Six Team Chevy drivers drove their Camaro ZL1’s to the final round of the NASCAR Cup Series’ qualifying session to earn a top-10 starting position for tomorrow’s Toyota / Save Mart 350.
· The representation came from two different Chevrolet organizations, including all four Hendrick Motorsports teammates, Chase Elliott (fourth), Kyle Larson, (fifth), William Byron (sixth) and Alex Bowman (eighth), and the Trackhouse Racing pair, Daniel Suarez (seventh) and Ross Chastain (ninth).
· Will Brown, driver of the No. 33 Mobile X / Shaw and Partners Camaro ZL1, will take the green-flag for his first career NASCAR Cup Series start from the 24th starting position. The qualifying effort comes after a stellar performance in yesterday’s practice session where he led Chevrolet in the third position on the overall speed chart.
Chevrolet in the NASCAR Cup Series at Sonoma Raceway:
- In 34 NCS races at Sonoma Raceway, Chevrolet leads the series with 13 all-time victories. • Victories by active Chevrolet drivers in the NASCAR Cup Series at Sonoma Raceway:
Kyle Busch – two wins (2015, 2008)
Daniel Suarez – one win (2022)
Kyle Larson – one win (2021)
Chevrolet on Road Courses in the NASCAR Cup Series:
- Chevrolet has earned 18 victories in the past 23 NASCAR Cup Series road course events (Chase Elliott: Watkins Glen International in August 2019 – William Byron: Circuit of The Americas in March 2024.
- In 12 NASCAR Cup Series road course races in the Next Gen era, Chevrolet leads the series with eight victories – recorded by six drivers from four different Chevrolet organizations.
- Chevrolet has recorded 65 all-time NASCAR Cup Series wins on road courses – starting with Buck Baker at Watkins Glen International in 1957.
Will Brown, No. 33 Mobile X / Shaw and Partners Camaro ZL1, post-qualifying quotes:
Brown on the qualifying effort for his first career NASCAR Cup Series start at Sonoma Raceway:
“It was a bit of a tough one, that one. It wouldn’t start at the beginning of the round. I couldn’t get it to fire, and then it wouldn’t run down pit lane. I think there was a fault in the ECU, and then on our laps, it was reading 75 percent power. Unfortunately, we can’t look at the data with how NASCAR works and all that sort of stuff compared to Supercars. But from the data we had, we had 75 percent power out there. We’ll have a look after and see if that’s the case.”
Did that issue get resolved by the end, or is it still something that’s an issue?
“We’re not sure right now. They thought with the data that it got resolved, but after looking at it there, they’re still trying to work it out.”
What’s been your experience so far? When you were in here yesterday, you hadn’t been in the car yet..
“Yeah, yesterday we ran really well. I think then, I put together a good lap, and I was surprised to see where we finished. But yeah, it’s one of those things where we’re a bit unsure after that run. There was a fault there, so we don’t know yet what sort of happened.”
Were you surprised by how much quicker the track was today in qualifying than yesterday in practice?
“No, not really. To be honest, I felt like the track was pretty similar to yesterday. I was a little bit hotter, but I think I had similar times, so it didn’t surprise me at all.”
Do you feel comfortable in the car after just 50 minutes?
“Yeah, I feel comfortable in the car. There’s no drama.. I’m just ready to race. Just a little bit disappointed with qualifying and what happened in it.”
Were there some turns that you felt like you were doing really well, and other places where you’d like to improve?
“Yeah, there’s always places that you can improve on a qualifying lap. You always look back on it. Very rarely do you do just a perfect lap. You think – I wish I would have done just a little bit better here. But yeah, it was just a bit of a messy session, to be honest, for us.”
Kyle Larson had mentioned that you two had been talking. What has it been like kind of picking the brains of drivers over here and learning what the Cup Series is all about?
“Yeah, I just wanted to meet Kyle (Larson), to be honest.. he’s a bit of a legend. But yeah, I got to chat with him and it’s been great speaking with those guys and meeting everyone. We watch a lot of NASCAR now since Shane (van Gisbergen) came over here, so to put faces to names and all that sort of stuff has been awesome. Yeah, I just chatted with Kyle about how we generally run a session in Australia. We run sessions, generally, different. We wouldn’t roll out at the start after a touring car race before us. We would expect there to be oil and whatnot on the track, so we would roll a bit later, which was what our plan was until we sort of had that little bit of hiccup on pit lane.”
Is there any further brain picking going on with the potential to get to the front? Are wheels starting to turn, as far as strategy to get to the front?
“Yeah, I’m not sure just yet, to be honest. That was going to be our plan this afternoon and tomorrow morning; to run through strategy. You sort of have to know where you finished up in qualifying to start working your strategy. But I think we’ll run through that tomorrow and see what strategy we have.”
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