Sonoma Post Practice Fantasy NASCAR Predictions
After a weekend off for Father’s Day, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returns to action this weekend at Sonoma Raceway for the Toyota/Save Mart 350. Sonoma is one of three road course tracks that we visit throughout the year, which means we’ll see the drivers turning left and right here on Sunday. Strategy plays a major part in these races most of the time, as teams will likely gamble in the first two Stages and run the race backwards to have just enough gas to get to the end.
Starting track position isn’t as important at Sonoma as you’d probably think, as the best drivers will find their way to the front eventually. Kyle Larson will lead the field to the green for the third year on a row here, and the full starting lineup for the 2019 Sonoma race can be found by clicking here. You can find the practice speeds for Friday’s practice sessions here: Practice #1 — Practice #2. You should also read our in-depth notes for those sessions: Practice #1 — Practice #2.
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Final Top 25 Fantasy NASCAR Rankings for Sonoma
1. Clint Bowyer – Starts 14th – DraftKings Price: $9,300 – FanDuel Price: $12,000 – Slingshot Price: $10,900
I’m going to go out on a limb here a little bit and say that Clint Bowyer gets his first win of the season here on Sunday. I know I always preach not to over-emphasize practice speeds at a track like Sonoma, but when you have a guy that was super fast on Friday and also has a track record like Bowyer does, it’s hard to overlook. Now, Clint has some work to do on Sunday after the #14 Ford qualified 14th on Friday, but that’s actually something Bowyer is quite used to; the last two races at Sonoma have ended with Clint in 3rd and 2nd even though he started 19th and 13th in those two races (respectively). Bowyer ranked 5th in overall average speed over the two Friday practice sessions and ended up 1st in ten-lap average in Happy Hour. He’s got a great car and a great track record (six top 5s in the last eight races) and should come up big for Fantasy NASCAR owners here on Sunday.
2. Martin Truex, Jr. – Starts 8th – DraftKings Price: $10,800 – FanDuel Price: $14,000 – Slingshot Price: $12,300
Martin Truex, Jr. is pretty much boom or bust here at Sonoma Raceway, and with how this #19 team is running right now, my money is on “boom.” Truex is the defending winner of this race and has had a driver rating of at least 105.5 in each of the last three races here, which includes the 2017 event when he had engine problems. That tells you how good his car was in that race. Truex also won the Sonoma race back in 2013 while with Michael Waltrip Racing, and I think he has the speed to definitely challenge for the win this weekend as well. Looking at overall average practice speed, the #19 Toyota ranked 4th on that chart after posting the fastest lap in Practice #1 and the 12th-fastest lap in Happy Hour. For what it’s worth, Truex also finished 2nd at Watkins Glen last season, the other road course race that didn’t have mass chaos during it.
3. Chase Elliott – Starts 4th – DraftKings Price: $9,900 – FanDuel Price: $13,500 – Slingshot Price: $12,000
After a somewhat surprising win at Watkins Glen last year, Chase Elliott put himself in the discussion as one of the best road course racers in the series, and followed that up with a 6th-place result at the ROVAL in September. And as far as Sonoma goes? Chase ended up a career-best 4th here last season after finishing 8th in the 2017 Toyota/Save Mart 350. As far as this weekend goes, the #9 team struggled a bit to start out the weekend but ended up 11th-fastest in Happy Hour on Friday. Then during qualifying on Saturday, Elliott was able to advance to the final round and will roll off the grid from 4th when we get going here on Sunday. His ten-lap average was just 17th-best out of 19 total cars, but I’m not overly concerned about that. I don’t like Chase quite as much as Bowyer and Truex this weekend but all three deserve to be in the discussion when it comes to potential race winner on Sunday.
