NASCAR Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma - Full Qualifying Results

Toyota seems to have the speed around Sonoma, as five of their cars qualified inside the top-eight today, led by pole sitter Denny Hamlin. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver led the way in his Camry, earning his second pole of the season and the 38th of his career. He will be joined on the front row by one of the cars that he co-owns. Tyler Reddick earned his second front-row start of the season for 23XI Racing.

Michael McDowell has always been a great road course racer, and he showed it again today by qualifying third. Christopher Bell will start alongside him on Row 2 tomorrow. AJ Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs will share Row 3 while Chris Buescher and Martin Truex Jr start in Row 4. Defending Sonoma winner Daniel Suarez and the lone Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott rounded out the top-ten in qualifying.

The Richard Childress Racing duo of Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch just missed out of the final round and will start in Row 6 tomorrow. Several high-profile drivers struggled in qualifying on the road course, and will have to start further back in the field. Kevin Harvick, Chase Briscoe, Brad Keselowski, William Byron, Ryan Blaney, and Austin Cindric will all start outside of the top 20 on Sunday.

While qualifying may seem even more important on road/street courses, it hasn't actually panned out well for the pole sitter at Sonoma. The race has only been won once in the last 17 stops here, dating back to 2005. Seven times in that span, the race has been won by a driver starting outside the top-ten. Juan Montoya won from 32nd starting position and Kyle Busch won from 30th a year later.

The only person to win from pole since 2004 is Kyle Larson, who had an incredible streak snapped today. Larson has started the last five Sonoma races from pole, winning the race in 2021. Although he earned pole for the Xfinity race, he qualified 16th in his Cup car. Tomorrow will mark the first time since 2016 that someone other than Larson will start from pole at Sonoma.

Previous Sonoma winners

2022: Daniel Suarez

2021: Kyle Larson

2019: Martin Truex Jr

2018: Martin Truex Jr

2017: Kevin Harvick

2016: Tony Stewart

2015: Kyle Busch

2014: Carl Edwards

2013: Martin Truex Jr

2012: Clint Bowyer

2011: Kurt Busch

2010: Jimmie Johnson

2009: Kasey Kahne

2008: Kyle Busch

2007: Juan Montoya

2006: Jeff Gordon

2005: Tony Stewart

2004: Jeff Gordon

2003: Robby Gordon