For the second straight week we get some NASCAR Cup Series road course action! Shane van Gisbergen went to victory lane for the second time this season and he swept both the Xfinity and Cup Series races at Chicago last weekend!

For this weekend, he finished as the runner-up in Saturday’s Xfinity Series Race at Sonoma Raceway, but he starts on the pole once again for Sunday’s Cup Series race. Can he go back-to-back? He’ll have some stiff competition to contend with so let’s take a look at the top NASCAR DFS picks for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 on DraftKings and FanDuel!

Sonoma Raceway Trends

Sonoma marks the fourth road course that we’ve seen on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule with two remaining (Watkins Glen and the…

NASCAR is heading to Wine Country.

The NASCAR Cup Series is running the Toyota/Save Mart 350 to highlight a full weekend of action including the NASCAR Xfinity Series and ARCA Menards Series West.

For some fans, this will be their first time attending a NASCAR race. If you’re one of those first-time fans, we have a checklist for you to get the most out of race day.

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Here’s a first-time fan checklist for the NASCAR Sonoma race.

Plan to arrive early for NASCAR Sonoma race

Fans should arrive two hours early to navigate traffic, parking and spend some time in the Fan Zone to make the day even more memorable.

Do not forget sunscreen!

The NASCAR Sonoma race will be one of the warmer days of the season, and almost always produces beautiful weather days. Make sure to bring sunscreen, getting a sunburn at a NASCAR race is painful.

Hit those merchandise haulers

Near the fan zone, there are merchandise haulers with all kinds of items for sale. Anything from hats, t-shirts, flags, pens, pencils and, of course, diecast cars, are available in these haulers. The haulers are separated by race team (for example, Hendrick Motorsports is in one hauler with Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, William Byron and Alex Bowman merchandise). There may even be a driver in the hauler to sign autographs, if you’re lucky.

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Don’t forget to eat at NASCAR Sonoma race

There are concession stands and food trucks around the speedway. Make sure to look around and find your favorites to enjoy at the racetrack.

Get to your seat early for NASCAR Sonoma race

You’ll want to make sure to get to your seat early to enjoy the pre-race festivities, a snack and a drink before the race. There will also be lots of standing, including for every restart, a few laps after, and as the race is coming to a close.

Can I bring cooler, food, alcohol to Sonoma Raceway?

Yes, coolers are allowed. They must be a soft-sided cooler no bigger than 14-inches by 14-inches by 14-inches. Backpacks and bags no bigger than 18-inches by 18-inches by 14-inches are allowed. Pre-packaged food and alcohol are allowed, but no glass containers.

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Items to bring to NASCAR Sonoma race

• A maximum of two bags per person that do not exceed 18″x18″x14″ size.

• Ear protection is recommended.

• A seat cushion is highly recommended for the concrete terrace seating in Turns 2, 3, 7 and 9.

• Water (plastic bottles only) Snacks, if you wish.

Prohibited items for NASCAR Sonoma race

• Aerosol cans (with the exception of sunscreen, sun block, hand sanitizer, and bug spray)

• Glass or ceramic containers of any kind

• Displays of the Confederate Flag

• Foam or hard-sided coolers regardless of size

• Frisbees, Balloons or any other Projectile

• InlineSkates/Skateboards/Bicycles/Hover Boards

• Laser Pointers, Noise Makers and Air Horns

• Lawn chairs and stadium-type seats with legs (all chairs must sit flat against your seat – no legs)

• Tripods and monopods that are either solid or collapsible

• Umbrellas in seating areas

• Unregistered golf carts and other off-highway vehicles including, but not limited to, ATVs, golf carts, motorized bikes and scooters, side-by-side utility vehicles (see the full golf cart and off-road vehicle policy and registration info here)

• Weapons, including, but not limited to, guns, knives, stun guns and pepper spray.

Get tickets for NASCAR Sonoma race

NASCAR Weekend Pass: Get the full NASCAR race weekend experience. The NASCAR Weekend Pass includes admission to three races along with practice and qualifying for the ARCA Menards Series West, NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Cup Series.

NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 (July 13): The NASCAR Cup Series tackles the series’ most challenging course. Be there as the green flag flies on the Toyota/Save Mart 350.

NASCAR Xfinity Series Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250 (July 12): Don’t miss NASCAR’s up-and-coming stars as they take on Sonoma Raceway’s famed road course for the third time ever for the Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250.

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ARCA Menards Series West race (July 11): Catch the ARCA Menards Series West General Tire 200 on Friday, July 11, as the future stars of NASCAR duke it out in wine country.

Promotions, discounts for NASCAR Sonoma race

Summer of Speed Pass: The Summer of Speed Pass allows you to attend both NASCAR on July 13 and NHRA on July 25-27 for a discounted price of $199.

• One (1) NHRA Lower Grandstand ticket (Choice of July 25, 26 or 27)

• One (1) NASCAR Lower Grandstand ticket (July 13 Only)

Kids tickets: Kids 12 and under get in free for the NASCAR Xfinity Series and ARCA Menards Series West races at Sonoma with a ticketed adult. Kids can also get into the NASCAR Cup Series race for $10 with a ticketed adult. NOTE: Limit two per ticketed adult. Tickets and credentials are required for gate entry for children age 12 and under.

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College tickets: College students, using their .edu email address, will be able to access discounted tickets for the NASCAR race. There is a limit of four tickets per customer.

Hero ticket offer from GOVX: GOVX is thrilled to offer exclusive, special pricing on select NASCAR tickets for you and your family. This special offer is reserved for our heroes — Military personnel, first responders (Firefighters, EMS, EMTs), law enforcement, teachers and other government service personnel. Don’t miss out on this incredible opportunity to experience the thrill of NASCAR at a fraction of the cost. Verify your eligibility today through GOVX and secure your tickets.

Weather guarantee: If weather postpones a NASCAR race held at a Speedway Motorsports venue and a ticket holder is unable to attend on the rescheduled date, the Weather Guarantee provides a ticket credit toward a future NASCAR race at any Speedway Motorsports venue.

Last thing: have fun!

NASCAR races are some of the most fun sporting events you can attend. It can seem a bit stressful with so much stuff happening at once but just remember to enjoy the day. If you’re new to NASCAR, welcome to a sport you’ll hopefully enjoy for a long time.

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When is NASCAR Sonoma race?

The Toyota/Save Mart 350 is set for 2:30 p.m. on July 13 at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California.

NASCAR Sonoma race TV channel

The Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Sonoma race will be broadcast on TNT with Adam Alexander, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Steve Letarte in the broadcast booth.

Shop NASCAR Sonoma tickets

We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: NASCAR Sonoma race: First-time fan checklist at Toyota/Save Mart 350

NASCAR’s road course debate has drivers picking sides, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. just made his position crystal clear. While veterans like Brad Keselowski push back against the sport’s shift away from oval-only racing, the 37-year-old Hyak Motorsports driver embraces the change with open arms.

The ongoing battle between old-school traditionalists and the younger generation has split NASCAR. Old-school fans despise the idea of stock cars racing anywhere but ovals, while the younger generation loves it. Stenhouse falls firmly in the latter camp.

Why Does Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Support More Road Course Racing?

The Hyak Motorsports driver recently downplayed the idea of scrapping road courses from the schedule and went against the grain. Instead, Stenhouse said he wouldn’t mind running six road races yearly.

Currently, the NASCAR schedule has six road/street races, one-sixth of the 36-race calendar. To some, this means excitement, seeing the Cup cars navigate the twists and turns, tearing through tight, narrow city lanes. To others, it’s nothing but a fallacy.

Read More: ‘It Was Fake News’ – Denny Hamlin Gets Brutally Honest About NASCAR’s Failed Road Course Gamble

Cup Series veterans like Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski fall in the latter category, but Stenhouse? He’s welcoming the change with enthusiasm.

What Makes Road Courses Work for Today’s NASCAR?

“Road courses are fun. This car has, I think, closed the field up a decent amount on road courses,” he said, speaking his mind on the latest SiriusXM NASCAR feature.

He added, “Obviously, you still have guys like SVG, McDowell, Allmendinger, some of those guys that seem to be able to find just a little extra speed than others. But I think the field is really tight.”

The No. 47 driver also noted that these not-so-oval events have become a part of the schedule. According to him, the field has somehow embraced Chicago. “It’s a track just like any other race now, where when you lose track position, it’s hard to come through the field, unlike when we had our old car, where the speeds were varied throughout the field,” he said.

Stenhouse then shared his personal take: “I enjoy the road courses. So I would say at least four. I don’t think six is terrible either. I don’t know if I’d keep adding, but I think that four to six range is fine with me.”

We went from 2 to 6 Road course races, Possibly 7 next year.

NASCAR was successfully built as a primarily oval racing series. IMSA was built as the primary road course series in North America. IMSA will always do road racing better than NASCAR and that’s ok.

Yes, TOO Many… https://t.co/W3pGrJwcb8

— Brad Keselowski (@keselowski) July 10, 2025

Meanwhile, 2012 Cup Series champion Keselowski stirred the pot with a blunt post just a few days ago. The RFK Racing driver and co-owner stated that NASCAR, which was initially built around oval racing, should continue to do so and ditch the idea of adding one more road course from next season.

His argument was simple: IMSA, America’s long-fabled road racing series owned by NASCAR, features the “twisties.” NASCAR should stay true to its core and stick to oval racing instead of adding more street courses. But, does it seem practical?

PJ Hyett and AO Racing took pole for Sunday’s Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park for the second year in a row, this time in dramatic fashion.

Barrier repairs caused by an accident during the preceding Michelin Pilot Challenge race delayed qualifying by 10 minutes, but it was worth the wait.

Hyett was held up slightly by a local yellow at the final turn, but he had time for just one more flying lap. The 2024 LMP2 pole sitter drove “Spike the LMP2 Dragon,” the No. 99 ORECA 07-Gibson, to the top spot with a 1m08.888s lap, snatching pole from United Autosports’ Dan Goldburg right at the buzzer.

The AO Racing crew becomes the first repeat pole winner in four LMP2 races, following his run at Watkins Glen. Goldburg, the race winner at Watkins Glen and the current LMP2 points leader, will line up second after setting a 1m08.986s.

He was also embroiled in the late drama – the No. 22 United ORECA 07 made contact with the No. 8 Tower Motorsports car of John Farano at Turn 11 and sent Farano spinning around. The Canadian driver was able to avoid bringing out a red flag by getting his car back on track.

Steven Thomas, who suffered an early crash in the first practice session of the weekend, qualified third in the No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA. Jeremy Clarke had his own issues in qualifying, spinning at Turn 2 and backing the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition car into the tires. With only minor damage and a solid lap already on the board, he’ll start fourth in Sunday’s race, ahead of the No. 04 Crowdstrike Racing by APR, No. 73 Pratt Miller Motorsports, and No. 2 United Autosports USA cars.

Neil Verhagen and Paul Miller Racing took their first GTD PRO pole of the season – a first for the No. 1 BMW M4 GT3 EVO. A lap time of 1m15.046s from the American-born, European-trained driver was enough for him to win the pole by nearly 0.3s.

The No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 of Aaron Telitz will occupy the outside of the GT front row, setting a 1m15.309s to take a front row spot away from the No. 3 Pratt Miller Motorsports Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. The two works Corvette Racing cars will start side-by-side on row two – Garcia in the championship-leading No. 3 in third ahead of the No. 4 of Tommy Milner.

Dan Harper in the No. 48 Paul Miller BMW rounded out the top five, sharing the third row with local favorites Pfaff Motorsports and the No. 9 Lamborghini of Andrea Caldarelli.

Vasser Sullivan Racing’s strong form also netted a GTD pole position for Jack Hawksworth in the No. 12 Lexus, his first of the season individually and the second straight pole in Canada for this car, which won the pole last year in the hands of Frankie Montecalvo. It’s also the second pole of the year for the No. 12 Lexus – co-driver Parker Thompson won the pole at Long Beach earlier this year.

Hawksworth set a 1m15.305s to drop the No. 57 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3 of Russell Ward out of the top spot by just 0.014s. Hawksworth then gained 0.2s on his next flying lap, securing the top spot with a 1m15.101s. Ward pushed until the final seconds of the GTD session, but would not improve from his 1m15.319s – he’ll start second.

Robert Wickens put in a solid effort to qualify third in the No. 36 DXDT Racing Corvette. Using specially-developed hand controls, Wickens set a 1m15.876 to put the Corvette on the second row.

After Casper Stevenson’s accident during the middle of practice two Saturday morning, the English driver turned things around and qualified the repaired No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 fourth on the GTD grid.

RESULTS

The NASCAR Cup Series has left the streets of Chicago behind after a dominant weekend from Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen. He earned his second win of the year after sweeping the pole positions and the race wins in both the Xfinity and Cup Series events.

AO Racing owner/driver PJ Hyett turned a lap at 128.504 mph Saturday (July 12) to win the overall pole for Sunday’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Chevrolet Grand Prix at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park. It is Hyett’s second straight pole at CTMP and his sixth career class pole.

“It’s a wonderful thing,” Hyett said afterwards. “These P2 cars and I just get along really well. I absolutely love driving this car and I love putting it on pole for the team who works so hard behind the scenes to make it fast like that.”

Hyett won the pole by .098 seconds over United Autosports’ Dan Goldburg. TDS Racing’s Steven Thomas will start third, followed by Inter Europol Competition’s Jeremy Clarke. CrowdStrike Racing by APR’s George Kurtz was fifth.

In the session, Riley Motorsports’ Gar Robinson was quickest early on before Clarke put his yellow and green ORECA 07-Gibson on top. Hyett was able to overtake Clarke and put himself on top.

Goldburg was able to drop the quick time down into the 68-second bracket with eight minutes to go. At the time, he was a third of a second ahead of Hyett and thought that he couldn’t be beat. So, he pitted with six minutes to go and let the other 11 drivers try to beat him.

Clarke’s session came to an end early when he spun in turn 2 and backed lightly into the tires. The red flag did not come out, but Clarke’s car was damaged.

Later on, Tower Motorsports’ John Farano spun and hit the tires exiting turn 10 after contact from United Autosports’ Phil Fayer. He was able to pull away as well, but suffered rear wing damage.

Hyett chose to pit for a fresh tires of tires, potentially compromising his race since LMP2 teams only get four sets of tires for qualifying and the race. Despite Farano’s spin right at the start of the lap, Hyett was a

GTD Pro saw Paul Miller Racing’s BMWs come to the front. Dan Harper put himself on top five minutes into the session. That time was quickly beaten by Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports’ Antonio Garcia.

Shortly afterwards, Harper’s teammate Neil Verhagen put down a lap at 117.960 mph, the fastest GT lap of the weekend. From then on, everyone tried their best to beat Verhagen, but could not keep the BMW racer from taking the class pole.

Verhagen’s lap was .263 seconds faster than Vasser Sullivan’s Aaron Telitz. Garcia will start third in class, followed by teammate Tommy Milner. Harper was fifth.

In GTD, Gradient Racing’s Jenson Altzman was fastest early on before Wright Motorsports’ Elliott Skeer usurped him. Skeer ended up topping out six minutes into the session with a lap at 115.881 mph, but the times continued to tumble.

Winward Racing’s Russell Ward dropped the pole into the 75-second bracket and improved to a lap at 117.532 mph. Then, Jack Hawksworth entered the picture.

Over the past few years, Hawksworth has been one of the fastest GT drivers in single-lap pace. On Saturday, he was able to wring out a lap to take the provisional pole with six minutes to go.

A couple of laps later, Hawksworth set a lap at 117.873 mph. That lap held up for the class pole.

Hawksworth ended up .218 seconds ahead of Ward. DXDT Racing’s Robert Wickens will start third in his Corvette, while The Heart of Racing’s Casper Stevenson was fourth. Wayne Taylor Racing’s Danny Formal was fifth.

The Chevrolet Grand Prix is scheduled to go green at 2:05 p.m. ET Sunday afternoon. Coverage will air live at 2 p.m. ET on USA Network and on Peacock.

Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He’s the manager of the site’s FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site’s Sports Car racing editor.

Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.