Ty Gibbs Claims Sonoma Pole as Shane van Gisbergen Faces Chase from Sixth
- Crystal Clay
- 8 hours ago
- 3 min read
by Crystal Clay
SONOMA, Calif. — The driver everyone expected to beat this weekend won’t start from the front.
Instead, Ty Gibbs earned the Busch Light Pole Award for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, edging Carson Hocevar by just 0.025 seconds while defending Sonoma winner and defending pole sitter Shane van Gisbergen qualified sixth.
Gibbs turned a lap of 74.829 seconds (95.738 mph) around the 1.99-mile, 11-turn road course to secure his first pole of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season, his first on a road course and the third of his Cup career.
After his opening lap in qualifying, Gibbs believed there was still speed left in his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.
His instincts proved correct.
“The re-runs are just super weird here,” Gibbs said. “Sometimes you can go a lot faster. Sometimes you don’t. I felt like I just had some more speed out there. The car is really fast this weekend, and we’re really excited to race tomorrow.”
Although Gibbs will lead the field to green, he emphasized that qualifying speed and race pace are rarely the same at Sonoma.
“Tomorrow is a whole different program,” Gibbs said. “You’re going to be a lot easier on the car instead of hammering it, like in qualifying. So, it’s just completely different.
“You could be on the pole today and suck tomorrow. You just have to be really focused on the race, and that’s the most important part. We’ll stick to that.”
Gibbs also praised the balance of his car after Saturday’s session.
“I’m really happy with it,” he said. “The team did a really good job and I did a good job as well. We’ve just got to keep getting better, but I feel like we’ll be pretty strong tomorrow.”
The 23-year-old said Sonoma’s flowing layout has become one of his favorite stops on the schedule.
“It’s definitely really a lot of flow, a lot of elevation,” Gibbs said. “It’s really fun. Sonoma is a great track. One of my favorites on the schedule.”
Hocevar will start alongside Gibbs after narrowly missing his first Cup Series pole.
“I didn’t feel like my lap was very good,” Hocevar said. “I was getting ready to run another, and I got through Turn 10, and they said, ‘P1.’ I was like, ‘Well, shoot, I don’t have to do another. I’m already P1.’
“So I was super happy about that, the lap time, but I didn’t think it was amazing.”
Two-time Sonoma winner and reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson qualified third, followed by Michael McDowell and Ross Chastain.
Van Gisbergen, meanwhile, will roll off sixth after entering the weekend as one of the favorites on the road course where he swept the pole and victory one year ago. The Trackhouse Racing driver reported handling issues during practice before posting the sixth-fastest qualifying lap, meaning he will have work to do if he hopes to defend his Sonoma victory.
Chase Briscoe and AJ Allmendinger, first-round opponents in NASCAR’s In-Season Challenge, qualified seventh and eighth, respectively, while Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano completed the top 10.
Championship leader Tyler Reddick will start 11th.
One notable setback belonged to Bubba Wallace, whose No. 23 Toyota crashed early in Group 2 qualifying. Wallace will start Sunday’s race from a backup car.
While Gibbs celebrated another milestone in qualifying, he made it clear his focus remains fixed on Sunday, where 110 laps around Sonoma’s demanding road course will ultimately determine whether Saturday’s speed translates into victory.
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