Ty Gibbs secured the pole position for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway following a competitive NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session on Saturday. Driving the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Gibbs posted a fastest lap time of 74.829 seconds, translating to an average speed of 95.738 mph around the 1.99-mile, 11-turn road course. This time narrowly edged out Carson Hocevar, who recorded a lap speed of 95.706 mph, with Gibbs holding a margin of just 0.025 seconds.

The qualifying session marked the beginning of the Cup Series’ five-race In-Season Challenge. Gibbs’ performance earned him the Busch Light Pole Award, his first pole of the season. Speaking after qualifying, Gibbs noted the unique challenges of the track’s “re-runs,” observations that suggest variances in lap times depending on track conditions and car setup.

“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.”

The Toyota/Save Mart 350 is set to start at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time and will be broadcast on TNT, with radio coverage available on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The event at Sonoma Raceway is one of the prominent road-course races on the NASCAR calendar, demanding precision and strategy in addition to outright speed.