In a remarkably close qualifying session, Ty Gibbs secured pole position in the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a fast lap of 1:14.829s. He beat Spire Motorsports driver Carson Hocevar by just 0.025s for pole position.
Kyle Larson will start third, Michael McDowell fourth, and Ross Chastain fifth. Pre-race favorite Shane van Gisbergen was the fastest driver in Group 1, but that was only enough for sixth on the grid. There was less than a single tenth separating the top six drivers on the speed charts!
“The re-runs are super weird here. Sometimes you can go a lot faster, sometimes you don’t,” said Gibbs, who now has three career poles. “I felt like I had some more speed out there.”
Watch: Gibbs wins third-career Busch Light Pole at Sonoma
Hocevar said that he was getting ready to run another lap, but after hearing the call that he was P1, he decided to go straight through the pits. Gibbs ended up running his pole lap on his fourth lap around the track.
In the battle for the championship lead, Denny Hamlin actually out-qualified Tyler Reddick. Hamlin will start ninth, and Reddick 11th.
Nursing a fractured left wrist, Christopher Bell qualified 14th.,
Qualifying recap
Watch: Wallace crashes into wall early in Sonoma qualifying
Most drivers waited until much later in the session to set a lap, aiming for optimal track conditions.
Bell set the early pace with a 1:15.814s, and the session was briefly stopped with seven minutes left for debris on the track.
But it was Van Gisbergen who toppled Bell’s time by nine full tenths of a second, with a 1:14.914s lap.
Drivers were pushing their cars to the absolute limit as the clock ran out, and Bell went off as he tried to respond to Van Gisbergen’s lap. SVG himself went for a 360-degree spin as he tried to better his own fast lap, and Cody Ware spun off into the barriers.
When the dust cleared in Group A, SVG remained on top of the charts, and it was Austin Hill closest to him, just over two tenths behind.
Bubba Wallace was one of the first drivers out on track for Group B, and after dipping a wheel at the exit of Turn 10, he lost control and slammed nose-first into the wall. He suffered significant damage, ending his qualifying session.
Hocevar was the first to knock SVG off the top spot with a 1:14.854s lap, and several drivers slotted in directly between Hocevar and Van Gisbergen. Chase Briscoe looked to have the pole in sight, but slipped up in the esses just before reaching the alternate start/finish line.
In the end, it was only Gibbs who could replace Hocevar at the top of the grid, and so, they will share the front row on Sunday.
NASCAR Cup 2026 Sonoma Full Starting Lineup
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