ELLIOTT’S RETURN HIGHLIGHTS STOP AT SONOMA TODAY

Chase Elliott is back from his suspension with a chance to get right back in the win column.

The NASCAR Cup Series’ most popular driver excels on road courses like Sonoma Raceway, where he has four career top-10 finishes. Elliott has the skills to take on other road warriors like Tyler Reddick and defending champion Daniel Suárez today in the series’ annual trip to this challenging track in wine country.

“The way that this track has the falloff and elevation changes that are different, it’s exciting,” the Northern California-born Reddick said. “When I come here, I feel like I’m behind, because some drivers have been racing it for years.”

Reddick has won three of the last five road course races on the Cup schedule, emerging as the best road racer in the Next Gen car. But he’s hardly the only driver who enjoys the chance to make right turns for a change.

“I look forward to road courses just because it’s different,” said Kyle Larson, the 2021 Sonoma champion and a Sacramentoarea native. “It’s fun and it’s something I feel like I’m good at . ... I’ve always qualified well (on road courses, but) when I was at Chip Ganassi Racing, I didn’t race good at all, especially here. We would qualify on the pole and then run like 20th in the race. But since I got to Hendrick Motorsports, I still qualify well and our race car is good. I’m not sure where I’ve developed. I think our race cars can just handle me being crazy, abusing my tires and stuff.”

Suárez made history on this course a year ago, becoming the Cup Series’ first Mexicanborn winner.

“I feel like our chances are just as good as last year or even better,” Suárez said. “My team has just gotten smarter and stronger, and whenever we’re on a road course, I know we’re going to be a contender.”

Hamlin edges Reddick for pole

Denny Hamlin claimed the pole for today’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway, edging road course stalwart Reddick.

Hamlin earned the 38th pole of his career by turning a lap in 77.719 seconds in his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Reddick will start up front alongside him after turning a lap in 77.812 seconds in his 23XI Racing Toyota.

Elliott qualified in 10th in his return from a one-race suspension.

Hamlin never won the pole in his first 16 career races at Sonoma. He also has never won on the winding, hilly track in wine country, although he finished second to Tony Stewart in 2016.

Reddick has won three of the last five road course races on the Cup schedule. He finished 19th and 35th in his two starts at Sonoma over the previous two seasons.

Michael Mcdowell qualified in third, earning his second top-10 start at Sonoma and his second top-10 start this season. Christopher Bell was fourth and A.J. Allmendinger fifth.

Almirola rallies past Larson

Aric Almirola won the NASCAR Xfinity Series’ inaugural race at Sonoma Raceway on Saturday night, capitalizing on a late restart and an even later mistake by Larson.

Almirola drove his Ford to the first-ever victory for RSS Racing, his first career road course victory, his fourth career Xfinity victory and his first in the series since 2017. RSS Racing has a partnership with Stewart-haas Racing.

Allmendinger finished second ahead of Larson, who had dominated the entire Xfinity weekend until Almirola snatched the victory in the series’ first race on this winding, hilly course at the base of Northern California wine country.