The NASCAR Cup Series is going road-course racing this weekend once again in California. This time around, it’s at a more traditional venue, taking on Sonoma.
Ahead of Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350, qualifying took center stage on Saturday. One of the young stars in the sport took the pole, as Ty Gibbs raced to the top. Check out the full starting grid below.
Ty Gibbs
Carson Hocevar
Kyle Larson
Michael McDowell
Ross Chastain
Shane van Gisbergen
Chase Briscoe
AJ Allmendinger
Denny Hamlin
Joey Logano
Tyler Reddick
Austin Hill
William Byron
Christopher Bell
Chris Buescher
Ryan Blaney
Connor Zilisch
Chase Elliott
Ryan Preece
John Hunter Nemechek
Daniel Suarez
Alex Bowman
Austin Cindric
Zane Smith
Riley Herbst
Bubba Wallace
Cole Custer
Josh Berry
Todd Gilliland
Austin Dillon
Ty Dillon
Erik Jones
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Noah Gragson
Brad Keselowski
Cody Ware
More on the NASCAR Cup Series at Sonoma
Meanwhile, Bubba Wallace finished P2 at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego last Sunday, securing his best finish of the year. And it could have been a whole lot different, too.
Wallace lost a tire midway through the race and had to serve a two-lap penalty. On the one hand, he might be elated that he was able to drive back through the field to secure a second-place finish. On the other hand, there’s the what if the penalty had not happened. He might have won.
“Drove straight from 12th or 13th right to P2… drove to the lead,” Denny Hamlin said on the Actions Detrimental podcast. “He was up front. I mean, yeah, that’s impressive stuff. And then I was behind him when the tire fell off. Right away I’m thinking, ‘Oh crap, that’s two laps.’ Damaged splitter, yeah, that’s pretty impressive.”
For now, Bubba Wallace sits in 11th place in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings. He’s got a 67-point cushion on the Chase cut line.
He’s been up and down those standings all year, fading after a tremendous start and then regaining some ground in the last couple of weeks. Hamlin explained the ebbs and flows.
“The ride with Bubba, she has some swells and that roller coaster goes up and down, right?” he said. “But this is one that, while you maybe think that hmm, man, I could have won if things would have played out correctly, you’re probably right but you’ve still got to be really happy with the day if you’re him and his team about the resilience of overcoming adversity.”
For Bubba Wallace, finding the right place mentally is half the battle. When he’s in a good frame of mind, results tend to follow. He’ll roll off 26th tomorrow.
— On3’s Thomas Goldkamp contributed to this article.
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