular young driver has been good on the season – he won the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series All-Star race last month – but he’s still looking for his first points-paying victory. 

This could well be the track and the weekend that changes all that.

RELATED: Full schedule for Sonoma | Larson tops final practice

The Sonoma Raceway road course is essentially a home race track for the Elk Grove, California native. He fondly recalls coming to races as a fan when he was a young boy, even dressing in his racing hero Jeff Gordon’s kid-size fire suit. 

And the feel-good has continued as an adult. The day before his 2014 rookie series debut at the track, Larson won the pole and led every lap to claim the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West victory.

He’d love to replicate the good vibes and past performance in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). And judging by his work in Friday’s opening two practice sessions, he’s a good bet. Larson led final practice in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet.

“We don’t ever come here and set up to get a pole,” Larson told reporters Friday afternoon. “We come here to try and win the race and have the set-up capable of winning the race. So it just happens to work out where I’ve been good for short-run kind of stuff here my whole career.

“It seems like it’s kind of the same thing again this weekend. So, I don’t know. We’ve tried all sorts of different stuff so maybe it’s just my fault why I’m only good at qualifying.”

In an unusual twist of fate, the fact Larson has only five previous Monster Energy Series starts at Sonoma may well work into his favor this weekend. The Sonoma track will feature a new look for the first time since 1997. And the change in course – extending it from 1.99-miles to 2.52-miles and adding the famous carousel turn – has garnered plenty of headlines and strong opinions. No one entered this weekend has ever run this longer track version in a Cup race.

RELATED: What drivers are saying about the carousel after practice

It certainly didn’t slow Larson down in the opening practice sessions. In fact, he even told reporters the new section of the course may well be his favorite part. 

“It’s just a few extra corners so it’s not a big deal I guess to any of us out there,” Larson said. “So yeah, we ran a good lap in our mock run today in practice, so I feel like I have a good shot at another pole tomorrow {Saturday). I would like to be better in race trim, but if we can get another pole it would be pretty cool.”

Larson is ranked 15th in the series driver standings – inside the top-16 cutoff to ultimately make the Playoffs – but with only an eight-point cushion over 17th place Ryan Newman. Larson is 14 points behind 14th place William Byron.

This weekend may well be a turning point for Larson. His season’s highs – such as earning his first All-Star Race victory – have been extraordinary, but his disappointments have been equally as resounding. Larson led a race best 143 laps at Atlanta, for example, but finished 12th.  And the perennial Playoff contender has as many DNFs as he does top-10s (four). His best effort of 2019 is third place at Dover in May. His last top 10 came a week after that – an eighth place run in Kansas.

Larson has never started worse than fifth in five Sonoma races, but has never finished better than 12th (2016). He’s hoping a new look for the track may translate into a new look for him after the race: sipping local wine in Victory Lane.

“I guess [it’s] not too frustrating with how our cars are running because I feel like our cars have been pretty good,” Larson said when asked about his season. “But as far as just bad luck or mistakes and things like that, that’s what’s been frustrating. But having a decently fast race car helps relieve some of that frustration.

“Kurt [Busch] has been running really good. I run pretty good most of the race and then kind of something seems to happen towards to the end. We’ve just got to clean up some things still and hopefully we can make the Playoffs and be hitting on all eight cylinders at the right time.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Hailie Deegan nabbed the pole position for Saturday’s NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Sonoma Raceway. Deegan will be joined on the front row by Xfinity Series regular Noah Gragson, who qualified second.

HOME TRACKS: Deegan scores pole position | Qualifying results for K&N West race

Deegan won the Pro Series West’s most recent race at Colorado after last-lap contact with teammate Derek Kraus. She has two wins and now has two poles on the season in the series.

RELATED: Deegan on Kraus: ‘We resolved our conflict from last race’

The field for Saturday’s race is filled with some big names —  in addition to the K&N Pro Series West regulars, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers Austin Dillon, Daniel Hemric and Ryan Preece will be in the race in an effort to get more seat time at the California road course. Cole Custer, who has three Xfinity Series wins, is also in the race.

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series West takes to the track at 4:45 p.m. ET at Sonoma. You can watch the race on FansChoice.tv.

WATCH: Saturday’s K&N West race on FansChoice.tv

Posted on by Pat DeCola

SONOMA, Calif. – Nobody likes a backseat driver, but not all passengers are seven-time championship winning crew chiefs.

Three of Hendrick Motorsports’ four drivers – William Byron, Alex Bowman and Jimmie Johnson — spun laps this week at Pahrump, Nevada’s Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch, in preparation for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Sonoma Raceway. Each driver’s crew chief was on hand to pore over the data, but it was Byron’s pit boss, Chad Knaus, who actually took it to the next level and rode shotgun with his driver to get a better feel for what his sophomore talent is looking for.

RELATED: Full Sonoma schedule

“Communication’s getting better and more up front,” Byron said Friday at Sonoma. “Got a chance to take Chad out on the track and that was really fun. I think that’s going to help us this weekend — to kind of be able to relate to what’s going on and keep trying to improve.”

Turns out, “really fun” for the 21-year-old means making his crew chief – more than double his age at 47 – hang on for dear life.

“Every time we’d go through the braking zone, his head would fall forward and hit the dash. I liked that part,” Byron joked. “I think I probably ran my fastest lap with him in the car. It was fun, I really enjoyed it. …

“He seemed all right. He got really quiet, but seemed OK. He definitely got quiet so I wasn’t sure if he was getting sick.”

With Sonoma being a place where one of the three of Hendrick drivers could punch a ticket to the NASCAR Playoffs – Chase Elliott is already provisionally in via his Talladega win — the trio wanted to turn some laps at Spring Mountain before heading farther west to wine country.

Former road course ace Ron Fellows provided help, and they ran nose-to-tail for about 100 laps, finishing up by analyzing a multitude of data, primarily throttle and brake specs.

It was a text — ‘Hey, I want to get out there’ — from Knaus to Byron midway through the session, however, that could give the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet the edge he needs come Sunday.

“We stopped and he got in the passenger seat and really he just wants to learn what the car feels like and what I’m asking the car to do and how I want the car to work really well,” said Byron, currently 14th in points. “It’s helped us this weekend, because we know exactly where we want our car to perform well.”

Not all the laps were thrill rides, however, as Byron took the time to walk Knaus through the variable-length course corner-by-corner to explain what he was looking for.

“We would kind of run through laps and then we’d slow down and talk about them in each corner and kind of go through exactly what I felt like in each corner. I thought it was really, really good for us to do that. I think it’s just going to help make it more relatable for him when we’re talking about the car. He even admitted that just understanding what makes speed and what’s going to make us successful.”

The pairing was always going to feel odd to outsiders in the early going given just how long Knaus was paired with “Seven-Time” – same goes for the duo of Johnson and his new guy in Kevin Meendering – but it’s really starting to pay dividends as they settle in.

After struggling to maintain any kind of consistency in his rookie season last year en route to a 23rd-place points finish, Byron has bettered his average finish by nearly seven spots (22.1 to 15.7) and currently sits inside the provisional playoff field. The driver has also put his No. 24 Chevy out in front of the field for five straight races – the first time he’s led laps in five straight in any national series since 2016 in Gander Trucks. Byron also has started on the pole in two of the last three races.

This week’s laps at Spring Mountain are just the latest instance of the pair working on improving their communication – something Knaus and Johnson really honed after a rocky start, and that arguably helped propel them to their unprecedented run of five straight and seven total titles.

“He’s really open and honest with me about what we’re going to face when we get here,” Byron said. “He always asks me what he can do to help or what things can help me. I’ve been surprised at how vocal he’s been and how much we communicate throughout the week. Things like that I think are all good for us.

“I’ve been around him for a year now, in the debriefs and in the weekends and knowing how he worked with Jimmie and his team. I feel like there wasn’t much of a surprise (to how he is), honestly. He’s very direct, so you don’t have to worry about whether he’s trying to send you a message in a certain way or he’s trying to blow you off or whatever. He’ll tell you if you’re doing something wrong.”

As one of the youngest drivers in the series, Byron will still do some things wrong, of course – but he’s been doing a lot more right lately, and Knaus’ guidance is a key part in that development.

Posted on by Jonathan Merryman

SONOMA, Calif. — The sport of stock car racing comes with its fair share of big-time decisions, big-time rewards and big-time consequences. For Hailie Deegan, the decision trigger and the weighted scale of risk vs. reward is a quick one evident from her bump and run on her teammate Derek Kraus at Colorado in early June.

MORE: Grassroots coverage with Home Tracks | Deegan wins at Colorado on last lap

Deegan, who was featured on NASCAR.com’s YouTube series “10-Minute Tour” at Sonoma Raceway addressed the conflict with Kraus.

WATCH: Deegan’s 10-Minute Tour on YouTube

“Me and Derek are friends now, again! We resolved our conflict from last race, so we’re cool now.” Deegan said.

Deegan even interviewed Kraus about the upcoming NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Sonoma about his expectations and he jokingly said he hoped to “stay clean.”

The NASCAR K&N Pro Series West takes to the track at 4:45PM ET at Sonoma. You can watch the race on FansChoice.tv.

WATCH: Saturday’s K&N West race on FansChoice.tv

Posted on by Jonathan Merryman

SONOMA, Calif. — Nothing stings more for a race car driver than “what could have been.” For Denny Hamlin at Sonoma, that moment came in 2016 racing Tony Stewart through Turn 11 on the final lap. The win that day went to Stewart, the 49th and final win of his Hall of Fame career. Hamlin finished second.

“2016 in general was tough,” Hamlin told NASCAR.com. “I had that battle with Tony, I’m glad I was able to get him his final win, I guess. That part was tough. I remember thinking after that race, I was so distraught just thinking, man! That’s the closest I have ever come to winning a road course race other than my rookie season.”

Since that race, Hamlin has won a road course race at Watkins Glen (also in the 2016 season), and posted two more top-10 finishes at Sonoma — he has three in a row at Sonoma counting his 2016 heartbreak. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has already won two races in what he calls a “revival year” after his first full-time winless season in the sport’s top series. Returning to Victory Lane multiple times in 2019 leaves the driver of the No. 11 confident.

“I mean you are always wanting to prove yourself to be better,” Hamlin said. “I think there is enough metrics out there, and there is enough data to support that I have been a top five to six driver my entire career. Fortunately, and unfortunately, I’m probably teammates with the best out there in NASCAR so you’re always going to be judged on that bar.”

Hamlin is a 33-time winner at NASCAR’s highest level with two of those wins coming in the Daytona 500. The 33 wins tie him with Fireball Roberts for 23rd on NASCAR’s all time Cup wins list and are the fourth-most among active drivers in the series. Despite the numbers, Hamlin feels he doesn’t get the credit others do.

RELATED: All of Hamlin’s Cup wins | Hamlin unveils Darlington throwback honoring DW

“Well we have been overlooked a lot through my career,” Hamlin said. “I think you could ask most people … ‘how many wins does Denny have?’ and they would have no idea. They would say ‘maybe 10-15.’

“… We’re not flashy with it, but neither was Matt Kenseth, neither was Mark Martin. Both of those guys are guys that I respect.”

Both those drivers are a tick above Hamlin on the all-time Cup wins list — Kenseth sits at 21st with 39 wins and Martin is 19th with 40 wins. The Virginia native will be in pursuit of moving closer to each with win No. 34 on Sunday — and his first at Sonoma — in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Posted on by Holly Cain

In a sense Martin Truex Jr. merely picked up right where he left off. … in front of the pack. The defending and two-time Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway winner led opening practice Friday at the 2.52-mile road course and looked like a good bet for race day, even with a new twist to the Sonoma turns.

For the first time since 1997, the road course will include its unique “Carousel” section, a tough and tight twist through Turns 4-7 of the 12-turn course.

The new look was a hot topic of conversation both before the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series rolled into Northern California for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and throughout Friday’s opening practice sessions.

“We definitely learned a lot about it,” said Truex, driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. “I’d never been on it so it was quite a learning experience for me.

And, he added, “I’m glad we were able to come here, figure out the track, figure out the race car and how to adapt our set-up that we’ve been running here the couple seasons over to the new turns and I definitely felt like it worked out pretty well for us.”

While Truex, a three-time winner this season, led the opening practice, two-time defending pole-winner Kyle Larson paced the later session. Most of the drivers acknowledged Friday that the track’s new look took a little adjustment even if two of Sonoma’s recent best looked to have figured it out rather quickly.

RELATED: Larson, Truex top Sonoma practices

It wasn’t that way for everyone, though. Four-time 2019 race winner and two-time Sonoma winner Kyle Busch, for example, had multiple misadventures navigating the previously unused carousel as did Bubba Wallace.

Drivers reiterated Friday that time on track was truly the only way to transition the course change.

“The only thing I did in preparation of coming here was to go to the simulator a little bit,” Truex said. “You only get so much out of that. All the visual cues are there, but you don’t have the feel, the sensation of speed, the g-forces, the rises and the falls, all of that.

“So to go out there, cold turkey this morning, it was a little bit weird. It was a little bit hairy. I was trying to figure it out and the track was a little dirty. It took a while to get it figured out, but once we were done with practice, I was really comfortable with the track. With the changes we made to my car, I am looking forward to hopefully laying down a good qualifying lap (Saturday).”

Reigning series champion Joey Logano insisted he had similarly high hopes for Saturday’s qualifying and for Sunday’s race. However, the Team Penske driver also spoke about the challenges of the new-look layout and the wide-open expectations for Sunday’s race.

“I think it affected us before we got here trying to figure out what it was going to take to go fast through the carousel, but still have the control you need through the rest of the race track,” Logano said. “You have a few laps trying to figure out where you are going and what you need in your car and then start working on it.

“We all have plenty of time to work on it and figure it out. The thing that is still an unknown is how it races. We got behind some cars in traffic in practice to see what effect it has to your car and those little things. There are a lot of unknowns until we race in all honesty.”

MORE: Full Sonoma, Gateway schedules

That race-and-see was a familiar refrain Friday after practice. Roush Fenway Racing driver Ryan Newman said he came to the track a day early to get an idea of the best technique to tackle the carousel.

“They let me drive the pace car around just to kind of get a feel for it,” Newman explained. “I couldn’t go fast because there were a bunch of people around the race track, but I wanted to get an idea of what to expect. It is fine. It will be interesting to see how it races. It is another half-mile of distance that hopefully will add some excitement and some passing zones that we kind of needed here.”

The upside of the unknown may be an intriguing race-day twist, so to speak.

“I think it is going to be a challenge when you crest the hill for the first time to see where the accordion effect happens going back toward Turn 3,” Newman said. “You will be on the brakes in places you have never been on the brakes before. That will be the biggest challenge, I think.”

Posted on by Pat DeCola

SONOMA, Calif. — Corey LaJoie knows he’s still putting the pieces together and building a foundation at Go Fas Racing before he and his No. 32 team are in the mix for wins on a weekly basis.

As such, it’s not the simplest task to work up a strong fan base with an average finish of 25.7. Sometimes a driver has to get creative and take things into his own hands – literally.

LaJoie and buddy Bubba Wallace were the darlings of social media and the rain-soaked fans at Michigan International Speedway a few weeks ago, entertaining the crowd during the rain delay by tossing the football around on pit road – and over the catch fence to a delighted group of lucky race attendees.

RELATED: Full schedule for Sonoma | Go on a 10-Minute Tour with LaJoie

“I don’t quite have the opportunity to win any of these Cup races yet, we just try to do the things that we can control. A little bit behind on up-to-date cars and the motors aren’t quite as good so we’re relegated to somewhere in that 25th to 30th range on speed but anytime we can do better than that is the goal,” LaJoie said Friday at Sonoma Raceway, site of Sunday’s Toyota/SaveMart 350 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“So any time I can get out there and mix it up with the fans, they were loving it. What was awesome was it just started as a natural thing just throwing the football, then we’d launch it up into the stands and they just loved it.

“That was huge. I was talking with FOX and the video of me and Bubba throwing the football got almost double the views that Joey Logano winning the race did. That solidified my theory that I got more attention throwing the football than I would have if I’d won the race the next day. Whatever it takes, right?”

The dynamic duo was back at it on Friday, tossing the ball around in the garage area with fans during practice.

Luckily for LaJoie, there was a two-week break in between pigskin practice sessions to parse over game film, fine-tune their skills and, most importantly, rest up.

“My abs and my arms were pretty sore for the next 48 hours, but it was worth it.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series inaugural Triple Truck Challenge concludes its three-race run Saturday night at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (10 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) and if this final event holds true to its two-race lead-in there will be no shortage of drama and big news.

Brett Moffitt and his GMS Racing team stand to pick up an extra $150,000 bonus should the defending series champion win for the second consecutive week. The runner-up at Iowa, Moffitt was awarded the victory after the apparent winner Ross Chastain’s truck was deemed illegal in post-race inspection. And that verdict was upheld again on appeal this week.

Moffitt acknowledged he didn’t lead a lap in his win – the first by a disqualification in the history of the series – but welcomed the victory nonetheless, posting photos on social media of his team celebrating.

RELATED: Everything to know about the Triple Truck Challenge

“This is a big change of emotions,” Moffitt said after being called to speak to the press following Chastain’s disqualification.

“As a race car driver, I got beat on track and that’s not how you want to do it. … but I’ll take a win any way I can get it.

“It is what it is,” he continued, “We finally got a win that we needed and we’ll take it.”

And, he reminded, the big money from the Triple Truck Challenge was a nice companion to his first trophy of the season.

Saturday night’s CarShield 200 presented by CK Power is a sort of re-set for everyone with another huge paycheck on the line. If someone other than Moffitt wins, that driver still earns a $50,000 bonus as part of the Triple Truck Challenge incentive.

And with the Playoffs looming, it’s go-time for multiple reasons. The big incentive from series sponsor Gander Outdoors is icing on the cake.

Chastain, for example, now needs to win again and break into the top-20 in the standings to make the Playoffs. He only declared himself Gander Trucks championship eligible two races ago (before Texas) and sits 69 points behind the 20th-place cutoff. A victory this week would be a strong statement from his Niece Motorsports team.

RELATED: Gateway schedule

Looking especially strong in recent weeks is Matt Crafton, a two-time Gander Trucks champion, who moved into second in the series driver standings last week at Iowa. He trails championship leader Grant Enfinger by 47 points and holds a slim two-point edge over third place Stewart Friesen.

Crafton drove the No. 88 ThorSport Ford to back-to-back pole positions at Kansas and Charlotte earlier this season. He has nine top-10 finishes in the season’s opening 10 races; including the last seven consecutively. He was a season best runner-up in Texas in the Triple Truck Challenge opening race two weeks ago, but he’s had only one top five in the last five races at Gateway – including three DNFs.

In two previous starts at Gateway, NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series driver standings leader Grant Enfinger won the pole position last year and scored a best showing of fifth place in 2017. He’s finished top 10 in nine of 10 races this season – his worst finish is 11th at Vegas.  He was runner-up at the Daytona season opener and has finished fourth in the opening two races of the Triple Truck Challenge.

There is plenty of motivation across the Gander Trucks field. Moffitt is the only driver ranked among the top six in the championship standings with a victory. There are no former Gateway race winners entered this week, however, Kyle Busch Motorsports driver Todd Gilliland finished second last year and is still looking for his first series victory.

As far as Moffitt’s concerned, being awarded the victory last week following a competitor’s disqualification is not the same thing as taking the checkered flag after beating the field. So he remains as driven as ever – perhaps more so.

“It’s a place I like and GMS Racing has proven it’s strong there,” Moffitt said. “We’re looking forward to it and winning that 150 grand.”

Posted on by Staff Report

Kyle Larson snared the No. 1 spot on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series leaderboard Friday afternoon, leading a 1-2 Chip Ganassi Racing sweep in the final tune-up for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Larson drove the Ganassi No. 42 Chevrolet to a best lap of 95.469 mph on the 2.52-mile road course. His speed was just ahead of teammate Kurt Busch’s No. 1 Chevrolet, which notched a 94.986 mph lap in the 80-minute practice.

RELATED: Final practice results | Sonoma schedule

Aric Almirola was third-fastest in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 10 Ford, just ahead of SHR teammate Clint Bowyer. Matt DiBenedetto completed the top five on the practice chart.

Drivers used Friday’s practice sessions to familiarize themselves with the “carousel” section, which was used for NASCAR events from 1989-97. The addition of the series of twists between Turns 4 and 7 stretches the course distance from 1.99 miles to the original 2.52 miles.

Kyle Busch had a handful of misadventures early in final practice. Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota overshot Turn 4 three times, missing the right-hander that serves as the entrance to the carousel section. In between those issues, Busch’s car spun off course as it rounded the uphill first turn into Turn 2. Busch drove away from all four incidents without significant damage. Bubba Wallace’s No. 43 also continued after a harmless spin in Turn 7 with three minutes left in the session.

Defending race winner Martin Truex Jr. was 12th-fastest in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota. Truex, who paced first practice, was docked 15 minutes of track time in final practice as a penalty for his team failing inspection twice in the series’ most recent race at Michigan International Speedway.

Busch Pole Qualifying is scheduled Saturday at 3:10 p.m. ET (FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Truex tops the board in opening practice

Martin Truex Jr. sped to the top of the Monster Energy Series chart in Friday’s opening practice as NASCAR’s top division used the original layout at Sonoma Raceway for the first time in 22 years.

Truex’s Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota paced the 80-minute session with a best lap of 95.326 mph. Truex is the defending race winner of Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), having scored his second Sonoma win last June.

RELATED: Practice 1 results

Ryan Blaney’s Team Penske No. 12 Ford was second-fastest at 95.195 mph. Chris Buescher was third on the speed list with Jimmie Johnson and Michael McDowell rounding out the top five.

RELATED: Pearn previews Sonoma, differing strategies

A handful of drivers experienced minor off-course excursions, including William Byron, Landon Cassill, Austin Dillon and Ryan Newman.