After the heartbreak of last weekend’s Enjoy Illinois 300 at WWT Raceway, Ryan Blaney is rebounding with some serious pace in his No. 12 Team Penske Ford Mustang Dark Horse at Sonoma Raceway.
The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion posted a blistering lap in Friday’s 50-minute practice session at the 1.99-mile road course, clocking in at 73.202 seconds (97.866mph) to pace the session.
Ty Gibbs, who has found recent success on road courses in the NASCAR Cup Series, was second quickest in the session, 0.028 seconds off the session-leading time set by Blaney.
In third place, making his NASCAR Cup Series debut in the No. 33 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing, was Will Brown, the current Supercars points leader.
Brown made 21 laps around the 1.99-mile road course in Friday’s practice session at Sonoma Raceway, the first laps the driver has made on the racetrack in a seventh-generation car.
Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott rounded out the top five in the session, placing fourth and fifth. Michael McDowell, Noah Gragson, Zane Smith, Ross Chastain, and Martin Truex, Jr. rounded out the top-10.
Unlike the NASCAR Xfinity Series practice earlier in the afternoon, the session was fairly clean throughout the entire 50 minutes, with only a pair of incidents that resulted in minor damage.
Cam Waters, making his NASCAR Cup Series debut as part of the RFK Racing’s #Stage60 program, ran into an issue during practice when the No. 60 Ford Mustang slid off the track in the first corner, narrowly avoiding the tire barriers.
The other was series regular Daniel Hemric, who went for a spin in Turn 2 in his No. 31 Kaulig Racing entry. The Xfinity Series champion ended up slowest of the 38 drivers in practice.
Next for the NASCAR Cup Series is qualifying, which will take place at 6:00 pm ET on Saturday.