By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service
Ty Dillon, Denny Hamlin face off in In-Season Challenge—Again
SONOMA, Calif. — There was more coincidence than drama when Denny Hamlin and Ty Dillon arrived at the dais in the Sonoma Raceway media center.
A year ago, in the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series In-Season Challenge, Dillon knocked top-seeded Hamlin out of the bracket in the first race, which was held at EchoPark Speedway near Atlanta.
In this year’s Challenge, which runs concurrently with TNT’s five-race portion of the broadcast schedule, Hamlin is seeded second behind series leader Tyler Reddick. Dillon is the 31st seed and will have a chance to eliminate Hamlin again when the Challenge starts with Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“They refuse to put us on a standard oval,” quipped Hamlin, who was eliminated last year on a drafting track.
Defying the odds, Dillon advanced to the final round last year, only to lose the $1-million, winner-take-all prize to Ty Gibbs at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“I’m just glad to be a part of this In-Season Challenge again,” Dillon said. “It’s ironic that we’re going up against each other in the first round again, so it’ll be fun.”
Another upset is not out of the question. In the era of the Gen 7 race car (2022 to present), Sonoma Raceway is Hamlin’s worst track statistically. In the four Gen 7 races, his average finish at the 1.99-mile road course is a dismal 31.25.
500th start: A milestone AJ Allmendinger never thought he’d reach
When he transitioned from a successful career in open-wheel racing to a seat behind the wheel of Red Bull Racing’s NASCAR Cup Series car in 2006, AJ Allmendinger couldn’t have contemplated a career that would bring him to his 500th start in NASCAR’s top division.
Allmendinger’s first foray into stock car racing couldn’t have been more inauspicious. He failed to qualify for the two races he attempted in 2006. A year later, he failed to make the field for more races than he ran—19 vs. 17.
Despite the early struggles, however, Allmendinger persisted. He has three Cup Series victories to his credit, all at road courses, and on Sunday he’ll make his 500th start in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“You think 500 starts, immediately my mind goes, ‘Well, damn, I wish I had won more,’” Allmendinger said. “Yeah, I wish in these 500 starts, there’d be more ups. But if you’d ask 2007 A.J. as I was missing most of the races on a brand new race team like, ‘Hey, by the way, 19 years later, you’re going to be at start 500 at Sonoma,’ I would have been like there’s not a chance in hell. I’m literally just trying to get to the next one.”
Allmendinger is the 48th driver in Cup Series history to reach the 500-start milestone.
“I give myself credit that I’ve tricked a lot of owners to keep me in their race cars still,” Allmendinger said with a laugh.
“I’ll be honest, the fact that I’m the 48th person, I just thought there were more people that have done it, so I didn’t think much of it. That kind of shocked me that I’m the 48th driver to reach that milestone. I think it’s something I’ll look back when I’m done and, you know, kind of go through the fun times.
“Getting to have Aero (Allmendinger’s son) at a lot of these races now and how just super excited he is. He just loves it. I’m going to have to do more because racing is not cheap. I keep trying to get a golf club in his hands, and he just keeps screaming at me about race cars, so I think I’m going to be here for a little bit longer.”
SVG vs. Ryan Preece is more than just an In-Season Challenge matchup
There’s a history between Shane van Gisbergen and Ryan Preece—and a recent history at that.
The drivers traded shots last Sunday at Naval Base Coronado, already knowing they would face each other in the opening round of the 32-driver NASCAR Cup Series In-Season Challenge, which begins with Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
A week earlier, van Gisbergen and Preece raced hard against each other at Pocono Raceway, with Preece giving the New Zealander a one-finger salute as he passed SVG’s No. 97 Chevrolet in Turn 3.
The budding rivalry carried over onto social media after the field was set for the In-Season Challenge. As luck would have it, with the In-Season Challenge field established after the Pocono race, 14th-seeded van Gisbergen is matched up against 19th-seeded Preece.
“I see he’s been getting pretty lippy online, so that’s a bit of fun,” van Gisbergen said after winning the pole for Saturday’s NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Sonoma. “We were giving each other (grief) the other day from Pocono when he was throwing signs at me and stuff.
“But he’s a good dude. We had a little tussle last week. He kind of pulled a (crappy) move on me and half-spun me, so I got him back. But, yeah, I look forward to it. It’s cool that there’s something else to focus on, and he’s been going really well on his road courses this year.
“I’m sure I’ll see him on Sunday, and it’ll be a tough but fair battle, and we’ll see who gets to the next round. I look forward to it.”
With cast on his arm, Christopher Bell is limited behind the wheel
Though his broken left wrist has reached the point where it no longer pains him to drive, Christopher Bell acknowledges that the cast on his arm still affects his ability behind the wheel.
“I’m comfortable driving the car,” Bell said. “It’s just big moments are a problem—counter-steering, racing in traffic, the extracurriculars. I’ve said that from day one. I just can’t drive as well as I normally can, but trying to make the most of it.
“I’m just not able to respond as quick as I usually am without the cast on my wrist.”
Accordingly, Brent Crews, who took over for Bell in a relief role last Sunday at Naval Base Coronado, again will be standing by on Sunday at Sonoma.
During the week between races, Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team enjoyed a round of golf at legendary Pebble Beach Golf Links on the California coast. For obvious reasons, Bell was unable to participate.
“I didn’t hang out here with them,” Bell said. “I wish I could have. It was really cool that they got to do that.
“I think I could probably drive better than I could golf with a broken wrist, that’s for sure—drive the car, not the ball.”
