The NASCAR Cup Series returns to California this weekend with the Toyota/Save Mart 350 in the second of six road races on the schedule in 2023. The green flag will drop on Sunday, July 11, at 3:30 PM EDT from Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, CA.
Daniel Suarez picked up his first Cup Series win at this event in 2022 after leading for the final 26 laps. Martin Truex Jr. leads all drivers with three wins at Sonoma but hasn’t had a victory here since 2018.
Kyle Busch has two career victories at the Toyota/Save Mart 350 and is coming off a win at last week’s Enjoy Illinois 300. Three other drivers in the weekend’s field have at least one victory, including Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick, who has finished in the top ten in six of his last seven starts at Sonoma. Suarez finished better than 12th for the first time here and had a strong start last week at Gateway, finishing seventh.
Toyota/Save Mart 350 Odds
Tyler Reddick +450
BetOnline NASCAR odds have Tyler Reddick favored to win the 2023 Toyota/Savemart 350. He has been the best driver on road courses recently, winning three times in the last six NASCAR Cup Series road races.
Reddick won earlier in 2023 at Circuit of the Americas, running away from the field in the final dozen laps. He finished 35th at Sonoma in 2022 and has never finished higher than 19th here, but has four top-tens in his last six starts in 2023.
Kyle Larson +475
Larson is once again near the top of the odds board at BetOnline. He finished fourth last week at Gateway but finished 15th last year at Sonoma after his 2021 victory.
Larson already has five DNFs in 2023 but has top-four finishes in four of his previous nine points races. He’s been running fast all season in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy, and if he can avoid another crash, he’ll be one of the best bets to win on Sunday.
Chase Elliott +550
Arguably the best road course racer in NASCAR, Chase Elliott returns from his one-race suspension to be among the Toyota Save Mart 350 favorites. After two straight top-ten finishes, he finished 34th at Charlotte two weeks ago after his incident with Denny Hamlin at the Coca-Cola 600. Elliot has a great chance to break out of his slump and get his first win of 2023 in Sonoma.
William Byron +800
William Byron hasn’t had much success at Sonoma, finishing ninth in 2022, his highest finish in any road course race last season. However, he did place fifth at Circuit of the Americas this spring and is tied for first with nine top-tens and three wins in 2023. A strong performance would put him into the lead in the NASCAR Cup Series standings, where he trails Ryan Blaney by 13 points, so look for him to be among the leaders when the checkered flag drops.
NASCAR Toyota/Savemart 350 Driver to Watch
Martin Truex Jr. +3300
Truex has three wins at Sonoma but struggled in the next-gen car in 2022 to finish 26th. He also finished no higher than 13th in his last seven road course races. However, Truex has four overall road course wins and has six top-ten finishes in the previous eight races in 2023.
His No. 10 Toyota has run fast this season for Joe Gibbs Racing, as Truex ranks fourth in the Cup standings, 23 points behind Blaney. If his crew can overcome the problems they had last year at Sonoma, he could be a threat to surprise everyone who counted him out for this event.
