While it looked like a member of Chevrolet’s bowtie brigade would lead the field to the green flag in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs saved the day for Toyota on Saturday afternoon.
Gibbs, who opted to make a second on-track run during the group 2 qualifying session, was able to turn the fastest lap of the session in the closing moments of the qualifying period, and with that, was able to bump Carson Hocevar’s No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet from the top of the scoring pylon.
Starting Lineup: 2026 Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma
After his first run, Gibbs was ranked seventh in the qualifying results, but he felt he had a better car than that. In the end, while he says going back out in qualifying at Sonoma isn’t very predictable, he was right.
“The reruns are kind of just super weird here. Sometimes you can go a lot faster, and sometimes you don’t,” Gibbs explained. “I felt like I just had some more speed out there. Our Saia Toyota Camry is really fast this weekend, and we’re really excited to race it tomorrow.”
Gibbs, who secured his third career NASCAR Cup Series pole in his 141st career attempt on Saturday afternoon, will now chase his second career win from the best spot in the starting grid in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350.
Hocevar, who is also seeking his second career NASCAR Cup Series win on Sunday, didn’t expect his qualifying lap to be as good as it ultimately was, and actually prepared to keep running laps in the early portion of the session. However, his team told him he was top of the board, so he parked the car, hoping that his lap time would hold on for the pole. It didn’t.
“I mean, I didn’t feel like my lap was very good, and I was getting ready to run another, and I got through [Turn] 10, and they said, ‘P1,’ and I was like, ‘Well, shit, I don’t have to do another, I’m gonna pull it right in.’ I was super happy about that, like the lap time, but I didn’t think it was amazing,” Hocevar admitted.
While it wasn’t good enough for the pole position, Hocevar was only 0.025 seconds off the fast time set by Gibbs in the closing moments of the session. Not bad by any means.
Kyle Larson, who leads active drivers with two career wins at Sonoma Raceway, will begin his quest for a third win in wine country from the third starting position. Larson clocked in 0.041 seconds slower than the pole-winning pace displayed by Gibbs.
Michael McDowell will start alongside Larson in Row 2, as he qualified fourth for Sunday’s race.
Ross Chastain was fifth-fastest, while Shane van Gisbergen, Chase Briscoe, A.J. Allmendinger, Denny Hamlin, and Joey Logano rounded out the top-10 qualifiers for Sunday’s race.
Van Gisbergen, who had won the pole at Sonoma Raceway in all of his previous starts in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Cup Series, finally saw his perfect qualifying streak end, and the driver of the No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet went for a spin in the closing moments of Group 1’s qualifying session.
He was the fastest driver in the opening group of #NASCAR Cup Series qualifying, but Sonoma Raceway is challenging even for a road course ace like Shane Van Gisbergen.
At the end of Group 1’s qualifying session, SVG went for a little bit of a ride. pic.twitter.com/zZWHsPZocN
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) June 27, 2026
Connor Zilisch, who has struggled mightily throughout his NASCAR Cup Series rookie campaign but is regarded as one of the best road racers in the field, was only able to muster the 17th-fastest qualifying time.
Bubba Wallace was ultra-fast in NASCAR Cup Series practice and was looking to back that up with a solid qualifying effort. However, the 23XI Racing driver dipped his left side wheels off into the dirt during his qualifying run, spun his car out, and the front end of his No. 23 Toyota collided hard with the retaining wall.
The No. 23 got wide off of Turn 10 and made contact. ? pic.twitter.com/9gzXoVaYqR
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 27, 2026
Wallace earned the 26th-place starting spot for Sunday’s race, but will have to drop to the rear of the field as his team assesses whether to fix the damage or go to a backup car for Sunday’s race.
