#SrigleyStats Sheet: Sonoma Raceway
NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series stats from Sonoma Raceway.
Before the only off-weekend for all of NASCAR’s National Series, the NASCAR Cup Series made its annual trip to Sonoma, California for Sunday’s Toyota / Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
This year, for the first time, they brought the NASCAR Xfinity Series with them, as the second-tier series ran its first event at the long-tenured road course. With that, brought some interesting storylines from the race, as the Xfinity Series tackled their second straight road course event.
SONOMA RACEWAY - CAREER-BEST FINISHES:
NCS: #42 - Grant Enfinger - P26 (NCS Debut)
KYLE BUSCH: ROAD COURSE EXPERT?
Finishing in second place at Circuit of The Americas (COTA) and Sonoma, Kyle Busch has become a road course aficionado since joining Richard Childress Racing at the beginning of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Busch is the only NASCAR Cup Series driver to finish inside the top five in both road course events this season, and one of two drivers - joined by Chris Buescher - to score top-10 finishes at both COTA and Sonoma.
TO BE THE BEST, YOU HAVE TO RACE AGAINST THE BEST, RIGHT?
Aric Almirola, AJ Allmendinger, Kyle Larson, and Ty Gibbs captured the top-four positions in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Sonoma Raceway, meaning four of the top-five in the event were not collecting Xfinity Series points.
It’s the first time since September 2017 - Darlington - that the top-four drivers in an event were not collecting NASCAR Xfinity Series points. Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, and Erik Jones were the top four that day.
NEW TEAMS CONTINUE TO VISIT VICTORY LANE IN THE XFINITY SERIES
Aric Almirola’s victory in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series event at Sonoma Raceway, while piloting the No. 28 for RSS Racing, marks the first career victory for the family-owned organization, which has spent the last decade in the second-tier series.
RSS Racing is the second new organization to score a victory in the series this season, joining Jordan Anderson Racing, who won the event at Talladega Superspeedway with Jeb Burton.
That matches last year’s count of new organizations to win in the series - in the form of SS Green Light Racing and Big Machine Racing - meaning four new teams, all of which are still active, have won in the last two years.
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