Unlike all oval qualifying sessions, Saturday's qualifying session for Sunday's Toyota Save Mart 350 NASCAR Cup Series road course race at Sonoma Raceway is set to be a group qualifying session.
Drivers are set to be split up into two groups, and each group is set to get 20 minutes of track time.
All 18 drivers in each group can make as many qualifying attempts as they want to in those 20 minutes. There is no second round shootout for the pole position; the results of both groups are simply combined to determine the full starting lineup.
The same two-variable formula that determines the qualifying orders for Cup Series oval races was used to determine the qualifying groups for this weekend's road course race. This formula replaced the old four-variable metric that was used from 2020 to 2024.
The only lineup changes this weekend include the removal of the three non-chartered (open) cars that competed in this past weekend's street race at Qualcomm Circuit, also known as the Coronado Street Course, on Naval Base Coronado.
Those three cars were Corey Heim's race-winning No. 67 23XI Racing Toyota, Jimmie Johnson's No. 84 Legacy Motor Club Toyota, and Kevin Magnussen's No. 91 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.
There are no open cars on the entry list for Sunday's 110-lap race around the 12-turn, 1.99-mile (3.203-kilometer) natural terrain road course in Sonoma, California. Through the season's first 17 races, the only other race to feature exclusively the 36 chartered cars was the mid-March race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Here's a look at Saturday's full qualifying groups for Sunday's Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
NASCAR Cup Series qualifying order at Sonoma
Group A
1 - Connor Zilisch, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
2 - Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford
3 - Austin Hill, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
4 - Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Chevrolet
5 - Shane van Gisbergen, No. 97 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
6 - Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
7 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet
8 - Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
9 - Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford
10 - Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford
11 - Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
12 - Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet
13 - William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
14 - Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
15 - Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford
16 - Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford
17 - John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
18 - Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
Group B
19 - Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford
20 - Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota
21 - Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
22 - Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
23 - Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
24 - Riley Herbst, No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota
25 - Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
26 - Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford
27 - Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
28 - Daniel Suarez, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
29 - Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
30 - Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
31 - Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford
32 - A.J. Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
33 - Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford
34 - Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford
35 - Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota
36 - Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
Live coverage of the Toyota Save Mart 350 from Sonoma Raceway is set to be provided by TNT beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 28. Don't miss the final race of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season's first half and the season's final road course race!
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