‘Next Gen’ car hits challenging Sonoma

SONOMA, Calif. — The NASCAR Cup Series drivers are facing challenges a whole lot tougher than a right turn Sunday in their final race before the brief midseason break.

They’ve got to figure out how to navigate Sonoma Raceway’s normal elevation changes, along with the return to the old road course layout in wine country — and they’re doing it all in the still-unfamiliar “Next Gen” car. Many drivers on Saturday said they felt uncomfortable in the new car on the old course, and they’re all hoping it will lead to exciting racing.

“There’s just a lot more unknowns, and you don’t get a lot of time for adjustments,” Michael McDowell said. “It’s tight and twisty, so it’s easy to get off track here. This is the short course version of a road course, so it’s tough.”

Road course proficiency is more important than ever in the Cup Series, which has six such circuits on its schedule this season. But Sonoma is only the second road course of the season, which means the teams are still trying to understand the details of the new car’s handling and setup for the challenges of the more complete racing presented on these tracks.

And they didn’t learn a whole lot that will be useful from the early-season race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, which was the first Next Gen experience on a road course.

“It’s really tight and narrow for a road course,” Chase Briscoe said of Sonoma Raceway. “Totally different from COTA.

Most of the guys have raced here before … but the cars are so different now, it’s hard to really (compare) apples to apples. I’m excited to run this layout, because this is the course I watched growing up.“

Defending champion and five-time pole sitter Kyle Larson claimed he didn’t notice a huge difference between the road course challenges of COTA and Sonoma, other than deeper braking zones. Martin Truex Jr. was among several drivers worried about the slickness of the track and the challenges of readying the car for both left and right turns.

“I think the new car changes everything (on road courses),” said Truex, who has won on both course layouts at Sonoma. “The track has so much to say about how you can

make passes and how much you can pass. … You have to work hard to set your car up to go left and right equally.”

Leclerc takes pole for Azerbaijan GP

Charles Leclerc is back on the pole. Now comes the tricky task of converting it into a Formula One win.

Leclerc won the pole for the fourth consecutive race with a blistering lap around the Azerbaijan Grand Prix’s Baku street circuit on Saturday, but the Ferrari driver failed to convert any of his last three pole positions into victories.

Leclerc ran a lap at 1 minute, 41.359 seconds with his last run of the session to beat Sergio Perez of Red Bull by .282 seconds. F-1 championship leader Max Verstappen qualified

third in the other Red Bull, .347 off Leclerc’s pace.

Leclerc has been first or second in every qualifying session this year, but has not won a race since the Australian Grand Prix in April. Verstappen won three consecutive races and Perez won in Monaco two weeks ago.

Rossi fastest at Road America

Alexander Rossi won his first pole in three years and will now try to snap a losing streak that dates just as long.

Rossi will start from the pole Sunday at Road America at Elkhart, Lake, Wis., site of his last IndyCar Series victory 44 races ago on June 23, 2019.

The American became the eighth different pole winner through eight qualifying sessions.

Hamad Mohammed/Associated Press Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco exits his Formula car after earning the pole position Saturday for Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.