Ty Gibbs wins Sonoma pole as Hocevar joins front row

Ty Gibbs won the pole for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, turning a lap of 1:14.829 in the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He edged Carson Hocevar by 0.025 seconds, and the top six qualifiers were separated by less than a tenth of a second. Hocevar will start alongside Gibbs on the front row, with Kyle Larson third, Michael McDowell fourth, Ross Chastain fifth and Shane van Gisbergen sixth.

Chase Briscoe qualified seventh, AJ Allmendinger eighth, Denny Hamlin ninth and Joey Logano 10th. Tyler Reddick qualified 11th, and Christopher Bell was 14th while dealing with a fractured left wrist. Gibbs said he thought the car had more speed and called the Sonoma pole the third of his Cup career.

Bubba Wallace’s qualifying run ended in trouble when he spun exiting Turn 10, hit the wall nose-first and sustained moderate damage. He finished qualifying 26th, and his No. 23 team was in position to switch to a backup car, which would send him to the rear of the field for the race. The weekend opens the NASCAR In-Season Challenge, which will cut the field from 32 drivers to 16 next week for a $1 million prize. The race is scheduled for Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on TNT Sports, HBO Max and PRN.