HMS dominate Sonoma qualifying session after Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, William Byron, and Alex Bowman finish inside the top 8

Hendrick Motorsports swept the qualifying laps of Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 with Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, William Byron, and Kyle Larson finishing inside the top 8. Elliott and Larson reached the top 5 at 97.562 mph and 97.542 mph, respectively.

As such, Chase Elliott will start 4th in the grid and Larson will start 5th. Besides that, William Byron qualified 6th at 97.518 mph, while Bowman qualified 8th at 97.420 mph.

Besides Larson, who made contact with the tire barriers out of turn 4, everyone qualified with their cars intact. Larson damaged the left side of his number 5 Valvoline Chevrolet. However, the team has announced that the car didn't need any fixing except for a few minor re-decals.

Larson has the most consecutive poles at Sonoma under his belt, which he picked up between 2017, 2019, and 2022. With an average starting position of 3.7, Larson is the only current Hendrick Motorsports driver to win at the Californian road course.

Nevertheless, Chase Elliott is on the top of the current Cup Series grid on average finish (12.1 in seven starts). His best finish at Sonoma was a runner-up position in 2021. Sonoma and the Chicago road courses are the only two street courses where Elliott does not have a win yet.

William Byron is all set to make his 6th career start at Sonoma. His best qualifying lap came in 2019 and his best finish came in 2022, when he recorded a P9 finish. Alex Bowman has made seven starts at Sonoma so far. His best performance is there highlighted by a pair of top 10s in 2018 and 2021.

---

Chase Elliott has no concerns about the repaved Sonoma Raceway

Moments after the qualifying sessions were over, Chase Elliott opened up to Frontstretch's Stephen Stumpf about his views on the repaving of the 1.99-mile racetrack. Initially, the repave was not perfect as parts of the track started to fall apart during a sports car event in April. However, the track was repaired immediately.

Reflecting on the same, the 2020 Cup Series champion said:

"I didn't see anything visually on the track, so I'm sure they'll inspect it later. I didn't feel anything at all. Honestly, after today, I feel a lot better." (0:21)

That was not the only change made at Sonoma. The concrete K-rails on the inside of the hairpin corner at turn 11 were replaced with tire barriers. Elliott, however, didn't have a problem with that.

"It's fine," Elliott told the reporters talking about turn 11. "There's a wall there. Tire barriers there... I don't really have any issues with it. You don't want to hit tire barriers. You also don't wanna hit the wall."

He added:

"I feel like you're rolling the center of the corners faster. I think there's a lot more pace in (turns) 7, particularly out of 7 through the center of 11, through 10 and probably up the hill into 1. All the slow stuff feels really similar to the way it did before."

Chase Elliott currently stands 3rd in the NASCAR Cup Series point standings with 507 points. He is already qualified for this year's playoffs; thanks to his win at Texas Motor Speedway. Throughout his previous 15 starts, Elliott has five top 5s, seven top 10s, and has led 133 laps.