Christopher Bell has enjoyed plenty of success at the NASCAR Cup Series level, winning eight races in four-plus seasons and reaching the Championship Four each of the past two years.

Christopher Bell has eight career NASCAR Cup Series victories but is still looking for his first win at Sonoma Raceway.

Erik Jones has three Cup Series victories in his career and was the first driver to win Rookie of the Year honors in all three NASCAR series (Camping World Truck in 2015, Xfinity in 2016 and Cup in 2017).

What the two drivers haven’t done is win at Sonoma Raceway, and both are hoping to catch magic in a bottle at Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350.

“I’m not really a road-course racer and I’m still trying to learn and get better,” said Jones, who drives the No. 43 Toyota Camry for Legacy Motorsports. “The NextGen car for me on road courses has been a challenge.”

Jones finished 32nd at Sonoma last year, but that was in a Chevrolet Camaro. He finished eighth in 2019 and seventh in 2018 when he raced in a Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR).

Bell already has two victories this season to qualify for the Cup playoffs, and his six stage wins are second most in the series this year. He’s won twice on road courses (Charlotte ROVAL in 2022, Daytona Road Course in 2021) and has six Top 5s in 19 career road course races, but his ninth-place finish last year was his best result in the Toyota/Save Mart 350.

Bell, who drives the No. 20 Camry for JGR along with teammates Denny Hamlin (No. 11), Ty Gibbs (No. 54) and defending Sonoma champion Martin Truex, Jr. (No. 19), finished 27th and 24th in his previous two races at Sonoma Raceway.

But history could get thrown out the window after Sonoma Raceway repaved the course earlier this year. Goodyear has also issued a new tire for today’s race that features more tread thickness, resulting in less falloff over the course of a run and faster lap times.

“The guys who were good at Sonoma in the past had some tricks up their sleeves and I was just starting to pick up on it, and now it’s all for not,” said Bell, who struggled during Friday’s Sonoma practice run. “There were a lot of tendencies and characteristics of the race track that would allow people with experience to be successful, and a lot of that was because the tires would lose a lot of grip. We don’t expect those same characteristics with the new surface, and I think it will level the playing field from the experienced guys to the younger guys like myself.”

“It sounds like there isn’t a lot of tire falloff, which is the opposite of how Sonoma usually is,” Jones added. “Sonoma has always been the same when I’ve raced here and now it’s different. You can be more aggressive.”

The Toyota/Save Mart 350 begins Sunday at 12:30 p.m. and will be televised on FS1.

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