The NASCAR Cup Series will join the Xfinity Series at the Sonoma Raceway this weekend. This will be the second road course race for the Cup Series (they raced at COTA in March) and the third road course race for the Xfinity Series (they raced at COTA in March and in Portland last week). The Cup Series will use the short track aero package this weekend. This package was designed to improve the racing on the short tracks and on the road courses. So far it has failed. Hopefully the difficulty of the elevation changes and tight corners at Sonoma will produce some exciting racing in wine country.
SONOMA SCHEDULE
The Cup Series and Xfinity Series will practice Friday. The Cup Series will get a 50-minute practice session since the track at Sonoma was repaved. The Xfinity Series is scheduled to race at Sonoma Saturday night (evening time in California) and the Cup Series is scheduled to race Sunday afternoon. Both races are short (the Cup Series race is 219 miles and the Xfinity Series race is 158 miles). The fields for both races are stacked, so there should be some exciting racing to keep you entertained this weekend.
Here is the schedule for the races at Sonoma…
RACE RECAP AT SONOMA
The Toyota were fast last year in the Toyota /Save Mart 350. Denny Hamlin won the pole, Tyler Reddick started second, Christopher Bell started fourth, Ty Gibbs started sixth and Martin Truex Jr. started eighth. Hamlin dominated Stage 1, but ended up crashing out of the race and finished last. Kyle Busch short -pitted to gain track position and he won Stage 2. The final Stage was the “Martin Truex Jr. Show”. Truex battled Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch for the lead and the No. 19 car just had too much speed for the field to keep up. Truex went to Victory Lane for the fourth time at Sonoma (the most in the Cup Series).
I hope you did not blink during the race last year, because you may have missed it. There were only two cautions in the race. The time of the race was 2 hours and 35 minutes. It was also the best race in 2023 for my DFS picks. The lineup I posted finished 4th in the $3 Hot Rod Contest and ended up splitting the $300 prize. Hopefully that happens again.
The best drivers in the race were Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher and AJ Allmendinger.
Stage 1 Results: 1. Denny Hamlin, 2. Martin Truex Jr., 3. Christopher Bell, 4. AJ Allmendinger, 5. Michael McDowell, 6. Tyler Reddick, 7. Chris Buescher, 8. Ty Gibbs, 9. Alex Bowman 10. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Stage 2 Results: 1. Kyle Busch, 2. Joey Logano. 3. Ross Chastain, 4. William Byron, 5. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 6. Austin Dillon, 7. Martin Truex Jr., 8. Michael McDowell, 9. Christopher Bell, 10. Kevin Harvick
Click here for highlights of last year’s race: SONOMA 2023 RACE REWIND
FANTASY STATS FOR SONOMA
What should we do this week? The Toyota’s had the best cars at Sonoma and they typically run well in the Toyota / Save Mart 350. Should we load our lineups with the Toyota’s this weekend? Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson have a history of running well in wine country, but they were only “OK” last year. William Byron has been the best driver over the last 12 months on the road courses. He finished first (COTA), second (Charlotte Roval) and first (Watkins Glen) in his last three road course races. We cannot forget about the three wild cards in the race. AJ Allmendinger, Cam Walters and Will Brown have the talent to be very competitive Sunday.
I used the data from the two races at Sonoma in the Gen-7 car and combined it with the data from COTA this year to help handicap this race. I will go deeper into the stats for the picks later this week, but Sonoma and COTA are the two most technical road courses on the schedule and the drivers who are good at these two tracks, should run up front Sunday.
Here are the stats from the last two races at Sonoma in the Gen-7 car and the race at COTA earlier this year, sorted by Driver Rating…
EARLY WEEK PICKS FOR SONOMA
ONE & DONE PICK: MICHAEL MCDOWELL
DRIVER GROUP GAME PICKS: MARTIN TRUEX JR., CHASE ELLIOTT, CHRIS BUESCHER, MICHAEL MCDOWELL, TYLER REDDICK, TY GIBBS, AJ ALLMENDINGER, CAM WALTERS
FANTASY LIVE PICKS: MARTIN TRUEX JR., CHASE ELLIOTT, CHRIS BUESCHER, MICHAEL MCDOWELL, AJ ALLMENDINGER GARAGE: WILLIAM BYRON
* I will update these picks this weekend.
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