We took to the streets of Chicago last week, and now we’re onto the hills of wine country in California! Back-to-back road course races surely has some drivers salivating and others steaming.
Here’s what to look for:
–Shane van Gisbergen was our winner last week — from the Pole — and today he’ll be starting from the Pole again. No big deal! He hasn’t actually run a race here in the Cup Series at all, but that didn’t stop him from laying down the fastest lap of the day.
–Kyle Larson hasn’t had the best of times lately, but he was the best at this race in 2024. He’s actually got two Wins here in his last ten attempts; can he make it three today?
–Michael McDowell dominated the first part of last week’s race, and pulled into the garage between stages. He wasn’t the force that he was again, but was sitting 2nd after the first round of Qualifying on Saturday. He’s got some work to do, digging from 15th, but he definitely has the know how. McDowell has finished no worse than 7th in his last three races here, including a runner-up finish last year.
–AJ Allmendinger hasn’t been hitting on all cylinders lately, or been the force he’s expected to be on road courses, but that is slowly starting to turn back to normal. He was 6th last week, a sign of good things to come, no doubt. He has finished 6th in each of his last two races here, too!
–Kyle Busch ties Terry Labonte for most starts here with today’s race. He hasn’t just been doing this for a long while, he know his way around here, too. In his last ten races, he’s got a 9.4 average finish (best among all active drivers) with six Top 5s and seven Top 10s. Can we expect a solid run out of Rowdy today, too?
Coverage of the race today starts on TNT at 3:30pm, green flag scheduled for 3:50pm.
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