Track: Sonoma Raceway
Location: Sonoma, California
Track length: 1.99 miles
When: Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: TNT Sports/truTV, HBO Max, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,055,250
Race distance: 110 laps | 218.9 miles
Stages: 25 | 55 | 110
Defending winner: Kyle Larson, June 2024
Starting lineup: Shane van Gisbergen starts from Busch Light Pole
RELATED: How to watch on TNT Sports, truTV
Points to prove at Sonoma in pursuit of Regular Season crown
Sonoma Raceway has hosted 35 NASCAR Cup Series races since the circuit first arrived there in 1989, and all of those visits have fallen in May or June. That calendar quirk makes Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 the latest a Sonoma race has appeared on the schedule.
The playoff pressure that comes with a deeper run into the summer months is accordingly heightened. The fever pitch is fittingly focused on the postseason bubble and the race to clinch one of the remaining berths in the 16-driver field, but the pursuit at the top of the standings now holds a significantly different look with seven regular-season events left.
William Byron is still in the No. 1 perch for the Regular Season Championship and the bonus of 15 playoff points that comes with that honor. He has led the Cup Series standings for 16 of the season’s 19 weeks so far, but the Hendrick Motorsports driver’s grip on that glory is far less secure than in previous weeks. Byron‘s points lead has diminished from 68 points to 13 entering Sunday‘s race in Sonoma after three finishes of 27th or worse in the past four races, including back-to-back DNFs at Atlanta and Chicago. Four drivers — Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick — now sit within 48 points of Byron.
RELATED: Cup standings | Full 2025 schedule
The proximity is enough to make teams be cognizant of the points gap, even when victories are within reach.
“Some of it’s a little bit of a guess, right, because … wins are obviously great, but the 15 points is also really great,” said Chase Elliott, 13 points back of his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Byron. “If you can get them, we’ve been in a fortunate position to have won that deal before, and it helps a lot — tremendously. So ideally, you get another win or two, and get stage points while doing that. We all know road courses is kind of hard to do both, so these places and just kind of so happen to have a couple on the schedule here back to back.”
Two drivers in that top five were 100-plus points behind Byron just four weeks ago. Denny Hamlin missed the Mexico City race while on paternity leave to fall to minus-110, but two top-five runs have his deficit now at just 43 points. Reddick, who drives for Hamlin’s 23XI Racing group, has chopped a 127-point shortfall to now sit just 48 back.
“It’s ultimately going to come down to execution,” said Hamlin, who starts 16th Sunday in search of his first Sonoma win. “I think all the teams that are in it are so very close on speed. There might be a few little advantages to one team here or there, but overall, it’s going to come down to execution. So yeah, we’re glad to be back in it. We were over 100 and something a few weeks ago, and we’ve still had horrible finishes, and we actually had a missed race in there and still gained over these last three or four weeks. So I’m happy about where we’re at, considering.”
WATCH: NASCAR video highlights
The opportunities to make continued gains comes to Sonoma, where missteps and off-track moments might not be punished by contact — as they were last week at the narrow, unforgiving Chicago Street Race — but by the loss of valuable track position and points. Several drivers pushed that limit of control with spins and slide-outs in Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions, but pushing that edge Sunday will come with a steeper price.
The other daunting part of Sunday’s mission will likely be keeping pace with the pole winner, the red-hot Shane van Gisbergen. The New Zealander ace for Trackhouse Racing has won the Cup Series’ last two road-course events in dominating fashion at Mexico City and Chicago, and he’s considered the presumptive favorite even though he wasn’t fully pleased with his car’s characteristics in practice. Setting those quibbles aside, SVG’s average finish of 2.67 this year on road courses easily clears as the series’ best.
MORE: Full Saturday recap
From atop the pit box …
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
Road courses like Sonoma allow crew chiefs the opportunity to flip stages — in other words, pit before the stage ends and forfeit possible stage points in favor of track position on the ensuing restart, after others who stayed out and opted for stage points pit during the caution.
Points are at a premium this weekend. For some, that means chasing a regular-season championship. For others, that means pursuing a path to the playoffs.
Byron and the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team continue to lead the points standings through 19 races but have struggled to find results (and therefore points) in recent weeks. Coupled with Byron‘s resume showing just one top 10 in six Sonoma starts, crew chief Rudy Fugle knows he‘ll have his hands full Sunday trying to maximize the team‘s day.
“You determine what kind of car you have and if it’s going to work out for you to take (points) or not,” Fugle told NASCAR.com Friday. “I think the biggest thing is you try to set yourself up for a good finish. But if the points are laying there right in front of you and you can still get a good finish, you have to have those discussions. So we’re set up with probably three different plans that can go each way depending our speed and what needs to happen, and we’ll adapt on Sunday as needed.”
On the flip side of the points conversation is Kyle Busch. A two-time Sonoma winner and two-time Cup champion, Busch has a stellar resume at the 1.99-mile, 12-turn road course. But he and the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team enter Sunday 19th in the provisional playoff standings, 46 points outside the 16-driver postseason bracket.
MORE: NASCAR In-Season Challenge hub | Inside the tracks of In-Season Challenge
A slight twist is that this will mark the first race at Sonoma with this particular road-course tire from Goodyear, although teams have utilized it on all road courses in 2025. But with the track repaved ahead of the 2024 race, teams used Saturday‘s practice to learn how well the tire grips the racing surface, how it wears and how it may factor into strategy. Several spins and off-course excursions ensued.
“We can try to guess at it the best we can, but we really don’t know until we get out there, obviously,” Randall Burnett, crew chief of the No. 8 car, told NASCAR.com. “The tire is the same tire we’ve been running on all the road courses this year, which is different than what we ran here last year. I feel like we‘ve got a pretty good feel on the tire. But yeah, as far as the repaved stuff, you‘ve just got to go out there and feel it out, see what the grip level is in those sections and try to learn from it as quick as you can.”
— Zach Sturniolo
RELATED: See where drivers will pit for Sunday’s race
History tells us …
No. 9 should be fine. Chase Elliott has led laps in the last five Sonoma races, tying a series record. Though he’s still seeking his first Sonoma victory, he’s registered single-digit finishes in six of his last seven appearances there. … History also suggests that Sonoma hasn’t been a Ford stronghold in recent years; the manufacturer last won in wine country in 2017 with Kevin Harvick.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
CHRIS BUESCHER. The RFK Racing vet finished 18th last weekend in Chicago, but his stature as an underrated road racer remains an upside. That profile hits a higher strength at Sonoma, where the No. 17 Ford driver has placed second, fourth and third his last three times out.
Fantasy update
NASCAR Fantasy Live expert Dustin Albino provides insight for your Sunday lineup.
Boy, what a difference one year can make. The Sonoma pavement has aged like a fine wine, giving teams all sorts of challenges during practice and qualifying. Will the real AJ Allmendinger please stand up? After consecutive road course races where he wasn‘t in the picture, the No. 16 Chevrolet was fastest in practice and blistered the field on five-lap averages. I‘ve added Allmendinger to my lineup and intend on using him for my 36 for 36 pick. I‘ve also slotted Ross Chastain into my lineup, as the No. 1 car is using lessons learned from SVG, and his four straight top-10 finishes at Sonoma is tied for the longest active streak (Chase Elliott).
Lineup: Shane van Gisbergen, AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Larson, Ty Gibbs, Ross Chastain.
Garage: Chris Buescher.
MORE: Lineup advice in Fantasy Fastlane
Speed reads
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• NASCAR at Sonoma: Key info, practice reports and more from doubleheader weekend | Read more
• ‘Trusting the process’: Legacy Motor Club making strides in 2025 | Read more
• In-Season Challenge: Your hub for everything related to the 32-driver showdown | Read more
• Racing Insights: Where your favorite driver is projected to finish Sunday | Read more
• Field of 16: Preece making his own push for playoff positioning | Read more
• Turning Point to Sonoma: Weighing SVG’s posteason aspirations | Read more
• At-track photos: Scenes, sights from the California course | View gallery
• NASCAR Classics: Rewind with full-race Sonoma replays from the vault | Watch now
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh designs for Sonoma’s twists, turns | View gallery
• Power Rankings: Allmendinger a threat to shake up playoff picture | This week’s Top 20
