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As world-renowned as the Sonoma Valley is for its place as California's Wine Country, it also features a racetrack that is respected by the world's racers as well. Since 1968, Sonoma Raceway has been taken to by race car drivers from across the globe, particularly those who have staked their names and raced their careers in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Since taking the place of the legendary Riverside International Raceway on NASCAR's schedule in 1989, generations of stock car racers have tried to prove their road racing mettle on Sonoma's challenging layout, complete with high uphill and low downhill sections. But lately, the bar for NASCAR road racing has been raised significantly by New Zealander and former V8 Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen, who has used his tools of the trade from down under to win the last two road races in a row and become the driver to beat when NASCAR turns both left and right.

After wins in Mexico City and Chicago, Shane van Gisbergen enters Sonoma looking for three road course wins in a row, making it SVG vs. the field as the rest of the drivers in Cup try to adapt and up their own game in a trip out west.

Where to watch the NASCAR Cup Series at Sonoma

Date: Sunday, July 13
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
Location: Sonoma Raceway -- Sonoma, Calif.
TV: TNT | Stream: fubo (try for free)

Starting lineup

Shane van Gisbergen won the pole for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 in qualifying on Saturday, posting a lap of 74.594 (96.040 MPH) to earn his third consecutive road course pole and the fourth pole of his Cup career.

  1. #88 - Shane van Gisbergen (R)
  2. #19 - Chase Briscoe
  3. #24 - William Byron
  4. #1 - Ross Chastain
  5. #16 - A.J. Allmendinger
  6. #54 - Ty Gibbs
  7. #12 - Ryan Blaney
  8. #45 - Tyler Reddick
  9. #48 - Alex Bowman
  10. #20 - Christopher Bell
  11. #5 - Kyle Larson
  12. #38 - Zane Smith
  13. #9 - Chase Elliott
  14. #17 - Chris Buescher
  15. #71 - Michael McDowell
  16. #11 - Denny Hamlin
  17. #8 - Kyle Busch
  18. #42 - John Hunter Nemechek
  19. #99 - Daniel Suarez
  20. #60 - Ryan Preece
  21. #6 - Brad Keselowski
  22. #22 - Joey Logano
  23. #77 - Carson Hocevar
  24. #2 - Austin Cindric
  25. #21 - Josh Berry
  26. #10 - Ty Dillon
  27. #41 - Cole Custer
  28. #35 - Riley Herbst (R)
  29. #7 - Justin Haley
  30. #23 - Bubba Wallace
  31. #43 - Erik Jones
  32. #4 - Noah Gragson
  33. #3 - Austin Dillon
  34. #47 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  35. #34 - Todd Gilliland
  36. #51 - Cody Ware
  37. #78 - Katherine Legge

Storyline to watch

With van Gisbergen seemingly on path for a generational run as a road course racer, lots of focus is going to be dedicated to which drivers could possibly be a match for NASCAR's new King of the Road and even beat him at his own game. This week, that focus is going to be on Michael McDowell, who enters Sonoma looking to settle unfinished business from a week ago.

McDowell was the only driver who was truly a match for Shane van Gisbergen at Chicago, leading throughout the opening stage and even outpacing SVG over the course of the first long run. But a mechanical issue with the throttle on McDowell's car sent him behind the wall and took him out of contention, leading him to declare that Chicago was merely a "preview" and that "the real show's next weekend."

"I was just pacing myself off of him," McDowell told Frontstretch in post-race. "Anytime he would get close, I'd open up the gap. I felt like we were in a good spot. Obviously there's still several stops to go and track changing and all that, so you never know, but it was a race between him and I until it wasn't."

McDowell's past results at Sonoma give him great cause for his confidence. He was runner-up in this race one year ago and is on a streak of three consecutive top-10 finishes in Wine Country. McDowell ran third in 2022 and seventh in 2023 before his second place run in 2024.

Meanwhile, there's also going to be plenty of attention paid to how things go between Joey Logano and Ross Chastain, particularly by NASCAR officials. The two were involved in an incident on a restart at Chicago a week ago, which led to a post-race argument on pit road that ended with Logano claiming to reporters that Chastain admitted he had spun him out on purpose over contact he seemed to believe Logano had caused.

While NASCAR reviewed the incident between the two and no penalties were assessed to Chastain, NASCAR Communications' Mike Forde shared on this week's "Hauler Talk" that he would be "fairly surprised" if officials do not have conversations with both drivers that they will be watching them to ensure the situation does not escalate this weekend.

This weekend will also mark the midway point of the In-Season Challenge, which features eight remaining drivers in four remaining matchups.

  • No. 32 Ty Dillon vs. No. 8 Alex Bowman
  • No. 12 John Hunter Nemechek vs. No. 20 Erik Jones
  • No. 15 Ryan Preece vs. No. 23 Tyler Reddick
  • No. 6 Ty Gibbs vs. No. 14 Zane Smith

NASCAR news of the week

  • NASCAR has spent much of the past week issuing a mea culpa for its officiating at the end of the Chicago Street Race, where it failed to throw the caution in an appropriate amount of time to respond to a severe accident with two laps to go. Cody Ware had a brake rotor explode on his car at the end of the straightaway leading to Turn 6, sending him head-on into a tire barrier and the concrete barrier behind it at almost full speed. Despite the severity of the impact -- the biggest ever recorded in the Next Gen car -- as well as Ware saying over the radio that he needed help afterwards, it took 34 seconds until NASCAR threw the caution flag to respond to the crash and assist Ware.

    During several media rounds, NASCAR officials explained that they were not able to see the initial impact of Ware's accident, as it had occurred in a blind spot for their camera system, and at first thought that Ware may be able to back out of the tire barrier and continue as others had in similar accidents at that part of the course. During an episode of "Hauler Talk," NASCAR Communications' Mike Forde shared that officials will look to add more cameras to expand their coverage area should the sport return to Chicago in 2026.

    Thankfully, Ware was uninjured in the accident, though he shared on SiriusXM that the impact was severe enough to crack his HANS Device, the EFS Foam in his helmet, and bend the steering wheel in his car among other internal damage. Ware had been running 18th at the time of the crash, which would have given him back-to-back finishes inside the top 20.
  • The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has denied 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports' request for a rehearing on the reversal of an injunction that had forced NASCAR to recognize them as chartered teams. As a result, the injunction is presently set to expire on July 16, meaning that 23XI and Front Row's cars would each lose their chartered status beginning next weekend at Dover.

    Losing chartered status would mean that 23XI and Front Row would lose out on the financial benefits of being a chartered team, and would also put them in a position where they would have to qualify on speed or risk failing to make the field if more than 40 cars are entered on a given weekend. 23XI was confronted with the worst possible outcome of that scenario last weekend at Chicago, as their fourth car driven by Corey Heim failed to qualify after Heim hit the wall and suffered damage on his qualifying lap.
  • NASCAR announced this week that the Cook Out Clash will return to Bowman Gray Stadium in 2026, bringing the season-opening exhibition event back to one of the sport's historic short tracks in Winston-Salem, N.C. In addition, The Athletic reports that NASCAR and Winston-Salem are closing in on an agreement to hold a race at Bowman Gray once annually over a five-year period in a deal which would also see further improvements to the facility.

Pick to win

Shane van Gisbergen (+130) – So, it happened again: van Gisbergen had them all covered in Chicago, completing a weekend sweep with his second road course win of the year and his second in three years of the Chicago Street Race. With all three of his Cup wins coming on road courses in a short period of time, SVG is already being discussed with the likes of Dan Gurney as being one of NASCAR's best road racers ever. And he can add to his growing legend with another win this weekend at Sonoma, where he is a prohibitive favorite at +130 odds.