Story By: DREW TAYLOR / TEAM PENSKE – SONOMA, CA
Toyota/Save Mart 350 Qualifying: Sonoma Raceway
Sonoma, Calif. – June 8, 2024
NASCAR TRACKS – SONOMA RACEWAY – NASCAR 101
The NASCAR Cup Series set the field for Sunday’s 110-lap event at Sonoma Raceway Saturday afternoon with multi-car qualifying at the 1.99-mile road course. Each group was allotted 15 minutes in the first round to make as many runs as time allowed with the top-five times from Group A and B advancing to the 10-minute final round.
Joey Logano captured his 31st-career Cup Series pole award and second-career pole at Sonoma Raceway (2011) as he will lead the field to green Sunday. It also marks Logano’s third pole of the 2024 season (Daytona, Las Vegas 1), moving him into a tie with Michael McDowell and Kyle Larson for the most this season.
- Joey Logano, driver, No. 22 Autotrader Ford Mustang – 1st
- Ryan Blaney, driver, No. 12 Menards/Moen Ford Mustang – 3rd
- Austin Cindric, driver, No. 2 America’s Tire Ford Mustang – 28th
HEAR FROM LOGANO: “It felt good. It’s nice to have a practice yesterday and to be able to work on your car, but even more importantly to have the time last night to review a lot and talk about it and think about it to try to make some good decisions for today and for tomorrow. That’s fun. You kind of miss that part. We used to do that every week, so it’s fun to kind of not be so rushed and actually look at some of the details. We were able to make some good decisions, obviously, with our Autotrader Mustang and show up with some speed today in qualifying trim. I don’t think we’re that bad in race trim either. I think we were pretty good, so I’m looking forward to the race. I think the last time we got the pole here, I think it was 15 years ago or so. It was a long, long time ago with a lot of races in between, so it feels good to at least be starting back up front here.”
RETURNING TO SONOMA: Ryan Blaney (Charlotte Roval, 2018) and Joey Logano (Watkins Glen, 2015) are among 14 active Cup Series drivers with a road course win entering the weekend in Sonoma. Logano has two top-five finishes in his last three starts at the California road course – including a career-best third-place run a season ago. Blaney has posted four top-10s in his seven career Cup Series starts at Sonoma while Austin Cindric’s fifth-place finish during his rookie season in 2022 marks the best of his two career starts at the 1.99-mile road course.
Team Penske has a pair of Cup Series wins at Sonoma to its credit, coming from Rusty Wallace in 1996 and Kurt Busch in 2011.
MIC’D UP: Joey Logano returns to the broadcast booth for Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Sonoma alongside Adam Alexander and Daniel Suarez. Coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET on FS1.
SUNDAY AT SONOMA: Coverage of Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.