SONOMA, Calif. — The Nos. 6 and 54 pit crews had a minor altercation during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway.
On Lap 52 of the Toyota/Save Mart 350, Ty Gibbs’ No. 54 Toyota led Brad Keselowski’s No. 6 Ford onto pit road near the end of Stage 2. The two were pitted directly next to each other, with Gibbs’ crew in stall No. 16 and Keselowski’s in stall 17.
Gibbs drove through Keselowski’s pit box on entry and nearly clipped Telvin McClurkin, Keselowski’s tire carrier, as the No. 6 crewmen leaped over the wall. The hesitation appeared to slow the No. 6 team’s stop, and upon its completion, McClurkin approached the No. 54 crew to express his displeasure.
The confrontation resulted in a brief burst of physical shoves between two RFK Racing crew members and three Joe Gibbs Racing crew members that was visible from the Sonoma Raceway media center before NASCAR officials intervened to break up the scrum.
Spokespersons for both JGR and RFK Racing described the incident to NASCAR.com and PRN Radio as a “disagreement” as the second stage came to an end.
Gibbs explained his view of the incident after finishing seventh, four spots ahead of Keselowski in the 37-car field.
“By NASCAR’s rules, you know, I’m the lead car because I’m in the pit box past where the 6 is and I’m in front of them as well,” Gibbs told TNT Sports. “We have these orange lines right there — as you can see, I’m sure they’ll show you after — where if I’m behind him, I have to go around those orange lines for it to be the rule. Going in, I have the right-of-way. So you know, they’re on the wall for a reason, they jump for a reason, and they kind of get out of the way. And those guys like to push it, and that’s kind of the consequence you pay. So it’s unfortunate for them that they had a penalty. Nothing malicious. It’s my right-of-way.”
Jeremy Bullins, crew chief for Keselowski and the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, came off the pit box to help diffuse the situation.
“If we were in that pit box, I would expect him (Keselowski) to do the same [expletive] thing, so we’re good,” Bullins told No. 54 jackman Braxton Brannon. “It’s your right to drive through here. It sucks, but it is what it is.”
TNT Sports reported McClurkin expressed Gibbs’ car did hit the tire in his hands and twisted his wrist. McClurkin also told TNT he was OK and would continue pitting the rest of the afternoon.
A NASCAR spokesperson confirmed that officials reviewed the incident and expressed to the No. 6 team that the crew should have given more room for the No. 54 car and ruled Gibbs’ close entry unintentional, therefore not resulting in a penalty. Additionally, officials will review the altercation during the week and determine if there will be any penalties to come.
“I mean, I get it. It was overblown because you look up and people are scrapping and you’re wondering what the heck’s going on here,” said Chris Gabehart, Joe Gibbs Racing’s competition director. “So I understand why it was made a scene, but the truth of the matter is, the lead car in that instance has the right-of-way to the trailing-box car. It’s just really, really tough when they’re literally coming to pit road nose to tail. It doesn’t happen very often. So in that instance, and we all know on pit road how to deal with that, like everybody understands that the trailing car has got to give a gap so the leading car, so your guys can jump in between the two, but it’s just a really tight spot.”
Trackhouse Racing teammates Ross Chastain and Daniel Suárez tangled in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race, with Suárez getting the worst of a Turn 11 collision at Sonoma Raceway.
Suárez was running 14th when Chastain overcooked his entry into the final corner in the 45th of 110 laps in the Toyota/Save Mart 350. The contact from Chastain’s No. 1 Chevrolet sent Suárez’s No. 99 Chevy spinning in the hairpin, knocking him to 29th place in the running order.
“You better hope I don’t get to him today,” Suárez told his team over the No. 99 radio after the incident. During the Stage 2 break, Suárez was told that Chastain had relayed an apology through his spotter, indicating he did not intend to drive that deep into the turn and could not halt his car’s momentum.
Suárez had a measure of turnabout in the final results after a series of late-race caution flags, finishing 14th. Chastain placed 24th after starting fourth in the 37-car field.
Chastain left Sonoma without comment, but Suárez said a conversation between the two might be warranted.
“I hope so,” Suárez said. “And if it doesn’t happen, he’s gonna get it back.”
Suárez and Trackhouse announced July 1 that they had mutually agreed to part company at the end of the 2025 season. Suárez left Sunday’s race 29th in the Cup Series points standings. Just six races remain in the regular season before the 16-driver field for the Cup Series Playoffs is set, and he needs a win to reach the postseason.
Chastain, who won Stage 1 Sunday at Sonoma, clinched a playoff berth with his May victory in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Shane van Gisbergen, the third Trackhouse Racing driver racing full-time in the Cup Series, cruised to his third win of the season Sunday at Sonoma. It’s quite the tear for the New Zealand import, who also won the previous weekend in the Chicago Street Race.
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NASCAR odds list Shane van Gisbergen as the clear favorite for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Sonoma Raceway, and for good reason.
SVG, who has won two of the three races on road courses, like Sonoma, this season, sits at +105 NASCAR odds at DraftKings heading into today’s race.
He is followed by Kyle Larson (+700), Chase Elliott (+850), Tyler Reddick (+1200), Michael McDowell (+1200) and AJ Allmendinger (+1200).
When it comes to my favorite NASCAR pick for Sonoma, I’m bypassing the outright market and am instead zeroing in on one matchup that’s a headscratcher in my mind.
Sonoma has been good to Daniel Suárez in the Next Gen car.
Over the past three races at this circuit, Suárez has posted the eighth-best driver rating, the ninth-best average running position and a win back in 2022.
On the other hand, Denny Hamlin has had all kinds of problems at Sonoma in the Next Gen, finishing 31st in 2022, crashing out in 2023 and blowing an engine on Lap 2 last season.
But what really makes me bullish on Suárez in this matchup today is how they both paced in practice on Saturday.
Despite running in the much slower Group 1, Suárez was actually faster than Hamlin in five-lap average speed and only one spot behind the No. 11 Toyota in 10-lap average.
Further, Suárez qualified only three places behind Hamlin, so I can understand why this matchup looks closer on paper than it truly is, based on both drivers’ track histories and the fact that we need to adjust for when they both hit the track in practice.
In my mind, Suàrez should be the favorite here, but DraftKings has him priced at -105 against Hamlin — a price I’m investing in for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma.
NASCAR Pick: Daniel Suárez (-105) over Denny Hamlin — DraftKings
It’s the summer of Shane van Gisbergen in 2025. Two road courses down this summer and two to go until the Cup Series Playoffs, van Gisbergen has a 100% win rate and now there’s a strong chance he could be leading the entire series in victories once the checkered flag flies at Watkins Glen International in a month.
SVG will be the favorite for his third win of the year Sunday at Sonoma Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), but other drivers are lurking just behind to topple the No. 88 Trackhouse Racing driver’s road-course dominion.
Few drivers have even come close to matching van Gisbergen’s pace, but one driver who’s surging during this stretch of three road courses in five weeks is Ty Gibbs.
The first 14 races of this year had Gibbs all but written off at any shot of breaking through for that long-awaited first Cup triumph, but the script has flipped this summer for the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team. Dating back to Michigan five races ago, Gibbs hasn’t finished worse than 14th, and road courses have once again been a bright spot for the third-year Cup wheelman as he led 27 laps in Mexico City and was runner-up to van Gisbergen last Sunday at Chicago.
According to Racing Insights, Gibbs ranks top 10 in passing, defense and restarts on road courses this season and slots fourth in average running position at 10.92.
Sonoma hasn’t been the kindest to Gibbs in his two starts — average finish of 27.5 — however, Sunday may prove that the 22-year-old is ready to write the next chapter in his early Cup career.
KYLE LARSON: Larson has been in a relative slump lately with four finishes outside the top 10 in the last seven races; however, he can quickly turn that around in his home state on Sunday. Larson owns two wins at Sonoma (including last year) and has won four poles on the road course.
MICHAEL MCDOWELL: If it weren’t for a mechanical failure, it looked like Chicago could’ve been the place McDowell was going to score his first win with Spire Motorsports. Alas, that didn’t happen, and the No. 71 driver still needs a victory to make the playoffs. On paper, Sonoma is the best chance for McDowell to clinch that berth. He ranks first in speed and long-run pace at the road course in the Next Gen car and hasn’t finished worse than seventh.
CHRIS BUESCHER: In the Next Gen era at Sonoma, Buescher has placed everywhere in the top five except fifth or first. He’d certainly prefer the latter this weekend as he holds just a 35-point buffer to the playoff cutline. At Sonoma, Buescher ranks top five in speed, long-run pace and restarts.
ROSS CHASTAIN: The Trackhouse Racing driver had quite the eventful end to Chicago after a late-race run-in and confrontation with Joey Logano, but Chastain still walked away with a top 10 after the dust settled. Sonoma has been kind to Chastain with top 10s in his last four starts, including a best of fifth place in last year’s event. Chastain also ranks first in restarts at the California course.
RACING INSIGHTS’ PROJECTIONS FOR THE TOYOTA/SAVE MART 350
Racing Insights’ advanced statistical formula incorporates current track, track type, recent performance, team data and pit-crew data to predict a projected winner and provide full race results. Updated on race day with practice and qualifying factored in.
LANCASTER, N.Y. – In the four full-time years Austin Beers has spent on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, Lancaster Motorplex has quickly become one of his favorite tracks.
The half-mile oval outside of Buffalo was where Beers earned his second Modified Tour victory in 2023 after initially breaking through at Richmond Raceway earlier in the year. Beers defended that Lancaster triumph last year by climbing from the fifth position to lead a race-high 74 laps.
On Saturday, for the third year in row, Beers found his way to Victory Lane at Lancaster. It took strategy and a herculean effort on Beers’ behalf to fend off Patrick Emerling in the closing laps, but the second-generation Modified competitor was elated to prevail at Lancaster once again and finally earn a victory on the 2025 season.
“I’m wore out,” Beers said. “I was on the edge every single lap trying not to give up anything. We had the best in the business behind us with Justin Bonsignore, Patrick Emerling; Matt [Hirschman] was there, too. I’m so thankful to get the three-peat. It’s pretty damn cool.”
Consistency had followed Beers all year prior to Saturday’s Nu-Way Auto Parts 150. The only finish Beers recorded outside the top five all year came at Riverhead Raceway, where he placed eighth.
There were moments Saturday when Beers was unsure whether he would place inside the top five, let alone earn a third consecutive Lancaster win. Beers barely cracked the top 10 during the final practice session and only improved upon his speed in qualifying slightly with the ninth-best speed of 20 cars.
An early caution gave Beers’ crew an opportunity to adjust his No. 64 Modified. Beers methodically began picking off his fellow competitors during the ensuing green flag run before a spin by Craig Lutz with 76 laps remaining brought most of the field down pit road, cycling Beers to second place behind Kyle Bonsignore.
When Bonsignore pitted during the final caution of the night, Beers inherited the lead but was tasked with fending off the pack behind him. Emerling proved to be Beers’ toughest competition; the former was eager to improve upon the runner-up finish he sustained to Beers at Lancaster last year.
History repeated itself for both Beers and Emerling. Despite losing crucial track position during the last restart, Emerling made a valiant charge back to the rear bumper of Beers but once again had to settle for a second-place result.
“This is one we really wanted to win,” Emerling said. “[It’s our] home track. I think we had the car to beat, but we got freight-trained and stuck up top there. By the time I was able to work back by [Matt Hirschman] and [Justin Bonsignore], we were a little too used up at that point.”
By successfully fending off Emerling, Beers helped match a notable Modified Tour record by becoming the seventh different winner in seven races to open the season. The last time the series had seven different winners to open a season occurred back in 1999, with Tony Hirschman breaking that streak with back-to-back victories.
Austin Beers became the seventh different winner in seven Modified Tour races this year with his triumph at Lancaster Motorplex. (Photo: Bryan Bennett/NASCAR)
Other drivers who have visited Victory Lane with the Modified Tour this season are Emerling, Ron Silk, Craig Lutz and Matt Hirschman, along with Justin and Kyle Bonsignore.
The parity currently permeating the Modified Tour has Beers convinced a record-setting eighth different winner in eight races could occur during the next event at Monadnock Speedway. Beers would not mind snapping the streak, but he knows every triumph on the Modified Tour requires strenuous effort.
That’s why Beers is cherishing three consecutive victories at Lancaster.
“This shows how tough this tour is,” Beers said. “There’s six other guys that could still win, like [Stephen] Kopcik, the Catalanos and [Tyler] Rypkema. A lot of guys could still win here, but it means a lot to get another win at Lancaster. I love this place.”
Hirschman finished third behind Beers and Emerling. Kyle Bonsignore and Jacob Lutz completed the top five.
The rest of the top 10 comprised of Tyler Rypkema, Luke Baldwin, Justin Bonsignore, Craig Lutz and George Skora III.
Up next for the Modified Tour is a Saturday-Sunday doubleheader at Monadnock Speedway, with the Duel at the Dog 200 taking place on July 19 and the Cheshire County Clash 200 occurring the following day. The two races make up the final two legs of the Whelen Short Track Cup. FloRacing will have live coverage of all the on-track activity.
SONOMA, Calif. — Connor Zilisch and Shane van Gisbergen went toe-to-toe for a NASCAR Xfinity Series win for the second straight week.
But unlike last week on the Chicago Street Course, pole-sitter SVG couldn’t work past his 18-year-old JR Motorsports teammate Connor Zilisch and was forced to settle for a second-place finish instead.
The duo put on a fantastic show all race, trading the lead with minimal (but some) contact multiple times after both started on the front row. The action heated up with two laps to go when van Gisbergen charged to Zilisch’s bumper through the esses and bumped the No. 88 Chevrolet as he caught him. SVG relented to allow Zilisch to save it and try again on the final lap, where he was faced with another decision: knock Zilisch out of the way or let him go and try again later. He opted for the latter.
“I couldn’t do it without wrecking him, so just tried every trick I could,” van Gisbergen said. “But he drove so well and couldn’t get him. And I think it was the last lap into (Turn) 7, I got there but wheel-hopped, pushed him wide and yeah — could have gone but just waited. I didn’t want to do it like that. So yeah, I had a fun day.”
Racing Zilisch clean was top of mind for the New Zealander. He entered the final hairpin in Turn 11 right on Zilisch’s back bumper but opted to go to the outside on entry rather than snug behind him. Would that have been the case if the two weren’t teammates?
“I would be more aggressive, but I wouldn’t do something stupid,” van Gisbergen said. “I might probably wouldn’t have lifted out of (Turn) 7, but I’m not just going to hit people out of the way. I want to race and clean and hope people race me like that too.”
SVG’s past life ingrained him in the culture of Australian Supercars racing, which issues penalties for passes made via contact. That isn’t quite the case in NASCAR.
“In this type of racing, it ran through my head into (Turn) 11 on the last lap, like you’re allowed to just run through people and bump them wide,” van Gisbergen said. “But I’m not going to do that. So I tried to do a crossover and just didn’t have the grip out there. I had a lot of fun, and hope he did too.”
Zilisch did — and knew his teammate was taking care of him.
“I think he wanted to pass me fairly, and I don’t think that’s the way he wanted to do it, which I really do respect,” Zilisch said. “I mean, it takes a lot for a guy to do that, and for him to do that shows a lot about the driver and person he is.”
Patrick Vallely | For NASCAR Digital Media
Their close-quarters battle also came one week after a heated battle at the end of their Xfinity race at Chicago. On the final restart, SVG entered Turn 1 on Zilisch’s left and ran him wide to the wall on corner exit, forcing Zilisch to either lift or hit the wall.
After that race, Zilisch said he thought SVG would race him “a little cleaner” but later emphasized he didn’t view the move as dirty and doubled down on that Saturday in Sonoma.
“I said it last week: What he did wasn’t dirty,” Zilisch reiterated. “There was two laps to go, and he’s going to take the chance to win the race. And I think maybe some guys, he might race differently, but I think if you show him respect — and I feel like I did for the majority of the race — then he’s going to show you respect back.”
Van Gisbergen was surprised his Chicago tactic was a topic of discussion at all.
“It’s weird here in NASCAR,” van Gisbergen said. “Like last week was a textbook pass. Everywhere else in the world, that doesn’t get spoken about. But here in NASCAR, I had Kyle Busch have a go at me after the driver’s briefing last week about it. And it baffles me, you know? But that’s just the way people race here. They expect room on exit, and I need to adapt that mindset a bit more, I guess. But put me in the same spot last week, I’ll probably do the same thing, and he would do something different. Just how it works here.”
The pair of JRM drivers combined to lead 70 of 79 laps in Saturday’s Pit Boss / FoodMaxx 250, dominating the event while still putting on a compelling show. The margin of victory of 0.438 seconds, but third-place finisher William Sawalich was a full 13 seconds behind them.
“I knew you have to be perfect to beat the guy,” Zilisch said of SVG. “He’s really good. And I commend him for that. I look up to him as a driver and a person. The person he is, he’s such a good guy. And to get to race against him and learn from him at my age is so valuable for me. So whether I beat him or not doesn’t really affect much. Yeah, it feels good. But I know that I can race against a guy like him, and it’s just fun getting to do it. I really enjoy it and it pushes me to be better. And I hope I can push him to be to be better too.”
That was a mission accomplished Saturday, leaving SVG a runner-up.
“Second sucks, but I don’t know,” van Gisbergen said. “I had a really fun race. I enjoyed myself and that’s why I race cars.”
Track: Sonoma Raceway Location: Sonoma, California Track length: 1.99 miles When: Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET Where to tune in: TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Race purse: $11,055,250 Race distance: 110 laps | 218.9 miles Stages: 25 | 55 | 110 Defending winner: Kyle Larson, June 2024 Starting lineup: Shane van Gisbergen starts from Busch Light Pole
Points to prove at Sonoma in pursuit of Regular Season crown
Sonoma Raceway has hosted 35 NASCAR Cup Series races since the circuit first arrived there in 1989, and all of those visits have fallen in May or June. That calendar quirk makes Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 the latest a Sonoma race has appeared on the schedule.
The playoff pressure that comes with a deeper run into the summer months is accordingly heightened. The fever pitch is fittingly focused on the postseason bubble and the race to clinch one of the remaining berths in the 16-driver field, but the pursuit at the top of the standings now holds a significantly different look with seven regular-season events left.
William Byron is still in the No. 1 perch for the Regular Season Championship and the bonus of 15 playoff points that comes with that honor. He has led the Cup Series standings for 16 of the season’s 19 weeks so far, but the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s grip on that glory is far less secure than in previous weeks. Byron’s points lead has diminished from 68 points to 13 entering Sunday’s race in Sonoma after three finishes of 27th or worse in the past four races, including back-to-back DNFs at Atlanta and Chicago. Four drivers – Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick – now sit within 48 points of Byron.
The proximity is enough to make teams be cognizant of the points gap, even when victories are within reach.
“Some of it’s a little bit of a guess, right, because … wins are obviously great, but the 15 points is also really great,” said Chase Elliott, 13 points back of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Byron. “If you can get them, we’ve been in a fortunate position to have won that deal before, and it helps a lot — tremendously. So ideally, you get another win or two, and get stage points while doing that. We all know road courses is kind of hard to do both, so these places and just kind of so happen to have a couple on the schedule here back to back.”
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
Two drivers in that top five were 100-plus points behind Byron just four weeks ago. Denny Hamlin missed the Mexico City race while on paternity leave to fall to minus-110, but two top-five runs have his deficit now at just 43 points. Reddick, who drives for Hamlin’s 23XI Racing group, has chopped a 127-point shortfall to now sit just 48 back.
“It’s ultimately going to come down to execution,” said Hamlin, who starts 16th Sunday in search of his first Sonoma win. “I think all the teams that are in it are so very close on speed. There might be a few little advantages to one team here or there, but overall, it’s going to come down to execution. So yeah, we’re glad to be back in it. We were over 100 and something a few weeks ago, and we’ve still had horrible finishes, and we actually had a missed race in there and still gained over these last three or four weeks. So I’m happy about where we’re at, considering.”
The opportunities to make continued gains comes to Sonoma, where missteps and off-track moments might not be punished by contact — as they were last week at the narrow, unforgiving Chicago Street Race — but by the loss of valuable track position and points. Several drivers pushed that limit of control with spins and slide-outs in Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions, but pushing that edge Sunday will come with a steeper price.
The other daunting part of Sunday’s mission will likely be keeping pace with the pole winner, the red-hot Shane van Gisbergen. The New Zealander ace for Trackhouse Racing has won the Cup Series’ last two road-course events in dominating fashion at Mexico City and Chicago, and he’s considered the presumptive favorite even though he wasn’t fully pleased with his car’s characteristics in practice. Setting those quibbles aside, SVG’s average finish of 2.67 this year on road courses easily clears as the series’ best.
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
Road courses like Sonoma allow crew chiefs the opportunity to flip stages – in other words, pit before the stage ends and forfeit possible stage points in favor of track position on the ensuing restart, after others who stayed out and opted for stage points pit during the caution.
Points are at a premium this weekend. For some, that means chasing a regular-season championship. For others, that means pursuing a path to the playoffs.
Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team continue to lead the points standings through 19 races but have struggled to find results (and therefore points) in recent weeks. Coupled with Byron’s resume showing just one top 10 in six Sonoma starts, crew chief Rudy Fugle knows he’ll have his hands full Sunday trying to maximize the team’s day.
“You determine what kind of car you have and if it’s going to work out for you to take (points) or not,” Fugle told NASCAR.com Friday. “I think the biggest thing is you try to set yourself up for a good finish. But if the points are laying there right in front of you and you can still get a good finish, you have to have those discussions. So we’re set up with probably three different plans that can go each way depending our speed and what needs to happen, and we’ll adapt on Sunday as needed.”
On the flip side of the points conversation is Kyle Busch. A two-time Sonoma winner and two-time Cup champion, Busch has a stellar resume at the 1.99-mile, 12-turn road course. But he and the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team enter Sunday 19th in the provisional playoff standings, 46 points outside the 16-driver postseason bracket.
A slight twist is that this will mark the first race at Sonoma with this particular road-course tire from Goodyear, although teams have utilized it on all road courses in 2025. But with the track repaved ahead of the 2024 race, teams used Saturday’s practice to learn how well the tire grips the racing surface, how it wears and how it may factor into strategy. Several spins and off-course excursions ensued.
“We can try to guess at it the best we can, but we really don’t know until we get out there, obviously,” Randall Burnett, crew chief of the No. 8 car, told NASCAR.com. “The tire is the same tire we’ve been running on all the road courses this year, which is different than what we ran here last year. I feel like we’ve got a pretty good feel on the tire. But yeah, as far as the repaved stuff, you’ve just got to go out there and feel it out, see what the grip level is in those sections and try to learn from it as quick as you can.”
No. 9 should be fine. Chase Elliott has led laps in the last five Sonoma races, tying a series record. Though he’s still seeking his first Sonoma victory, he’s registered single-digit finishes in six of his last seven appearances there. … History also suggests that Sonoma hasn’t been a Ford stronghold in recent years; the manufacturer last won in wine country in 2017 with Kevin Harvick.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
CHRIS BUESCHER. The RFK Racing vet finished 18th last weekend in Chicago, but his stature as an underrated road racer remains an upside. That profile hits a higher strength at Sonoma, where the No. 17 Ford driver has placed second, fourth and third his last three times out.
Chris Graythen | Getty Images
Fantasy update
NASCAR Fantasy Live expert Dustin Albino provides insight for your Sunday lineup.
Boy, what a difference one year can make. The Sonoma pavement has aged like a fine wine, giving teams all sorts of challenges during practice and qualifying. Will the real AJ Allmendinger please stand up? After consecutive road course races where he wasn’t in the picture, the No. 16 Chevrolet was fastest in practice and blistered the field on five-lap averages. I’ve added Allmendinger to my lineup and intend on using him for my 36 for 36 pick. I’ve also slotted Ross Chastain into my lineup, as the No. 1 car is using lessons learned from SVG, and his four straight top-10 finishes at Sonoma is tied for the longest active streak (Chase Elliott).
Lineup: Shane van Gisbergen, AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, Ross Chastain. Garage: Chris Buescher.
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• NASCAR at Sonoma: Key info, practice reports and more from doubleheader weekend | Read more
• ‘Trusting the process’: Legacy Motor Club making strides in 2025 | Read more
• In-Season Challenge: Your hub for everything related to the 32-driver showdown | Read more • Racing Insights: Where your favorite driver is projected to finish Sunday | Read more
• Field of 16: Preece making his own push for playoff positioning | Read more • Turning Point to Sonoma: Weighing SVG’s posteason aspirations | Read more
• At-track photos: Scenes, sights from the California course | View gallery
• NASCAR Classics: Rewind with full-race Sonoma replays from the vault | Watch now
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh designs for Sonoma’s twists, turns | View gallery
• Power Rankings: Allmendinger a threat to shake up playoff picture | This week’s Top 20