Shane van Gisbergen topped Saturday’s sole Xfinity Series practice session at Sonoma Raceway by more than three-tenths of a second.
The Kiwi set a 1:15.290 flyer in the closing stages of the 50-minute session, shortly after the second of two red flags, to lead the timesheets over Parker Kligerman and Ty Gibbs.
His Kaulig Racing teammates AJ Allmendinger and Josh Williams were seventh and 23rd fastest, respectively, but they did not do a mock qualifying run.
Van Gisbergen led the way early in practice before the first interruption came when Josh Bilicki spun at the Turn 11 hairpin, causing a delay of over five minutes.
The pace increased once green flag running returned, and the lead continued to cycle. The #97 dropped from the top spot but returned to it with a 1:15.985-second flyer before another red flag was needed when Boris Said hit the wall hard at Turn 1.
Gibbs, Kligerman and Justin Allgaier went on to better the Kiwi’s time on resumption, but van Gisbergen responded with his 1:15.290 second lap in the final minutes to secure the top spot.
Kligerman was second quickest, ahead of Gibbs, Allgaier, Jesse Love, Austin Hill, Allmendinger, Riley Herbst, Cole Custer and Chandler Smith, who completed the top ten.
Such was the pace of the newly repaved surface at Sonoma that the top 30 cars in practice went faster than 2023’s pole-setting time.
The Xfinity Series returns on Sunday for qualifying at 7.30 am (NZST), ahead of the 79-lap race at midday.
Header Image: Xfinity Series
