The NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series head to Sonoma Raceway for a road-course weekend in Northern California. Bookmark this page for everything you need throughout Sonoma race weekend, including qualifying orders, practice speeds, race results and more.
Race day: Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on TNT Sports. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.
Tires: Seven sets for the weekend (five new sets for the race, one set for qualifying that transfers to the race, and one set for practice). Teams will also have six wet-weather sets available.
Race day: Saturday at 5:30 p.m. ET on The CW. The categories listed below will be filled out with links as the information becomes available.
Tires: Five sets for the weekend (three new sets for the race, one set for qualifying that transfers to the race, and one set for practice). Teams will also have four wet-weather sets available.
SOUTH BOSTON, Va. — Versatility has long defined Kaden Honeycutt’s career.
No matter the car, whether at the top levels of NASCAR or a local short track, Honeycutt usually finds a way to mix it up with the leaders in the closing stages. That quality solidified Honeycutt as one of the best young racing prospects in the country and earned him the trust of numerous Late Model Stock operations.
Among them is Kenneth Packer, who fields a team named after his late stepdad and stock car legend Tom Usry. During his time driving the Tom Usry Racing No. 17, Honeycutt found a rhythm around South Boston Speedway, visiting Victory Lane in his two most recent ventures to the complex.
On Saturday evening, Honeycutt prevailed in South Boston’s most cherished event: the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200. Being so dominant with a blue-collar program like Tom Usry Racing is what made the moment so special.
“I think it means more to my race team than me,” Honeycutt said. “We don’t really have any full-time guys that come and have the same routine. I’m proud of our adaptation and the way we’ve been able to show up every weekend and be consistent. That’s one of the things we’re really good at right now.”
The chemistry Honeycutt developed with Tom Usry Racing since joining the team at the end of 2023 has made them a perennial contender every time they show up. Winning has proven arduous against talented Late Model Stock fields, but Honeycutt always knew he could find Victory Lane carrying Tom Usry’s colors.
After earning his first ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series wins at Watkins Glen International that Friday, Honeycutt made the short flight to Ace Speedway for a CARS Tour doubleheader Saturday evening. The result was a clean sweep of the weekend, with the last victory coming in Usry’s No. 17.
Being so diverse behind the wheel dates to Honeycutt’s formative years on dirt tracks in his home state of Texas. Honeycutt always knew that acquiring knowledge about several different disciplines would be beneficial; he just never imagined it would lead to four wins in one weekend or short-track crown jewels.
“I’ve been so fortunate enough to do this for a while,” Honeycutt said “I never really thought I’d have a career in doing this. Growing up with my dad in our shop doing dirt racing, I never thought we’d really be up to this point. I really need to call and talk to him.”
(Photo: Krista Jasso/NASCAR)
Now fully embedded in Toyota Racing Development as a full-time NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver, Honeycutt cherishes every opportunity to go back to his Late Model Stock roots. Those chances will decrease as he progresses up the ladder with fewer off weekends, so Honeycutt wants to win as much as he can in the discipline right now.
Everything lined up perfectly for Honeycutt to claim another Late Model Stock victory in the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200. He set the quickest time in two of the practice sessions Saturday and took control of the feature from polesitter Landen Lewis on the 13th lap after starting third.
Honeycutt’s versatile nature contributed to his dominance Saturday. By utilizing his dirt-track experience, Honeycutt consistently found grip around South Boston’s dynamic surface, something that paid dividends when it came time to negotiate slower traffic.
“[South Boston] is so much like a dirt track,” Honeycutt said. “[The groove] moved from the apron to the top, and you were able to move up and really search around for some grip. Lappers were definitely not easy, and they were hard to pass for sure. I had to use a little bit of bodywork, and I didn’t want to do that, but it was a matter of winning the race or not.
“Being able to run the pit wall and go up to the top is what’s so cool about this place.”
Despite enjoying a near-perfect outing at South Boston, the lapped traffic slowed Honeycutt down just enough to bring 2023 Virginia Late Model Triple Crown winner Trevor Ward into the mix. Ward gradually chipped away at Honeycutt’s advantage over a caution-free final 100 laps before finally getting within a half-second deficit.
Unfortunately for Ward, the checkered flag waved before he could make a significant run for the lead. The Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 still proved auspicious towards Ward’s chances of earning a second Virginia Triple Crown, though he wished more time was on his side for him to claim South Boston’s crown jewel for himself.
“We got a little bit of a bad start on the race by qualifying 13th,” Ward said. “We had some work to do for sure, but this was a testament of what these guys are capable of doing at Trevor Ward Motorsports. I never would have thought it would have gone 100 laps green at the end. I was really looking forward to that caution, but unfortunately we came up one spot short.”
“I really believe we just needed 10 more laps to be honest.”
If a caution did come out in the closing stages, Honeycutt knew he would have to exert every bit of energy left to fend off Ward, who is a South Boston track regular. Honeycutt also felt he was at a disadvantage with how much Ward had conserved his equipment earlier in the run, which put more emphasis on him dealing with lapped cars methodically but efficiently.
No yellow flag ever waved, allowing Honeycutt to keep Ward in his rearview mirror and finish off another South Boston victory.
“I was trying to stay major focused, wrap my line as much as possible and find the grip I needed to finish off those 10 [laps],” Honeycutt said. “I think I just burned it up a little too much that last 100 [laps]. I think Ward did a better job keeping [the tires] cool, and I went after it a little too hard and didn’t lift early enough. Got a little discipline to work on for myself.”
Kaden Honeycutt and Tom Usry Racing have found a cadence at South Boston Speedway, with the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200 being their third major win there since the fall of 2025. (Photo: Krista Jasso/NASCAR)
Honeycutt is not ruling out chasing the second leg of the Virginia Triple Crown in the Hampton Heat at Langley Speedway, but he is going to deliberate with Packer before deciding. Since there is a Truck Series race on the Friday of the Hampton Heat, Honeycutt would only be at the track on Saturday, something he considers a difficult-but-manageable setback.
While Honeycutt does not explicitly consider him and Tom Usry Racing underdogs, he does believe the team embodies that mindset. They were tasked with going up against powerhouse teams and South Boston regulars in the track’s crown jewel event, defeating them all in convincing fashion.
Doing so much with minimal resources is what Honeycutt enjoys the most about driving for Tom Usry Racing. No minute is wasted in the shop getting the Usry-inspired No. 17 ready, and that effort continues to be rewarded on race day.
Honeycutt never got the chance to meet Usry before he passed in 2009 but has heard plenty of stories from Packer about his adventures in motorsports. Based on that knowledge, Honeycutt knows Usry would be proud of everything the team named after him has accomplished.
“I think Tom [Usry] would definitely be doing a little better than I am,” Honeycutt said. “He was unbelievable back in the day. We’re small, [Kenneth Packer] and Josh [Yeoman] work full-time on it. Kenneth loves this stuff, and I think that’s why I’m so happy. [He and Yeoman] get what they need to be successful.
“For us as a race team, [the Thunder Road Harley-Davidson 200] ranks number one.”
Honeycutt is only 23 with a long career ahead, yet his impact on racing is already indelible. Tallying another victory Saturday amidst a hectic-but-successful 2026 served to reinforce Honeycutt’s strongest trait: He can win in any car at any level.
SONOMA, Calif. — Achieving success at Sonoma Raceway has always carried extra weight for Michael McDowell. Few NASCAR Cup Series drivers have been as comfortable on the twisting Napa Valley road course, and since the debut of the Next Gen car in 2022, no one has been more consistent.
While McDowell is billed from Glendale, Arizona, nearly 800 miles southeast of Sonoma, McDowell spent a handful of his formative years as a race car driver in Northern California. In his early teens, he and his older brother, Billy, relocated to Northern California to chase their racing dreams.
After a successful stint in go-karts, McDowell remembers the transition to full-sized formula cars. Not much longer, he dabbled with sports cars. The team he competed for — World Speed Motorsports — was based outside of Turns 10 and 11 at the 1.99-mile road course.
“I spent a lot of track days here, a lot of time in the summer working with the team on the cars,” McDowell told NASCAR.com, remembering the glory days at Sonoma. “A lot of those early days were like Cup, [O’Reilly] and Truck early days. When you were a driver, you were also at the shop. You worked on the cars; you knew the cars well and were around the program working on the cars. It wasn’t like where you just show up and drive.”
McDowell reflects on that time as an important part of his career. He recalled going to the track early in the week to set up different awnings that spread over the haulers, as there were no garage stalls for him to work from. He also helped local competitors by serving as a driver coach before returning to Arizona and coaching at the Bondurant Racing School.
All that effort was spent hoping to have a career in IndyCar before a NASCAR opportunity fell into his lap, making the transition in the mid-2000s.
“I just didn’t grow up in this environment,” McDowell said. “It’s like playing baseball and then deciding you were going to play football; it’s not really something you would do. It feels like they are that different.
“Honestly, it was like starting over. It was a whole different culture, different atmosphere, shop, race track — it was a very different style of racing. It was quite the transition.”
James Gilbert | Getty Images
Fast forward two decades, and McDowell is among the contenders to frequently challenge at the front of the field at Sonoma. In the last four races here, he’s tallied a 4.0 average finish to lead the league. He trails only seven-time road course victor Chase Elliott, who enters Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with five straight top 10s.
To have success in what was once his own backyard hits home for McDowell, who considers Sonoma to be among his best and favorite venues on the circuit.
“This Next Gen car has been good for us, but it feels like I’ve covered every spot in the top five but a win and been so close,” McDowell said. “A couple of those were good enough to win. The first year in the Next Gen car here, I led coming to the last pit stop, and we had a right-front wheel nut fall off, and I came out fourth or fifth in that cycle. I think that was one that we potentially had the speed to contend and win.
“The others, we were close but weren’t there. It’s been a good track. But like everything, it evolves, and you have to evolve with it. Everybody is getting so much better at road-course racing now.”
The No. 71 Spire Motorsports team has a dilemma on its hands come the green flag, though. McDowell slotted in fourth with a strong qualifying effort on Saturday, a full row ahead of pre-race favorite Shane van Gisbergen in sixth. But there are points to be gained, and if the No. 71 Chevrolet has race-winning speed, the Travis Peterson-led bunch might need to sacrifice stage points for a better finish. Not ideal for a team 21st in the regular-season championship standings, 34 points below Ryan Preece for the bubble spot.
“It all comes down to executing what we think is the best plan, and we won’t know that until the race starts,” McDowell said. “If we have the pace and are able to run up front and be leading or close to SVG and feel like we’re making pace with him, then we have to go for the win. If we’re not, then you have to think about points.”
After the Coca-Cola 600 last month, a crown jewel in which McDowell’s Spire teammate Daniel Suárez won, he fell to a season-worst 55 points below the cutline. In the four races since, he’s chipped away at the deficit and is within range to make a late rally.
The final nine-race stretch of the regular season is going to be a challenge for McDowell to squeak into the postseason. But ultimately, he believes the speed is there to perform at a high level as the other two Spire drivers — Suárez and Carson Hocevar — currently hold top-10 spots.
“The bottom line is you have 26 races to make it in,” McDowell said. “We’ve already thrown away seven of them. At the end of the day, it’s nobody’s fault but our own. For us, we have to make these next two months really count, and I think we can do that.”
SONOMA, Calif. — The rolling hills of Sonoma Raceway were a climb conquered by Viking Motorsports’ Anthony Alfredo and Parker Retzlaff as they netted top-five finishes in Saturday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race.
While Shane van Gisbergen made light work of the field with a dominant victory at the 1.99-mile road course north of the San Francisco Bay, the Nos. 96 and 99 Chevrolets put up scrappy performances in the final stage, dueling with Joe Gibbs Racing’s Brent Crews and Taylor Gray to come out with fourth and fifth place on the results sheet when the checkered flag flew.
It’s the first top five for Alfredo in the O’Reilly Series since Michigan in 2024.
“This top five has been a long time coming for our team, but we just never gave up, right?” Alfredo said. “When things weren’t going our way, or we didn’t execute right, we built on it, got better and kept going back to the drawing board. The last seven weeks have been really good for us. We put together good races, execution’s been great, trying to control what we can control and that’s all you can really do. Executing the fundamentals and now racing up front and fine-tuning things to compete for top fives and wins is awesome.”
Formed in 2024, Viking Motorsports began its O’Reilly journey with Matt DiBenedetto. With flashes of speed over its first two years and a shift to Chevrolet in 2025, the organization expanded to two cars in 2026 and signed Retzlaff and Alfredo to continue to build on what they started.
The addition of Retzlaff may arguably go down as the series’ offseason move of the year, as the 23-year-old wheelman collected his third top five of the campaign and sits ninth in points after Sonoma, 61 points above the Chase cutline.
“I’m glad we got a double top five today,” Retzlaff said. “It’s people in good management spots, making good decisions and giving me and Anthony and both these teams a chance to show who we are and the stuff we can do.”
Over the last two weeks, Viking’s road-course program has been sensational.
Both Alfredo and Retzlaff were in positions for a win last weekend at Naval Base Coronado before a multicar crash ended Alfredo’s day, and Retzlaff ran out of fuel before a scheduled stop. Retzlaff recovered to finish seventh in San Diego.
“It’s great because for both cars that have similar pace, qualify together up front, race up front, is what we’ve got to do to build and get better,” Alfredo said. “My teammate and I, our crew chiefs, just everyone can go back to the shop and work together to get those last few spots and win a race. I’d say it’s a big testament to everybody’s efforts and pretty incredible what we’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time.
“It feels really good to be putting good days together, especially on a road course, because it’s taken me a while to figure this stuff out, but I’ve just put my head down and gone to work and been competitive at it the last couple of weeks, which has been really fun. To win my first stage on one is kind of crazy, but I knew we had the pace to do it.”
Dropping as low as 21st in the O’Reilly standings twice this season, Alfredo mentioned the growing pains of the No. 96 team as it still stood as an idea. Viking scrambled to quickly assemble resources for Alfredo’s entry over the offseason, while the core of the No. 99 team was already established.
Since finishing 12th at Texas Motor Speedway, Alfredo has slowly climbed to 16th in points with three top 10s in the last seven races.
While Retzlaff is growing comfortable toward a postseason berth and Alfredo is still looking to shave off a 100-plus-point deficit to get near Chase territory, the teammates are finding a home with a team that’s working to get the best out of them. The two previously experienced multiple years of clawing for consistency with underfunded organizations.
And now with just five races remaining in the regular season, those gains are finally bearing fruit.
“We’ve had similar experiences and raced with similar teams towards the back of the field or the middle of the field,” Alfredo said. “For both of us to have an opportunity to showcase our talent is something neither of us take for granted, and we’re pushing each other to be better, and so are our teams. I think that’s the biggest thing — the culture of Viking Motorsports is second to none.
“It’s just been phenomenal to experience something where we might go compete once the green flag dropped, but we’ll go back to the shop now and I’ll figure out how to get those next few spots to win. And that’s what it takes at this level of competition is teamwork, and it’s really fun to be a part of having that.”
SONOMA, Calif. — Shane van Gisbergen asserted his road-course mastery once again with a convincing victory in Saturday’s Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250 at Sonoma Raceway.
Cruising behind lapped traffic on the final circuit at the 1.99-mile, 11-turn road course, the New Zealander nevertheless crossed the finish line 1.324 seconds ahead of runner-up Connor Zilisch, who had to come from the rear of the field twice to achieve the second-place result.
Van Gisbergen’s victory was his second at Sonoma in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the sixth of his career, all on road or street courses.
With van Gisbergen and Zilisch running 1-2, JR Motorsports extended its streak of at least one car in the top 10 to 76 races, three behind all-time series leader RFK Racing (2008-2010).
Van Gisbergen led 66 of 79 laps, short-pitting the second stage on Lap 43 to regain the top spot after the stage break. From that point to the finish, he saved fuel while maintaining the gap to Zilisch until the final lap, when Zilisch closed in as SVG was content to run behind traffic to the finish line.
“Luckily enough, I think I saved enough (fuel) early,” said van Gisbergen, after executing his signature rugby ball kick from the frontstretch. “Sorry it wasn’t the most exciting — I guess boring’s good when you’re the one leading. …
“What an amazing car, to lead like that. The car was so good the whole race. It’s great to get another one for these guys.”
If van Gisbergen spent most of the afternoon at the front of the field in the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet, Zilisch spent the bulk of the race passing cars and working his way to the front.
He started in the rear after changing a tire that had leaked air during qualifying — an unapproved adjustment. After cracking the top 15 in the opening stage, Zilisch short-pitted the 20-lap stage on Lap 17 but sped on pit road, earning a pass-through penalty that left him 33rd in the running order at the start of Stage 2.
Another march through the field brought him to second behind van Gisbergen on Lap 35, and when van Gisbergen brought his car to pit road on Lap 43, Zilisch had the lead in the No. 1 JR Motorsports Camaro and went on to win the stage.
After pitting, Zilisch restarted 10th and quickly dispatched the cars in front of him, passing Jesse Love for second on Lap 57. But there was no catching van Gisbergen over the final 21 circuits.
“A caution or something to bunch us back up (on the final run) would have been nice,” Zilisch said. “Our Chevrolet was fast enough to compete, but we were just matching each other the entire run there, and he was probably saving fuel and managing his stuff and giving me hope.
“I’ll always believe we had something for him.”
Brent Crews finished third in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, scoring a race-high 50 points and moving back into a Chase-eligible position (11th) in the O’Reilly Series standings.
“We maximized our day with stage points and stuff like that, which was kind of the name of the game for us today, so we can race the next couple of weeks,” the 18-year-old Crews said.
“Just trying to get a little buffer in case something would happen. Overall, happy for our team. We ran well all day, got stage points and finished in the top three. Ultimately, had a good day. Not what we are striving for. Overall, our goal is to win, but we did about as good as we could do there.”
Viking Motorsports enjoyed a banner day on Saturday, with drivers Anthony Alfredo and Parker Retzlaff finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.
Carson Kvapil, Corey Day, Sam Mayer, Love and Sheldon Creed completed the top 10.
The race featured eight lead changes among six drivers and four cautions for 11 laps. The final stage ran caution-free for 30 laps.
For the second straight race, series leader Justin Allgaier struggled, but he maintained a 207-point lead over second-place Love despite finishing 26th.
The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ next race is scheduled for Saturday, July 4 (5:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Chicagoland Speedway, which hosts the tour for the first time since 2019.
Note: Inspection was completed in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage with no issues, confirming van Gisbergen as the winner.
The final road course of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season arrives at a pivotal time. The jockeying for the 16 slots in the all-important Chase postseason grid is ramping up, just as the second annual In-Season Challenge tips off for the circuit’s top 32.
NASCAR’s top division will go road racing in the Golden State for the second consecutive week, with Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) ready to set sail from scenic Sonoma Raceway. Nine regular-season races remain before the Chase field is determined, and the 14th through 20th spots in the Cup Series standings are separated by just 26 points.
The potential for major movement in the provisional playoff standings is there, plus the possibility of a handful of bracket-busting finishes for the midseason tournament field. Here’s a look at a handful of drivers to keep an eye on and the full projected results for Sunday’s Cup Series race in Wine Country.
DRIVERS TO WATCH
SHANE VAN GISBERGEN: A sure-fire watch whenever the Cup Series turns its attention to road-racing events, SVG enters Sunday’s start at Sonoma aiming to stoke a recent trend. The first-ever race at Naval Base Coronado began with promise from the pole position, but a mid-race crash left a sour taste and a 38th-place outcome. He’ll be a favorite, given his seven Cup wins in 15 road-course starts, but there will be some urgency with his slip to 17th in the Cup Series standings — just outside the provisional Chase grid.
AJ ALLMENDINGER: The Kaulig Racing veteran will take the green flag for his 500th Cup Series start this weekend, and his road-racing prowess should make him a race-day factor. Allmendinger’s three career Cup wins have all come on road courses, but the one that’s eluded him is Sonoma, where he is 0-for-14 with surprisingly no top-five finishes in his premier-series tenure. Only two other drivers have won in their 500th Cup start — Richard Petty (Trenton, 1970) and Matt Kenseth (New Hampshire, 2013).
DANIEL SUÁREZ: The Spire Motorsports newbie may have trended cold on road courses in recent years, but Suárez has been one of the Cup Series’ most improved in his first year with the No. 7 Chevrolet group. Halfway through last season, Suárez sat 29th in the Cup Series standings; just one race shy of the 2026 campaign’s midpoint, he’s eighth with a crown-jewel win in the Coca-Cola 600 already in the bank. He’s gone three straight Sonoma races without a top-10 result, but scored his first Cup win there in 2022.
SONOMA, Calif. — Sonoma Raceway’s premium on-track position already makes Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) a strategic challenge. Add the opening round of the NASCAR In-Season Challenge, and teams are balancing the pursuit of a race win with the need to finish ahead of their bracket opponent and advance.
Depending on who you ask, some teams are paying significant attention to their In-Season Challenge competition while others are trying to call the best strategy possible for the result to take care of itself. Ultimately, the field will be chopped in half after 110 circuits around the Napa Valley road course.
Ty Dillon was last year’s Cinderella, starting the knockout-style tournament as the last driver in. Through carnage, chaos and four consecutive top-20 finishes, he advanced all the way to the final round, pinned against Ty Gibbs at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He became Denny Hamlin’s nemesis in the first round, as the two drivers will reunite in the bracket again one year later.
“I know we’re the [31st] seed, but I think if we perform to our expectations that we know we can do, we execute cleanly, we can beat anyone — including Denny Hamlin,” Andrew Dickeson, crew chief for Ty Dillon’s No. 10 car, told NASCAR.com on Saturday morning. “Last year was good, and it gave us a lot of positive attention and put us in the spotlight a bit, but didn’t change our approach.
“It was good to get the guys some credit for their hard work that they do, and it went our way. I think Sonoma was the highlight for me when we passed [Alex Bowman] on the last lap.”
Will the glass slipper still fit?
“The intermediates are hard against the Toyotas because they are so good right now,” Dickeson added. “The road courses a variable. [At San Diego], we were passing good cars, including Denny, up until the point of contact with the wall. If we have a clean race, there is no one we can’t outrun.”
Others within the garage are focused on their own race. After an erratic opening three months of the season, Chase Briscoe has leaped seven positions in the driver standings over the last handful of races. The No. 19 Toyota is a perennial contender at Sonoma, with Briscoe placing runner-up to a dominant Shane van Gisbergen last season.
James Small, leader of the No. 19 bunch, has had Sonoma success galore dating back to his days as the lead engineer for Martin Truex Jr. with Furniture Row Racing. In six starts with Truex — four as a crew chief — the team compiled three victories and was in position to place big in 2024 until running out of fuel in the closing laps.
Briscoe has a challenging Sonoma matchup, needing to finish ahead of three-time road-course winner AJ Allmendinger.
“Of all the people to start the first round, he has got a lot of laps here and has been exceptional here in the past,” Small said. “If we do what we’ve done in previous years, it should be OK. In terms of the race, for me, I’m not sitting there thinking, ‘How am I going to beat this guy in the In-Season Challenge?’ At least through the first few rounds, it’s more about trying to maximize our race and the amount of points we’re getting. If we put ourselves in a position to win, that will take care of itself.”
The nuances of Sonoma specifically make for a tricky opening week of the In-Challenge Tournament. Since the 1.99-mile, 11-turn course got repaved before the 2024 season, track position has been of the utmost importance. Each trip back, however, has led to more tire falloff over the course of a run, and with added horsepower this season, the wear rate could be even greater with the cars more difficult to drive.
“It’s more of a track-position dominated race, trying to manage your gaps with strategy and keep your car up front in clean air,” Small noted. “Even last year, you saw comers and goers; guys that went hard initially and destroyed their stuff and would fall off. It’s still something that you have to be very conscious of and manage, and do the best you can.”
Briscoe will share the fourth row with Allmendinger at the green flag. Dillon qualified 31st, 22 positions behind Hamlin.
Track: Sonoma Raceway Location: Sonoma, California Track length: 1.99 miles When: 3:30 p.m. ET Where to tune in: TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Race purse: $11,233,037 Race distance: 110 laps | 218.9 miles Segments: 25 | 55 | 110 Sunday’s starting lineup| Cup Series pit stall assignments
A clean Sunday, maximizing points the key for Sonoma
SONOMA, Calif. — The month of July is right around the corner, and that means just two months remain until The Chase kicks off at Darlington Raceway.
A swath of summer tracks will likely be a determining factor in who makes the top 16 as Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 precedes races at Chicagoland, EchoPark Speedway and North Wilkesboro. How does a driver make noise in the standings with so many variables in play? Look no further than Erik Jones, who has surged from 21st to 14th in points over the last four races.
One of the keys to Jones’ success and being on the right side of The Chase bubble is keeping a clean car. He’s completed all but nine laps in 2026, which is third best among full-time Cup drivers.
“We’ve had some good days in there, but we’ve not had any real bad ones, and that’s what’s kind of leapfrogged us here in points, pretty far up the standings. A lot of guys have just had bad days — even Shane (van Gisbergen) last weekend wrecked in San Diego, Preece had a few bad weeks, just the guys that we’re racing around have had struggles. We haven’t made a lot of mistakes on either end, on my end or on the team’s end, and in the times that we have, we’ve been able to kind of clean it up and salvage a day out of it. I think that’s something to be proud of.”
Both Michael McDowell and Ross Chastain are among those on the outside looking in on The Chase bubble and want to take Jones’ spot away.
The pair of Chevrolet drivers put down scorching laps in Saturday’s qualifying session, with McDowell set to roll off fourth and Chastain fifth. With every point counting for the pair, it’s still up in the air on how they will play their strategies Sunday and whether or not it will be worth risking a good chunk of stage points to go for the big payday of victory.
“We’ll see tomorrow when we see how much pace we have and how much fall-off we have,” McDowell said. “If we can win a race, we’re going to try to win the race, but there’s so much that can play out, too, in this race, so you’ve got to make good decisions, too.”
“That question is for Brandon McSwain (crew chief) and the greater group at Trackhouse and Chevy to decide what’s best for the 1 car,” Chastain said. “I make lap time and let them figure out the rest. I can’t try any harder. When we were crashing and popping brake rotors and not finishing races, I was putting in the same work, so yes, the results have come, and the points come with results. Beyond that, how we get the most points, I can control lap time, and lap time includes fenders on the car, so that’s top of mind.”
The road-course ringers will be the main drivers to watch on Sunday, but there is a variety of the Cup Series’ best that have performed well at Sonoma in the Next Gen era.
Here’s a look at active drivers with the best average finish at the Northern California road course since 2022:
DRIVER
AVERAGE FINISH
Michael McDowell
4.0
Chase Elliott
5.0
Chris Buescher
6.3
Ross Chastain
11.5
AJ Allmendinger
12.3
Brad Keselowski
12.5
Joey Logano
12.5
Christopher Bell
12.5
Daniel Suárez
12.8
Speed reads
Race-day essentials:
• Sonoma hub: Key information, pit stalls, additional results | Read more
• Sunday Setup: Track position key for In-Season Challange advancement | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh on-track looks for wine country | View gallery • Hauler Talk: Breaking down a busy San Diego inaugural | Listen now • Power Rankings: Buescher bulls way into top five | This week’s ranks
SONOMA, Calif. — After turning his first lap in Saturday’s highly competitive NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Sonoma Raceway, Ty Gibbs felt he had more potential in his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
His instincts were spot-on. Late in the session, Gibbs made one more run and put his car on the pole for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at the 1.99-mile, 11-turn road course (3:30 p.m. ET, TNT Sports, truTV, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Navigating the circuit in 74.829 seconds (95.738 mph), Gibbs beat Carson Hocevar (95.706 mph) by 0.025 seconds for the top starting spot in Sunday’s race, the opening round of the Cup Series’ five-event In-Season Challenge.
The Busch Light Pole Award was Gibbs’ first of the season, his first on a road course and the third of his career.
“The re-runs are just super-weird here,” Gibbs said. “Sometimes you can go a lot faster. Sometimes you don’t. I felt like I just had some more speed out there. The car is really fast this weekend, and we’re really excited to race tomorrow.”
To Gibbs, the defending winner of the $1 million In-Season Challenge, qualifying and racing 110 laps on Sunday are markedly different disciplines.
“Tomorrow is a whole different program,” Gibbs said. “You’re going to be a lot easier on the car instead of hammering it, like in qualifying. So, it’s just completely different.
“You could be on the pole today and suck tomorrow. You just have to be really focused on the race, and that’s the most important part. We’ll stick to that.”
The fifth-seeded Gibbs will face off against No. 28-seeded Austin Dillon in the challenge’s first round. Dillon starts 30th Sunday.
For the second straight week, Hocevar will start in the second position. Last Sunday at Naval Base Coronado, he lined up on the front row next to polesitter Shane van Gisbergen before finishing 19th.
“I didn’t feel like my lap was very good, and I was getting ready to run another, and I got through (Turn) 10, and they said, ‘P1,'” Hocevar said. “And I was like, ‘Well, (expletive), I don’t have to do another. I’m already P1.’
“So, I was super happy about that, the lap time, but I didn’t think it was amazing.”
Two-time Sonoma winner and reigning series champion Kyle Larson qualified third at 95.686 mph. Michael McDowell (95.677 mph), Hocevar’s teammate at Spire Motorsports, was fourth, followed by Ross Chastain (74.913 mph).
McDowell has finished in the top five in three of the last four Sonoma races, including a second-place run in 2024.
Van Gisbergen, the defending race and pole winner, qualified sixth after complaining about the handling of his No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet in practice, where he posted the fifth-fastest lap.
Chase Briscoe and AJ Allmendinger, head-to-head opponents in the first round of the In-Season Challenge, qualified seventh and eighth, respectively. Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano filled the final two positions in the top 10.
Series leader Tyler Reddick claimed the 11th starting spot. His 23XI Racing teammate, Bubba Wallace, crashed within the first three minutes of the Group 2 qualifying session and will start Sunday’s race in a backup car. Van Gisbergen, Christopher Bell and Cody Ware all briefly left the track in the opening group.
Blaney tops charts in Sonoma practice
Ryan Blaney set the pace in NASCAR Cup Series practice at Sonoma Raceway, putting his No. 12 Team Penske Ford atop the leaderboard.
Blaney turned a best lap of 94.502 mph, clocking in 0.116 seconds ahead of defending series champion Kyle Larson, who registered a second-fastest 94.358-mph lap in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
Cup Series points leader Tyler Reddick was third on the practice chart, with 23XI Racing teammate Bubba Wallace fourth and defending race winner Shane van Gisbergen completing the top five.
Erik Jones wound up in the biggest incident of the session, spinning into the Turn 10 tire barrier with his No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota early in the first practice group. He drove his damaged car back to pit road and continued after repairs with the 35th-best lap in the 36-car field.
AJ Allmendinger, who will make his 500th Cup Series start in Sunday’s race, looped his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet in Turn 2 at the end of the second practice group’s session.
