Motorsports
How to watch, TV schedule, predictions – NBC New York
NASCAR is headed to Wine Country.
The relentless Cup Series schedule is on a North American tour, with recent stops in Mexico City, the Pocono Mountains and Downtown Chicago. Next up is a visit to the road course of Sonoma Raceway in the Bay Area.
The 12-turn track has been a mainstay on the schedule since 1989, with several tricky sections making life difficult for the world’s best stock car drivers.
So, what’s in store for Sonoma this year? What’s the TV schedule for the weekend? And who could contend for the win on Sunday? Here’s everything you need to know for Toyota/Save Mart 350:
When is the NASCAR race in Sonoma?
The Toyota/Save Mart 350 is set for Sunday, July 13, at 3:50 p.m. ET.
Before the race, there will be practice and qualifying on Saturday. The 37 drivers will be split into two groups, with each group getting 25 minutes of free practice. For qualifying, each group will get 20 minutes to set their fastest lap, with the starting order set based on single-lap speed for the two groups combined.
NASCAR TV schedule this weekend for Sonoma
Adam Alexander (play-by-play), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (analyst) and Steve Letarte (analyst) will be on the call for TNT, with Shannon Spake, Parker Kligerman and Jamie McMurray providing pre- and post-race coverage.
Here’s the full schedule for Sonoma:
Saturday, July 12 (truTV and HBO Max)
- Practice: 1:30 p.m. ET, truTV and HBO Max
- Qualifying: 2:40 p.m. ET, truTV and HBO Max
Sunday, July 13 (TNT and HBO Max)
- NASCAR Nation: 3 p.m. ET, TNT and HBO Max
- Toyota/Save Mart 350: 3:30 p.m. ET, TNT and HBO Max
Who is racing in Sonoma? Here’s the entry list
Thirty-seven drivers will race in Sonoma — the 36 full-timers, plus one “open” entry.
Katherine Legge is the outlier, as the 44-year-old English driver makes her fourth start of the 2025 season for Live Fast Motorsports. Last week at the Chicago Street Race, Legge scored a career-best finish of 19th.
Here’s the full entry list for Sonoma:
| Car number | Driver | Team | Sponsor |
| 1 | Ross Chastain | Trackhouse Racing | Kubota Tractors |
| 2 | Austin Cindric | Team Penske | America’s Tire |
| 3 | Austin Dillon | Richard Childress Racing | Bass Pro Shops |
| 4 | Noah Gragson | Front Row Motorsports | Long John Silver’s |
| 5 | Kyle Larson | Hendrick Motorsports | HendrickCars.com |
| 6 | Brad Keselowski | RFK Racing | Castrol |
| 7 | Justin Haley | Spire Motorsports | NationsGuard |
| 8 | Kyle Busch | Richard Childress Racing | Zone |
| 9 | Chase Elliott | Hendrick Motorsports | NAPA Auto Parts |
| 10 | Ty Dillon | Kaulig Racing | Sea Best |
| 11 | Denny Hamlin | Joe Gibbs Racing | ampm |
| 12 | Ryan Blaney | Team Penske | Menards/Delta |
| 16 | AJ Allmendinger | Kaulig Racing | Big Sipz |
| 17 | Chris Buescher | RFK Racing | BuildSubmarines.com |
| 19 | Chase Briscoe | Joe Gibbs Racing | Bass Pro Shops |
| 20 | Christopher Bell | Joe Gibbs Racing | Rheem |
| 21 | Josh Berry | Wood Brothers Racing | Eero |
| 22 | Joey Logano | Team Penske | Autotrader |
| 23 | Bubba Wallace | 23XI Racing | Xfinity Mobile |
| 24 | William Byron | Hendrick Motorsports | Valvoline |
| 34 | Todd Gilliland | Front Row Motorsports | Love’s Travel Stops |
| 35 | Riley Herbst | 23XI Racing | Monster Energy |
| 38 | Zane Smith | Front Row Motorsports | Michael Roberts Construction |
| 41 | Cole Custer | Haas Factory Team | Autodesk/Haas |
| 42 | John Hunter Nemechek | Legacy Motor Club | Mobil 1 |
| 43 | Erik Jones | Legacy Motor Club | Dollar Tree |
| 45 | Tyler Reddick | 23XI Racing | Chumba Casino |
| 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | JTG Daugherty Racing | Real American Beer |
| 48 | Alex Bowman | Hendrick Motorsports | Ally |
| 51 | Cody Ware | Rick Ware Racing | Mighty Fire Breaker |
| 54 | Ty Gibbs | Joe Gibbs Racing | Saia |
| 60 | Ryan Preece | RFK Racing | Body Guard |
| 71 | Michael McDowell | Spire Motorsports | Project Zin/Gainbridge |
| 77 | Carson Hocevar | Spire Motorsports | Delaware Life |
| 78 | Katherine Legge | Live Fast Motorsports | e.l.f. Cosmetics |
| 88 | Shane van Gisbergen | Trackhouse Racing | Red Bull |
| 99 | Daniel Suárez | Trackhouse Racing | Freeway Insurance |
Get to know NASCAR driver Ryan Blaney.
NASCAR picks, predictions, favorites for Sonoma
Shane van Gisbergen is going for three straight — and he’ll be tough to beat in Sonoma.
The Trackhouse Racing star has won the last two road course races in Mexico City and Chicago. Van Gisbergen, 36, has dominated at this track type during his first full-time season since coming over from New Zealand. While he’s never started a Cup Series race at Sonoma, he did win the second-tier Xfinity Series event last June.
If you’re looking for a more experienced racer at this track, there are four drivers to keep an eye on: Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Chris Buescher and Michael McDowell.
The Hendrick Motorsports teammates are two of the series’ best road racer. Larson, a Northern California native from Elk Grove, has two wins at his home track with five first-place starts. Elliott is still winless at the track, but he has seven straight top-10 starts and four straight top-10 finishes (with three top-fives).
McDowell and Buescher are also winless in Sonoma, but they’ve both been knocking on the door in recent years. The Spire Motorsports driver (McDowell) won Stage 1 in Chicago last week before a mechanical failure. He was second in Sonoma last year and has three straight top-10s. Buescher, meanwhile, has finished second, fourth and third in the last three years, leading 32 laps last June.
The winning pick for Sonoma is McDowell, who will be eager to avenge his disappointment last week when he looked capable of challenging van Gisbergen.
NASCAR past winners, race history for Sonoma
Just three of the 37 drivers in the field are past winners in Sonoma.
Larson (2021, 2024) and Busch (2008, 2015) have two wins apiece, while Suárez was victorious in 2022. All of the other winners in the past 15 years have retired or moved to part-time racing, including Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch and Clint Bowyer.
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