HLs: NASCAR Cup Series at Sonoma Raceway
Watch highlights of the NASCAR Cup Series at Sonoma Raceway for the Toyota/ Save Mart 350.
Video Transcript
Add to the stress of the strategy, the Chase standings, nine to go to running for a championship.
We're green in Sonoma.
Ty Gibbs getting after it out front with Carson Hocevar.
Clean through turn two, 77, Hocevar jumps to the race lead.
SVG on the outside of Larson down into turn four.
SVG down to the inside here, just trying to get back in line.
Battle for the lead up front, side by side.
They're gonna argue through the S's here.
There will be a lot of arguing throughout the day for position.
Give it to Ty Gibbs.
Such a tricky corner right here.
Really, really fast into turn 10 for the first time.
McDowell right there to make a move on the 77 here entering turn 11.
Teammates respond.
Great in qualifying yesterday.
McDowell tremendous on the road up to second.
Down in a deep breaking zone, turn 11.
Look at the 16 spinning out almost into the corner.
Uses the five to make the turn.
Eight tires stick better than four in that case.
I, I think there was an elbow stuck out there as he came through.
I, I watched AJ all weekend in practice, and man, the back of that car was so out of shape in all his breaking zones.
As we watch a lot of action happening back here, Byron trying to get around the 22.
Let's take a look here.
Up the hill, the 77 getting into his back bumper.
Wow.
Holy moly.
Good night.
You know, it's just a corner.
You're heading up the hill, and that's just not something that you need to be doing and, you know, turning somebody sideways at such a high speed corner of the racetrack, I don't know, that's just probably a mistake.
SVG is gonna try to get committed to pit road before the 54 closes pit road.
He has to get all the way around.
There you go.
He's now committed.
Pit road was still open when he did it.
Other cars are also jumping to pit road.
And he's gonna win the opening stage here at Sonoma.
His second stage win of the campaign, his first since he did it on the road course in Austin, Texas, Circuit of the Americas.
Yeah, it sounds like something in the power steering.
We had this issue a couple times last year.
it might be able to, to fix it and, and prove it, but as this issue develops, it's just eating the internal parts, out, out of the power steering unit.
Bell and Gibbs, the top two that ran it long, but they're scored 21st, 22nd right now in the running order.
And now what they're looking to do is basically just stay in front.
Oh.
And not a lot of room.
The drivers right there as Byron and the 11 make contact.
They get away with it.
Hamlin now to the inside, which will then quickly become the outside.
Zilisch also behind him in the 88.
You don't make contact down the front straightaway and keep it out of the wall unless you're Denny Hamlin, I s- I guess.
That was, that was almost disaster for the 11 car.
So there's a little contact right here.
Looks like Blaney on his right front there, and then the 24 comes through and tries to run him off the track.
He's like, "Guys."
Ty Gibbs and the 20 of Bell doing a really nice job in full contact quarters.
They're up to 15th and 16th.
I don't think they'll get all the way back.
Oh, as we see Bubba Wallace off track.
He's there You see the cars to the speed over to the right.
So he got sent off to the left.
Yeah, looks like might have missed turn eight.
I'm not sure if he made any contact with the barrier or the wall over there.
Got a little too much curb right there, and so that puts him on this runoff here.
He comes to a stop because he thinks he needs to serve a penalty.
He doesn't, right?
Yeah.
The stop's- The stop's unnecessary yeah.
Yeah, he's gonna have to do a little Well, we say the stop's unnecessary, but it's a judgment call.
So he's obviously over there in distress, getting too loose, as you pointed out, Dale.
I He probably has no idea where he's gonna rejoin the racetrack.
Not something you practice.
So I'm afraid if he gases up and he blends in about the same spot, NASCAR could at that point say, "Nope, you cut the course," and that's a pass through, which is a 25-second penalty.
He decides to give some back early in the race.
I think I like that call from Bubba, just making sure you don't have to serve any sort of second penalty what is already a mistake.
Yeah, let's take a look.
The 23 gets loose in the braking zone.
He's about to crash, so luckily he's able to land in the lap of the 34 car.
Yeah, the 34 though- He wasn't very happy no.
He said, "Listen, I know it was a mistake, but your mistake cost me, so I'm gonna find you here entering turn two, and I'm gonna make sure that you don't make turn two."
Bubba ends up in the dirt.
And just seconds later, 34 says, "You know what?
One's not enough."
I'm gonna get both.
We're gonna get one more.
You know, I'm so mad at Bubba, I'm gonna get his teammate too.
I mean, what a rough ride for 23 11 today.
They were so good last week.
Thank you, Danielle.
And we continue to watch the climb for the 88 of Connor Zilisch up to fourth in the running order as Larson slides back to fifth.
Yeah, a little wave out the window of thanks.
So we see the 41 coming by the 22 of Logano.
Yeah, this is a battle for 22nd, 23rd position.
Battle up front though, the 12 of Blaney to the inside.
This is coming down the front straightaway.
Blaney not really in a good spot here to be able to continue that battle, but he's gonna try to keep it close.
Now you tend to kind of run these corners and not make a move here.
You're just trying to stay close, trying to not let that 19 get that drive and pull away out of two.
You want to try to get down in the braking zone of four and be on his bumper exiting four to be able to try to make the pass into seven.
Well, as those two trade blows, 19 and 12, Briscoe and Blaney, Zilisch continues the climb.
I know he led laps last week for the first time in his Cup career.
What he's doing today is impressive, and there goes the 12.
Side by side for second.
It's all happening behind SVG.
Seven to go, stage two.
Blaney in the runner-up spot now.
Let's see.
I assume the 97 pits.
So now the question I have is, do Blaney and Zilisch come in?
Gibbs and Bell, I think we saw their strategy.
They won stage one.
Look how much of a, a head start the 97 has.
He's gonna come all the way around.
There's gonna answer your question.
Blaney, Zilisch will come to pit road.
Ty Gibbs stays on the racetrack.
When Think about this, with this win, Gibbs will have scored 20 stage points.
He came in today only a point behind Larson in the standings, 50-ish behind Blaney.
So this is a driver who is thinking moving up.
And how about Bell?
What a day.
He had slipped to 12th with this wrist injury.
No matter what happens, he has scored a ton.
18 stage points for the injured driver of the 20.
Conner putting the pressure on SVG down into turn 11.
SVG a little defensive to the inside.
Conner probably would've taken the opportunity to go there, but SVG knew it.
These two guys have raced each other enough in the O'Reilly series.
They've had some good battles on the racetrack.
They kind of understand each other's instincts.
We don't see SVG on the defense very often.
Yeah, selfishly, this is the battle I've been waiting to see.
Everybody's talked about who can really bring the fight to SVG, and the list is long.
Briscoe's amazing, Larson.
But they've kind of all had their shots over the last couple years.
Zilisch, at least in the Cup car, hasn't really had a clean race to be right here on the back bumper of SVG.
Can Conner get through turn four here and have an opportunity in the braking zone of seven?
SVG really wide out of four there.
Loves that higher line to be able to carry the speed.
Oh, lots of contact back here in the pack.
Big issues.
The dust is flying.
Barry's there.
Noah Gregson in the four.
Well, caution is out.
Caution is out.
And the caution is out.
Trying to see what the yellow was for.
Right here, we're gonna see some contact.
221.
Yeah, I couldn't tell if Josh turned into the corner unknow- you know, unknowingly coming across the nose of the two car of Cindric.
It's hard to tell from that vantage point, but just a contact between the two, and the 21 spins Josh around.
Oh, then a stack-up with some other cars.
Man, not a great restart for Zilisch.
I don't know if that was team orders or whatever, but if it was, he's giving up possibly second position to Briscoe.
Every pass, every race, every position battle here is for the win.
That's the way you gotta approach these races.
The 5 and the 12 The 5 and the 12, excuse me.
The nine of Chase Elliott offline.
Drivers left.
And look at the swarm of bees to the right, two and three wide.
They still have them out of the groove.
Yeah, almost- Oh, we got a car around, the 11 of Hamlin.
Lots of positions.
He was up there inside the top 10 riding seventh, goes around in seven, and with all these cars on the lead lap- You're off here just losing so many.
And that gives a points lead back to the 45 of Reddick as these two are now second to last and last on the field.
And now, though, you go back to those decisions to not try to win the stages, to come down pit road and keep all that track position you fought for.
Just like that, one trip through turn seven, it evaporates, and you have scored no stage points.
There's another look at it right there, just three wide.
Hosar with his nose in there.
You, you knew it.
Boy.
Career day for Connor Zilisch so far.
Can he bring it home, maybe with a win?
Oh, a slow stop there for the 88.
That's gonna cost him just a little bit.
Said he was too tight in the right-hander, so we'll see how much track position.
You want it to happen under green, not under caution, don't you, Steve?
Ah, just stalled it.
Luckily, the car refired pretty quickly.
He was able to drive away.
Yeah, the braking zone of turn 11.
Larson down in there.
Stays off the door of the 88.
Good, clean pass.
Man, he was pretty far back to be able to make that move.
I was real impressed that he didn't, he didn't end up in the door of the 88 car.
Nice and smooth.
Focus forward.
Smooth inputs.
Don't let him faze you.
Just stay focused on those smooth inputs.
James Small, I love that.
Don't let him He knows SVG so good that he's gotta get a little bit closer in the windshield for you to overdrive it.
He's saying, "Ignore him."
Normally, we say, "Ignore the mirror.
Hit your marks."
He's saying literally, "Ignore your windshield.
Run your pace.
We know this will be the longest run on a set of Goodyear tires all day long.
Do what you do, and it's either gonna be enough or not, but you are easily over Larson."
Yeah, late dive bomb down into turn 11, and I don't think that made Cindric very happy, huh?
Felt like it.
Look, no, look at here.
And then I th- Nice I think Cindric went after him at the top of turn two.
We missed.
And missed, yeah.
I say a lot on the line, end-season challenge, we documented that, and those are two drivers fighting right around the Chase cut line.
There's another battle for position.
Ty Gibbs going after Zilisch for fourth.
The incredible run continues for the 54.
Zilisch lets him go.
I mean, there's not much to do there with the 54.
So much faster all day long, and 19 car inside of three-quarters of a second behind.
I think that's a little bit too close- Yeah for me.
I don't know about SVG managing the gap.
He's talked about having You know, he is absolutely doing that, saving his rear tires, saving his car.
But at what point does he start to need to run a little bit harder?
Right there heading up to turn one.
I think Larson understands that- Oh, the 19 Oh.
Totally just cooked it into turn one.
He's sitting there with an opportunity, and he knows it because SVG's struggling here to catch the seven, and SVG's losing performance in the car.
He has no tire left.
Neither one of these cars have any tire left.
They're both struggling, hanging on, just trying to stay on the asphalt as they come out of turn 10.
19 just trying to get close in the braking zone.
It's incredible how much he gains on SVG into turn 11.
Back to the white flag.
One lap to go.
Sponsored by Credit One Bank.
Van Gisbergen in front of Briscoe.
SVG cannot allow the 19 to have an opportunity into 11.
That is what Briscoe is trying to do this entire lap is close the gap all the way back- Locked in here.
He's going to get him to the end of the lap.
And if you're SVG, I think you believe it's going to be all about the S's.
You're the best changing direction, even with a car that's fading.
You got to get down into this braking zone.
This is the first opportunity that the 19 will be able to collect and get a run on you.
Success so far.
For now the 97, it's turn seven, and hit your marks down the S's.
19's right there.
He wants to be able to con- keep this distance all the way through the S's, but SVG needs a little bit more of a buffer so that Briscoe can't reach him in the braking zone.
We always talk about the importance of turn 10, setting up that run and that opportunity at turn 11.
Briscoe's there.
He's closing the gap.
Oh, he loses a little there.
Turn 10 to 11, 19 is dancing.
Here's Shane Van Gisbergen into the hairpin.
Place two.
Briscoe charges in, can't make the pass.
We're racing in wine country, and Shane Van Gisbergen is the talk to the town.
Whoo.
He wins again at Sonoma.
All right, thank you.
Unbelievable job to turn that thing into a race winner.
Thank you, team.
Thank you, pit crew.
Everyone was awesome.
