Entry List
Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 250
Saturday, June 8th, 2024
Sonoma Raceway, Sonoma, CA
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25
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8
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6
- Wednesday, June 5th, 2024
- NASCAR Wire Service -
Road racin’ in wine country: Sonoma Raceway up next
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will be staying in the road course groove as it heads to Sonoma Raceway for the Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 250 on Saturday, June 8 at 8 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, after coming off a wild one at Portland International Raceway road course last weekend.
This will be the second time the Xfinity Series has competed on the Sonoma, California 1.99-mile course. The first was last season in a race that saw Aric Almirola take the checkered flag over road course ringer A.J. Allmendinger by a mere 1.868 seconds.
Although Almirola was the first to land himself in Victory Lane at the 12-turn Sonoma circuit, it was Kyle Larson who won the pole with a speed of 91.393 mph.
Neither driver is entered in this weekend’s Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 250 so we will see a new pole sitter and race winner at Sonoma Raceway.
Xfinity Series drivers will kick off their weekend with practice at 4:05 p.m. ET on Friday, June 7, which will air on FS1 at 5 p.m. ET. Qualifying will be the following day at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS2.
Different Winners Streak: Can Van Gisbergen go back-to-back?
To no one’s surprise, New Zealander and former V8 Supercars star Shane van Gisbergen, now driving for Kaulig Racing in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, showed his road course prowess last weekend at Portland International Raceway and secured his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win, locking himself into the Playoffs. Van Gisbergen is the 11th different driver to win in the Xfinity Series this season and the seventh consecutive different winner in as many races. Now, the 35-year-old is looking to ride the wave of momentum from his victory to Sonoma Raceway and keep the winning ways going this weekend.
If van Gisbergen were to win this weekend, he would not only end the streak of different winners, but also join Austin Hill as just the second driver this season to win consecutive Xfinity Series races this year.
And for those that don’t know, van Gisbergen’s win last weekend made him the seventh different foreign-born driver to win a race in the NASCAR Xfinity Series all-time (1982-2024), joining Daniel Suarez (Mexico), Marcos Ambrose (Australia), Nelson Piquet Jr. (Brazil), Juan Pablo Montoya (Columbia), Ron Fellows (Canada) and Larry Pollard (Canada).
Masters of Xfinity Series road racing
The all-time NASCAR Xfinity Series road course winners list was extended to 41 drivers last weekend after Kaulig Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen grabbed his first career win at Portland International Raceway. Now, the Xfinity Series teams have turned their focus on this week’s Sonoma Raceway, the second of six road courses on the NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule this season. Of the 41 all-time Xfinity road course winners, eight are entered this weekend in the Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 250 on June 8.
Active Xfinity Road Course Winners | Xfinity Road & Street Course Wins |
AJ Allmendinger | 11 |
Ty Gibbs | 4 |
Justin Allgaier | 3 |
Sam Mayer | 3 |
Cole Custer | 2 |
Boris Said | 1 |
Shane Van Gisbergen | 1 |
Jeremy Clements | 1 |
Tracks | Active Road Course Winners This Weekend by Track |
Watkins Glen International | Sam Mayer (1), Ty Gibbs (1) |
Indianapolis Motor Speedway RC | AJ Allmendinger (1), Ty Gibbs (1) |
Charlotte ROVAL | AJ Allmendinger (4), Sam Mayer (1) |
Road America | AJ Allmendinger (1), Sam Mayer (1), Jeremy Clements (1), Justin Allgaier (1), Ty Gibbs (1) |
Circuit of The Americas | AJ Allmendinger (2) |
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (Montreal) | Boris Said (1), Justin Allgaier (1) |
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course | AJ Allmendinger (2), Justin Allgaier (1) |
Portland International Raceway | AJ Allmendinger (1), Cole Custer (1), Shane van Gisbergen (1) |
Daytona Road Course | Ty Gibbs (1) |
Chicago Street Race | Cole Custer (1) |
Sonoma Raceway | None |
Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger heads to Sonoma looking to avenge his runner-up finish in last year’s race. They don’t call him the king of road courses for nothing as he currently leads the Xfinity Series record with 11 victories on road courses. This year, in the first two road course races at COTA and Portland, he’s finished 10thand fourth, respectively.
In search of his second win of the season, JR Motorsports’ Sam Mayer looks to continue to show how he has become one of the premier road course ringers in the series. Last season he posted wins on three out of the eight road courses on the schedule (Road America, Watkins Glen, Charlotte ROVAL). On this season’s road courses, he posted a ninth-place finish at COTA and won the pole at Portland.
While still searching for his first career win on a road course, Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill could finally get over the hump this weekend. Last season, he posted top-five finishes on four out of the eight road courses on the schedule (Portland, Chicago, Road America, Indianapolis Road Course) and top-10 finishes on two others (Sonoma, Charlotte Road Course). Hill came close to posting his first road course victory at COTA earlier this season, taking home a runner-up finish.
Playoff picture tightens up after Portland
With a win by Shane van Gisbergen last weekend at Portland, another spot in the Playoffs has been filled. So far, Austin Hill, Chandler Smith, Justin Allgaier, Jesse Love, Sam Mayer and Shane van Gisbergen have clinched their way into the postseason by virtue of their wins, leaving just six spots up for grabs.
Double duty drivers at Sonoma –A couple drivers will be looking to get some extra seat time this weekend at Sonoma Raceway – Ty Gibbs and John Hunter Nemechek.
Gibbs will be getting behind the wheel of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota for his third Xfinity Series start of the 2024 season. He ran at Sonoma last season in the series, posting a fourth-place finish.
Nemechek will be joining Joe Gibbs Racing behind the wheel of the No. 20 Toyota for his seventh Xfinity Series start of the season. He ran in the inaugural Xfinity Series Sonoma race last season, posting a 16th-place finish.
Said Heads Unite! Boris Said returns to NASCAR with Hendrick Motorsports –Veteran road racing ace Boris Said will be making his triumphant return to the NASCAR Xfinity Series this weekend at Sonoma Raceway driving the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.
Said, from Carlsbad, California, will be making his first series start since driving the No. 13 for Carl Long at COTA in 2021.
Though, Said has not competed in the NASCAR Xfinity Series at Sonoma, he has made 17 NASCAR Cup Series start at the road course posting five top-10 finishes.
- Saturday, June 8th, 2024
- NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain
Shane van Gisbergen gets second career Xfinity win at Sono
New Zealander Shane van Gisbergen powered his way to the lead on a restart with 11 laps remaining in Saturday’s Zip Buy Now, Pay Later 250 on the Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway road course and bolted off to a 1.323-second victory – his second career NASCAR Xfinity Series win coming only a week after his first.
The 35-year old Kiwi – who earned his first career pole position earlier Saturday at the 1.99-mile course and led a race best 32 laps – took the lead from Austin Hill negotiating a tight Turn 7 on a late race restart; his No. 97 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet winning a battle of tough side-by-side action that ultimately cost Hill four positions.
Both drivers acknowledged the close racing – the second time this season they have had contact racing for the late race lead at a road course. At Austin’s Circuit of The America they collided racing for the win on the last lap only to see NASCAR Cup Series regular Kyle Larson bolt by to claim the victory over them both.
“Man, what a race – an adventure up and down and up and down all day,” said Van Gisbergen, who – as he did in Portland – celebrated his win by signing a rugby ball and kicking it into the grandstands.
“But that last restart I was just giving it all I had and two guys going for the same real estate came together.
“It was pretty awesome though, a lot of fun. Hope everyone enjoyed the show. Pretty awesome back-to-back weeks for us.”
Hill, who led 21 laps and finished fifth in the No. 21 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, was clearly displeased with the contact between himself and Van Gisbergen, but insisted on taking a sort or racing “high road.”
“I’m gonna leave it to the keyboard warriors on this one, I’ll let them figure out what happened,” said Hill, as he watched the replay on the track’s big video screen. “No matter what comment I say, it’ll be wrong.
“I plead the fifth, I’m not going to say anything about it,” he continued. “We’ll just go on to the next one, good hard racing. We were holding off SVG for a while, had that caution and I knew it was going to be tough on the restart and it didn’t work out. But we had a good points day and finished in the top-five. You can’t ask for more than that.”
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sheldon Creed finished runner-up to Van Gisbergen, the ninth second-place finish for Creed in the series and second of the 2024 season. JR Motorsports’ Sam Mayer was third with Jordan Anderson Racing rookie Austin Green fourth and Hill rounding out the top-five.
It marked the second top-10 finish in three career starts for the 23-year old recent college grad Green and was particularly impressive considering he started 22nd.
It was another young driver, former Xfinity Series champion Ty Gibbs who looked to be among Van Gisbergen’s toughest challengers early in the day. He led 26 laps but a slow second pit stop dropped in the field for the Stage 2 restart and he was among 13 cars collected in an accident in Turn 2 that eliminated several top cars.
The other NASCAR Cup Series regular in the field, John Hunter Nemechek was sixth in a Joe Gibbs Toyota with JR Motorsports Justin Allgaier, JGR’s Chandler Smith, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer and Big Machine Racing’s Parker Kligerman rounding out the top-10.
“It was the work we did between weeks to make the car better again,” said Van Gisbergen, who also took the Stage 1 victory; his first career stage win.
“It was awesome racing Ty Gibbs at the start, we were really pushing each other. It’s special to win two road courses in a row and dream about one day winning on an oval.”
Custer’s eighth-place finish was good enough to keep a 12-point championship lead over both Hill and Chandler Smith.
- Drivers Entered: 39 (1 drivers will not make the race)
- Laps Scheduled: 70
- Laps Actual: 79 - NASCAR OVERTIME!
- Margin of Victory: 01.323 Seconds
- Time of Race: 2 Hours 11 Minutes 2 Seconds
- Average Speed: 71.986
- Cautions: 4 for 14 laps
- Lead Changes: 3
- Green Flag Passes: 1,069 (16.4 passes per green flag lap)
Race weekend links appear as data becomes available.
| ENTRY | # | DRIVER | HOMETOWN | DOB | AGE | MAKE | SPONSOR | TEAM | CREW CHIEF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | Los Gatos, CA | Dec 16, 1981 | 42 | Chevrolet | Celsius | Kaulig Racing | Alex Yontz |
| 2 | 17 | Boris Said | New York, NY | Sep 18, 1962 | 61 | Chevrolet | HendrickCars.com | Hendrick Motorsports | Greg Ives |
| 3 | 7 | Justin Allgaier | Riverton, IL | Jun 6, 1986 | 38 | Chevrolet | BRANDT Partners | JR Motorsports | Jim Pohlman |
| 4 | 48 | Parker Kligerman | Westport, CT | Aug 8, 1990 | 33 | Chevrolet | Spiked Lite Coolers | Big Machine Racing | Patrick Donahue |
| 5 | 27 | Jeb Burton | Halifax, VA | Aug 6, 1992 | 31 | Chevrolet | FVP / Bommarito Auto Group | Jordan Anderson Racing | Shane Whitbeck |
| 6 | 38 | Matt DiBenedetto | Grass Valley, CA | Jul 27, 1991 | 32 | Ford | Viking Motorsports | RSS Racing | Kevin Johnson |
| 7 | 43 | Ryan Ellis | Torrence, CA | Nov 29, 1989 | 34 | Chevrolet | Classic Collision | Alpha Prime Racing | Keith Wolfe |
| 8 | 39 | Ryan Sieg | Tucker, GA | Jun 20, 1987 | 37 | Ford | Sci Aps | RSS Racing | Matt Noyce |
| 9 | 91 | Kyle Weatherman | Wentzville, MO | Aug 28, 1997 | 26 | Chevrolet | TBA | DGM Racing | Mario Gosselin |
| 10 | 44 | Brennan Poole | Sacramento, CA | Apr 11, 1991 | 33 | Chevrolet | Frontline Fire Protection | Alpha Prime Racing | Frank Kerr |
| 11 | 00 | Cole Custer | Ladera Ranch, CA | Jan 23, 1998 | 26 | Ford | Haas Automation | Stewart Haas Racing | Jonathan Toney |
| 12 | 4 | Garrett Smithley | Ligonier, PA | Apr 27, 1992 | 32 | Chevrolet | Dozer Winch | JD Motorsports | Kase Kallenbach |
| 13 | 92 | Josh Bilicki | Menomonee Falls, WI | Jun 3, 1995 | 29 | Chevrolet | TBA | DGM Racing | Bryan Berry |
| 14 | 20 | John Hunter Nemechek | Mooresville, NC | Jun 11, 1997 | 27 | Toyota | Safeway | Joe Gibbs Racing | Tyler Allen |
| 15 | 07 | Alex Labbe | Saint-Albert, Canada | Apr 29, 1993 | 31 | Chevrolet | Sonoma Aviation | SS-Green Light Racing | Paul Clapprood |
| 16 | 21 | Austin Hill | Winston, GA | Apr 21, 1994 | 30 | Chevrolet | Bennett Transportation | Richard Childress Racing | Andy Street |
| 17 | 9 | Brandon Jones | Atlanta, GA | Feb 18, 1997 | 27 | Chevrolet | Menards/Jeld-Wen | JR Motorsports | Phillip Bell |
| 18 | 51 | Jeremy Clements | Spartanburg, SC | Jan 16, 1985 | 39 | Chevrolet | One Stop / All South | Jeremy Clements Racing | Mark Setzer |
| 19 | 11 | Josh Williams | Port Charlotte, FL | Aug 3, 1993 | 30 | Chevrolet | Alloy Employer Services | Kaulig Racing | Kevin Walter |
| 20 | 98 | Riley Herbst | Las Vegas, NV | Feb 24, 1999 | 25 | Ford | Monster Energy | Stewart Haas Racing | Davin Restivo |
| 21 | 5 | Anthony Alfredo | Ridgefield, CT | Mar 1, 1999 | 25 | Chevrolet | Chevy Accessories | Our Motorsports | Joshua Graham |
| 22 | 50 | Preston Pardus | New Smyrna Beach, FL | Feb 15, 1997 | 27 | Chevrolet | Chinchor Electric Inc | Pardus Racing, Inc | Dan Pardus |
| 23 | 18 | Sheldon Creed | Alpine, CA | Sep 30, 1997 | 26 | Toyota | MRC Construction | Joe Gibbs Racing | Sam McAulay |
| 24 | 19 | Ty Gibbs | Charlotte, NC | Oct 4, 2002 | 21 | Toyota | Starkey\Soundgear | Joe Gibbs Racing | Seth Chavka |
| 25 | 29 | Blaine Perkins | Bakersfield, CA | Feb 28, 2000 | 24 | Ford | AutoParkit.com | RSS Racing | Steve Addington |
| 26 | 28 | Kyle Sieg | Tucker, GA | Apr 16, 2001 | 23 | Ford | TBA | RSS Racing | RB Bracken |
| 27 | 1 | Sam Mayer | Franklin, WI | Jun 26, 2003 | 21 | Chevrolet | myRTIC | JR Motorsports | Mardy Lindley |
| 28 | 35 | Sage Karam | Nazareth, PA | Mar 5, 1995 | 29 | Toyota | Rich Mar Florist | Joey Gase Motorsports | Wayne Carroll Jr. |
| 29 | 81 | Chandler Smith | Talking Rock, GA | Jun 26, 2002 | 22 | Toyota | QuickTie | Joe Gibbs Racing | Jeff Meendering |
| 30 | 15 | Hailie Deegan | Temecula, CA | Jul 18, 2001 | 22 | Ford | VIVA Tequila Seltzer | AM Racing | Matthew Lucas |
| 31 | 31 | Parker Retzlaff | Rhinelander, WI | May 21, 2003 | 21 | Chevrolet | FUNKAWAY | Jordan Anderson Racing | Chad Kendrick |
| 32 | 14 | Brad Perez | Hollywood, FL | Jan 21, 1997 | 27 | Ford | Refology/Weiss | SS-Green Light Racing | Jason Miller |
| 33 | 8 | Sammy Smith | Johnston, IA | Jun 4, 2004 | 20 | Chevrolet | Pilot Flying J | JR Motorsports | Adam Wall |
| 34 | 42 | Leland Honeyman Jr | Phoenix, AZ | Feb 23, 2005 | 19 | Chevrolet | TBA | Young's Motorsports | Andrew Abbott |
| 35 | 26 | Ed Jones | Dubai, United Arab Emirates | Feb 12, 1995 | 29 | Toyota | TBA | Sam Hunt Racing | Kris Bowen |
| 36 | 2 | Jesse Love | Menlo Park, CA | Jan 14, 2005 | 19 | Chevrolet | Whelen | Richard Childress Racing | Danny Stockman |
| 37 | 97 | Shane van Gisbergen | Aucklund, New Zealand | May 9, 1989 | 35 | Chevrolet | WeatherTech | Kaulig Racing | Bruce Schlicker |
| 38 | 32 | Austin Green | Concord, NC | Mar 26, 2001 | 23 | Chevrolet | 3Dimensional.com | Jordan Anderson Racing | Jody Measamer |
| 39 | 6 | Thomas Annunziata | Colts Neck, NJ | Jun 14, 2005 | 19 | Chevrolet | TBA | JD Motorsports | Dylan Roberts |