The NASCAR Cup Series field will pack its bags from Illinois and head to the West Coast this weekend for its next race. The event is set to be held at the 2.52-mile Sonoma Raceway and will be 110 laps for 218 miles. The raceway was repaved over the winter and will essentially be brand new for all purposes. Here is a detailed schedule of the race timings.
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The field will enter the track on Friday at 5:05 p.m. (All Eastern Times) on Friday, June 7 for practice. Qualifying will be on Saturday, June 8 at 6:00 p.m. The main race will fall on Sunday, June 9 at 3:30 p.m. The weekend will also feature an Xfinity Series race. Following a short practice on Friday, the qualifying and the main race for the second tier will fall on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., respectively.
Sonoma
ETFri
1:40-ARCA West p&q
4:05-FS1-Xfin prac
5:05-FS1-Cup prac
6:30-Flo-ARCA West 64Sat
3:30-FS2-Xfi q
6-FS2-Cup q
7:30-FS1-NASCAR RaceDay
8-Xfi 20-25-34Sun
2-FS1-NASCAR RaceDay
3-FOX-NASCAR RaceDay
3:30-FOX-Cup 25-30-55— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) June 3, 2024
The ARCA Menards Series West will join its bigger counterparts at Sonoma for a race as well. Following practice at 1:40 p.m. and qualifying at 3:10 p.m. on Friday, it will hold the main race at 6:30 p.m. before wrapping up its duties for the weekend. The ARCA race can be caught live on FloRacing. The Cup Series and Xfinity Series main races can be followed on Fox, PRN, and SiriusXM.
Top storylines to be followed as NASCAR heads to Sonoma
The Cup Series entry list includes the usual 36 cars but also two open entries. The open cars will be piloted by Supercars drivers Cam Waters for RFK Racing and Will Brown for Richard Childress Racing. NASCAR icon Jeff Gordon is currently the most successful driver on the track with five wins. Martin Truex Jr. stands a chance to join him on that pedestal with four wins thus far.
Of all active drivers, Chase Elliott has one of the highest average finish rates at the track (In the Next Gen era). He ended up in fifth place last year and in eighth the year before. Truex Jr. is the most recent victor winning last year’s race. RFK Racing driver Chris Buescher holds one of the highest average rates as well. He came in fourth place in 2023 and as runner-up in 2022.
The raceway’s repave that was completed in February was its first one in 23 years. The work was successfully completed following 61 days of work. Notably, there were some issues with the repave near Turn 11 as the asphalt failed to adhere to the ground. It was worked upon again in April and repaired.
