Drivers to watch in NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma

For the second time this season, NASCAR Cup drivers will race on a road course this weekend.

Sunday’s race will be 218.9 miles (110 laps) over the 11-turn, 1.99-mile course at Sonoma Raceway.

The Cup tour’s annual visit to the San Francisco area was canceled because of the pandemic in 2020, and last year’s race was contested before a limited audience.

Ross Chastain muscled his way to the lead two laps from the finish to win at Circuit of the Americas in March, the season’s first road course event. The victory was Chastain’s breakthrough first win in Cup.

Chastain will be among several drivers worth keeping an eye on in Sunday’s race (4 p.m. ET, FS1).

Ross Chastain

Chastain is the man of the moment, and not necessarily in a positive way. He bumped Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott is last week’s race at Gateway, resulting in on-track retaliation from both. For his part, Hamlin has promised some measure of revenge on an occasion when Chastain might least expect it.

Chastain won the season’s only road course race to date, displaying some aggressive driving to take the win at COTA in March. He has been up front consistently, leading 426 laps in the past 13 races.

Kyle Larson

Anytime NASCAR hits the road, Larson is a threat. He won last year’s race at Sonoma and has won three of the past six road course races. Although winless since the second race of the season, Larson figures to be strong at Sonoma, where he has led a total of 68 laps over the past four races.

Larson leads all active drivers in Sonoma poles with three.

Chase Elliott

Elliott will be looking to rebound at Sonoma after a down month. He has three straight finishes of 21st or worse after scoring five top 10s in a row. The series point leader finished second at