{"id":59408,"date":"2026-06-27T16:25:41","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T21:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=59408"},"modified":"2026-07-02T17:28:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T22:28:19","slug":"ty-gibbs-streaks-to-nascar-cup-pole-position-at-sonoma-raceway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/27\/ty-gibbs-streaks-to-nascar-cup-pole-position-at-sonoma-raceway\/","title":{"rendered":"Ty Gibbs streaks to NASCAR Cup pole position at Sonoma Raceway"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

SONOMA, Calif. \u2014 After turning his first lap in Saturday\u2019s highly competitive NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Sonoma Raceway, Ty Gibbs felt he had more potential in his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.<\/p>\n

\"\"

SONOMA, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 27: Ty Gibbs, driver of the #54 SAIA Freight + Logistics Toyota, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota\/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 27, 2026 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by James Gilbert\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

His instincts were spot-on. Late in the session, Gibbs made one more run and put his car on the pole for Sunday\u2019s Toyota\/Save Mart 350 at the 1.99-mile, 11-turn road course (3:30 p.m. ET on TNT, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Navigating the circuit in 74.829 seconds (95.738 mph), Gibbs edged Carson Hocevar (95.706 mph) by 0.025 seconds (95.706 mph) for the top starting spot in Sunday\u2019s race, the opening round of the Cup Series\u2019 five-event In-Season Challenge.<\/p>\n

The Busch Light Pole Award was Gibbs’ first of the season, his first on a road course and the third of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe re-runs are just super-weird here,\u201d Gibbs said. \u201cSometimes you can go a lot faster. Sometimes you don\u2019t. I felt like I just had some more speed out there. The car is really fast this weekend, and we\u2019re really excited to race tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

SONOMA, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 27: Ty Gibbs, driver of the #54 SAIA Freight + Logistics Toyota, drives during practice for the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota\/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 27, 2026 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

To Gibbs, the defending winner of the $1-million In-Season Challenge, qualifying and racing 110 laps on Sunday are markedly different disciplines.<\/p>\n

\u201cTomorrow is a whole different program,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re going to be a lot easier on the car instead of hammering it, like in qualifying. So, it’s just completely different.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could be on the pole today and suck tomorrow. You just have to be really focused on the race, and that’s the most important part. We’ll stick to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the second straight week, Hocevar will start in the second position. Last Sunday at Naval Base Coronado, he lined up on the front row next to pole winner Shane van Gisbergen before finishing 19th.<\/p>\n

\"\"

SONOMA, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 27: Ty Gibbs, driver of the #54 SAIA Freight + Logistics Toyota, poses for photos after winning the pole award during qualifying for the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota\/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 27, 2026 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by James Gilbert\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t feel like my lap was very good, and I was getting ready to run another, and I got through (Turn) 10, and they said, \u2018P1,\u2019\u201d Hocevar said. \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018Well, (shoot), I don\u2019t have to do another. I\u2019m already P1.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I was super happy about that, the lap time, but I didn\u2019t think it was amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two-time Sonoma winner and reigning series champion Kyle Larson qualified third at 95.686 mph. Michael McDowell (95.677 mph), Hocevar\u2019s teammate at Spire Motorsports, was fourth, followed by Ross Chastain (74.913 mph).<\/p>\n

McDowell has finished in the top five in three of the last four Sonoma races, including a second-place run in 2024.<\/p>\n

Van Gisbergen, the defending race and pole winner, qualified sixth after complaining about the handling of his No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet in practice, where he posted the fifth fastest lap.<\/p>\n

Chase Briscoe and AJ Allmendinger, head-to-head opponents in the first round of the In-Season Challenge, qualified seventh and eighth, respectively. Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano filled the final two positions in the top 10.<\/p>\n

Series leader Tyler Reddick claimed the 11th starting spot. His 23XI Racing teammate, Bubba Wallace, crashed within the first three minutes of the Group 2 qualifying session and will start Sunday\u2019s race in a backup car.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. \u2014 After turning his first lap in Saturday\u2019s highly competitive NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Sonoma Raceway, Ty Gibbs felt he had more potential in his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. His instincts were spot-on. Late in the session, Gibbs made one more run and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":59391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,455,811],"class_list":["post-59408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-sonoma-raceway","tag-ty-gibbs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2283604038-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1706","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-fsc","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59408"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59411,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59408\/revisions\/59411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}