![](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEgO8JFCrY0tKDb2NZZmnzBO5hwbW03ijhlf5DA9MfaoAVICyhQwh-UDv92IVhniDhH5XGnRNzIyB9mSNJtngotsMZkeg4-_80GQeGh8LV5lwD_BMZRs_NAF5R_K0oZ7kPGDizyqOWw_cag\/s1232\/SonomaheaderevCar.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nWow! The racing at Naval Base Coronado did not disappoint. The two-year buildup was well-deserved.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was amazing to watch Corey Heim get his first Cup Series win. He certainly proved that he is Cup-worthy. This week, we’re road racing at Sonoma Raceway.\u00a0SVG has the pole for today’s O’Reilly race, but will he start in the front row for Cup? What can we expect from Connor Zilisch this week?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Check the Skirts and Scuffs<\/a> Facebook page this weekend for our photo album of last weekend’s live coverage from Coronado.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n This Week’s Pick Strategy: Sonoma My roster will feature veteran drivers who excel at road course racing, my Sonoma go-tos, and one or two short-track elites. Oh, and yes, SVG should be on your roster as well. I will watch practice to see which drivers rise to the top and weigh heavily on the top five drivers in the lineup for my final picks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Active Cup Drivers with Most Top 10s (Last 5 Years):<\/p>\n \nBy Race and Track \nBoth with 4 – Michael McDowell and Ross Chastain Active Cup Drivers with Most Top 3s (Last 5 Years): \u00a0<\/p>\n Top 5 Sonoma Active Cup Driver Ratings<\/p>\n Shane van Gisbergen<\/p>\n 149.3<\/p>\n Chase Elliott<\/p>\n 109.8<\/p>\n Kyle Larson<\/p>\n 106.9<\/p>\n Chris Buescher<\/p>\n 103.6<\/p>\n Michael McDowell<\/p>\n 97.0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Driver Ratings compiled from 2021-2025 races (5 total)\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n SOURCE: NASCAR Media <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Last Year’s Pole Winner and Race Winner: Shane van Gisbergen\u00a0<\/p>\n The Likely Suspects: My Sonoma elite drivers include Shane van Gisbergen, Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Ryan Blaney, Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, and Tyler Reddick.My 2 Cents: This My Final Four:\u00a0Shane van Gisbergen, Chris Buescher, Tyler Reddick, and AJ Allmendinger.<\/p>\n \nSecond-Look Driver:\u00a0This week’s second-look driver is Ryan Preece. He finished 11th last week at Coronado, tying Allmendinger for the\u00a0most points \u00a0<\/p>\n Points to Ponder:Kyle Larson leads all active NASCAR Cup Series drivers in poles at Sonoma Raceway with four (2017, 2018, 2019, 2022).William Byron leads all active drivers in road course poles in the NASCAR Cup Series with five (Charlotte ROVAL 2019, Road America 2021, Indianapolis R.C. 2021, COTA 2023 and 2024).\u00a0Kyle Larson (2021, 2024) leads all active drivers in wins at Sonoma Raceway in the NASCAR Cup Series with two victories. \u00a0The pole or first starting position is the most proficient starting position in the field, producing more wins (seven) than any other starting position at Sonoma Raceway.\u00a0Six different manufacturers have won in the NASCAR Cup Series at Sonoma Raceway, led by Chevrolet with 15 victories, followed by Ford with eight, and Toyota with seven.\u00a0Five drivers are tied for the lead among active drivers in the Cup Series in runner-up finishes at Sonoma Raceway: Chase Briscoe, Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher, Denny Hamlin and Michael McDowell.\u00a0Chase Elliott leads all active NASCAR Cup Series drivers in Top 5 finishes at Sonoma with five, and he leads in average finishes at Sonoma with a 12.143 in seven starts. Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano lead all active NASCAR Cup Series drivers in Top 10s at Sonoma with seven each.\u00a0Denny Hamlin leads all active Cup Series drivers in laps led at Sonoma Raceway (eighth-most all-time) with 135 laps led out of 1,791 laps completed (8%) in 19 Sonoma Raceway starts.\u00a0Shane Van Gisbergen led the most laps at Sonoma Raceway in a single NASCAR Cup Series race and won with 97 laps led of the scheduled 110 laps (88.1%) on June 13, 2025. <\/p>\n If Enjoy the race!<\/p>\n ________________________________________________________\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
\n is unique compared to other road-race tracks and has a lot of short-track characteristics. In comparison to the street-course race at Coronado last week, it will be warmer this week which will make the track slick. The elevation changes and passing zones will play into the hands of wheelmen who know how to adjust their lines to run toward the front.<\/p>\n
Chase Elliott- 5\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
All with 3 – Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Joey Logano, Christopher Bell, and Ryan Blaney<\/p>\n
All with 2 – Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, and Michael McDowell<\/p>\n
\n week’s no-brainer pick is Shane van Gisbergen. My next picks are Chase Elliott,\u00a0 Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher, Tyler Reddick, and Ross Chastain. I
\n will
\n round out my team with AJ Allmendiner and Connor Zilisch.<\/p>\n
\nearned. (Since Corey Heim is racing part-time as a 23XI developmental driver this year, he did not earn points for his win.) Preece’s best finish in Sonoma is 12th, but his 18.6 average finish here ranks as his best among
\nactive road courses with multiple starts. In his last three starts at Sonoma, Preece’s average finish is 14.3, which is 0.4 better than Kyle Larson’s. Could Sunday be another back-to-back solid weekend for Preece? Or can he take the checkered flag? Stay tuned.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n you are playing Driver Group Game, remember to make your partial picks by 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, June 27th and your final picks by 3:30 p.m. ET on race day, Sunday, June 28th.<\/p>\n<\/a>Carol D’Agostino has been playing Fantasy NASCAR for 19 years. She launched NASCAR
\nFantasy Fusion for Skirts & Scuffs in October 2011. Each week, Carol
\n pores through statistics and combs through her personal notebooks to
\narm fans with analysis
\nand picking strategies that will leave their friends wondering how they
\ngot so
\nsmart. Carol also does race coverage for Skirts & Scuffs at Richmond
\nRaceway and occasionally at her home track, Dover International
\nSpeedway. She is
\nalso part of the distinguished NASCAR Expert Picks panel at frcs.pro<\/a>. formerly called Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet. When she isn\u2019t wielding her fantasy-racing superpowers, you\u2019ll find
\nCarol hammering out a news release or creating a marketing strategy at a
\n small niche public relations firm she founded called Purple Cat or
\nexecuting downtown revitalization projects for a small town on
\nMaryland\u2019s Eastern Shore. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 Wow! The racing at Naval Base Coronado did not disappoint. The two-year buildup was well-deserved.\u00a0 It was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82,168927],"class_list":["post-765271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports","tag-your-keywords-here"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}