Ryan Blaney was the fastest in Friday’s practice at Sonoma Raceway, where Cup teams had 50 minutes of practice on the newly repaved road course. The new surface led to significantly quicker speeds, with Blaney clocking a lap of 97.866 mph, more than 6 mph faster than last year’s best lap.
Following Blaney, Ty Gibbs took second place with a top lap of 97.829 mph, while Will Brown, making his Cup debut this weekend, secured third place with a top lap of 97.617 mph in the No. 33 car for Richard Childress Racing. Cup qualifying will start at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday, with the race scheduled for Sunday afternoon.
In the Xfinity Series, Shane van Gisbergen led the way in the 50-minute practice session with a top speed of 95.152 mph, while Parker Kligerman followed closely at 94.763 mph. Boris Said crashed in the No. 17 car for Hendrick Motorsports during the session.
Xfinity qualifying is set to start at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, with the race following at 8 p.m. ET on the same day.