The NASCAR Cup Series rookie driver has never driven a lap on the 10-turn, 1.99-mile Sonoma Raceway road course nor driven a lap in a Cup car on a road course. So last Tuesday the driver of the No. 77 5-hour ENERGY Extra Strength Toyota did the next best thing by spending most of the morning on a race simulator to gain some experience that he believes will pay big dividends over the weekend.
"I love road course racing," Buescher said. "I have a blast doing it. I got one of my wins at Mid-Ohio (Sports Car Course) in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, so road course racing is something I'm fairly comfortable with, and I know Sonoma (Raceway) is fairly similar to Mid-Ohio. I've only had one other start at Sonoma, but having the experience of my teammate AJ (Allmendinger) to lean on and learn things from, I think, is going to be a huge help this year."
Dedication and focus describes the feelings of Jim Sauter, Jr. and his team following a horrific crash on the first lap of the Illinois Lottery Super Late Model Showdown at Gateway Motorsports Park last Saturday.
“We’ve had great race cars at the road courses the last few years, which has helped me a lot. Sonoma is the most challenging track that I race at. We’ve just got to take care of our car and make it through to the end.” Dale Earnhardt Jr. on racing at Sonoma
As part of its throwback weekend, celebrating the 1985-89 era of the sport, Darlington Raceway will be honoring Dale Earnhardt Sr. and the 30th anniversary of his 1987 Bojangles’ Southern 500 victory.
Stenhouse Jr. has four Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) starts at Sonoma Raceway with an average starting position of 32.0 and average finishing position of 26.0.
Stenhouse has completed 439 of 440(99.8%) laps in his four previous starts at the 1.99-mile road course.
Trevor Bayne will make his third Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) start at Sonoma this weekend. Bayne earned a best finish of 23rd in the 2015 running of this event.
Ryan Reed has competed at Iowa Speedway six times in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. Reed has finished 19th or better in every start at Iowa. His best finish came in the second race last year where he started 14th and finished 10th.
Martin Truex Jr. has posted an impressive finishing average of 3.8 in the previous five NASCAR Cup Series races. The streak started with a victory in Kansas, followed by third-place finishes in Charlotte and Dover and a pair of sixth-place results in Pocono and Michigan.
The 20-year-old Day from Clovis, California, led the final lap of 113-scheduled laps and outdueled the field on the final lap to become the 184th competitor to win in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series division at 'Dega.
The 2026 Daytona 500 champion from Corning, California, was awarded the pole position for Sunday's Cup event at Talladega due to rain canceling Saturday's qualifying session.
NASCAR announced pivotal leadership changes with its Board of Directors naming Steve O’Donnell as Chief Executive Officer and Ben Kennedy as Chief Operating Officer.
