Heim's Coronado upset, Watkins Glen reload, and Sonoma week: Week 27
Corey Heim's first Cup win at Coronado reset the road-course stretch, while Reddick's points lead shrank and the Sonoma/Watkins Glen weekend brings Cup, ARCA, IMSA and club-racing action into one packed schedule.
Corey Heim's first Cup win did not touch the playoff grid because he is ineligible for Cup driver points, but it still changed the feel of the road-course stretch. He beat 23XI teammate Bubba Wallace by 10.365 seconds at the first Cup race on Naval Base Coronado, while Tyler Reddick's late tire problem cut his points lead over Denny Hamlin to eight heading into Sonoma. 1
Coronado in one table
The Anduril 250 finished with a Toyota 1-2 for 23XI, three road-course specialists or near-specialists in the top five, and a long list of contenders buried by the Lap 32 Turn 1 crash. The finishing order below is the useful snapshot; the race itself had seven cautions for 11 laps and 20 lead changes among 13 drivers. 2
| Finish | Driver | Start | What mattered |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Corey Heim | 13 | First Cup win, in a part-time/ineligible points entry. 2 |
| 2 | Bubba Wallace | 12 | Came back from a two-lap wheel-loss penalty to complete 23XI's first Cup 1-2. 1 |
| 3 | Kyle Larson | 14 | Led 11 laps and banked a road-course podium. 2 |
| 4 | Zane Smith | 4 | Best Front Row finish of the day after running near the front early. 2 |
| 5 | AJ Allmendinger | 15 | Took another top-five swing at a road/street-course points day. 2 |
| 6 | Chris Buescher | 16 | Led seven laps and stayed seventh in the standings. 2 |
| 7 | Ross Chastain | 23 | Salvaged a top 10 from a lower-grid start. 2 |
| 8 | Riley Herbst | 24 | Led laps in Stage 2 before fading from the lead group. 2 |
| 9 | Ryan Blaney | 3 | Won Stage 1 and led a race-high 12 laps. 2 |
| 10 | Michael McDowell | 9 | Kept himself in the points conversation before another road-course week. 2 |
The biggest damage came on Lap 32. Contact exiting Turn 1 triggered a multicar crash that collected Connor Zilisch, Austin Hill, pole-sitter Shane van Gisbergen and others; Zilisch finished 37th, van Gisbergen 38th, and Austin Hill 36th. 1 Brent Crews also had a strange almost-debut: he subbed into the No. 20 Toyota for Christopher Bell, who is recovering from a fractured wrist, but the car later went to the garage with a mechanical issue and finished 39th. 1
The penalty sheet explains why Wallace's runner-up finish was odd. NASCAR assessed the No. 23 a two-lap penalty after the right-front wheel came off, then Wallace still drove back to second. Kevin Magnussen's Project 91 entry also took a stop-and-go for shortcutting the course at Turn 12 and finished 27th. 3
Points picture: Reddick still leads, but the bubble tightened
Reddick left San Diego with 716 points. Hamlin is second with 708, while Ryan Blaney is a distant third on 583. 4 The more stressful part is the cutline. Ryan Preece now holds 16th with 367 points, five ahead of van Gisbergen, 10 ahead of Joey Logano and 13 ahead of Brad Keselowski. 4
That makes Sonoma less of a normal road-course stop and more of a sorting race. Van Gisbergen's pole speed at Coronado looked real before the crash, Allmendinger just finished fifth, and McDowell took a top 10; the drivers just outside the cutline will not be waiting for ovals to rescue them. 2
IMSA shifts from Le Mans carryover to Watkins Glen math
IMSA's main action this week is setup, not a race result. The Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen runs June 28 at Watkins Glen with 54 WeatherTech Championship cars across GTP, LMP2, GTD PRO and GTD. In UTC terms, flag-to-flag Peacock coverage starts at 16:00 and the race is scheduled for 16:10. 5
The notebook has enough championship tension to watch even before qualifying. The LMP2 leaders are separated by three points, GTD PRO's top four are covered by 31, and three different brands have already won in GTP this season. 5 Conquest Racing also added Fran Rueda to the No. 34 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo for Watkins Glen alongside Albert Costa and Lorenzo Patrese. 6
Regional and club track notes
The short-track and club-racing side of the week had a different rhythm: one six-figure dirt sprint-car finish, one SCCA road-racing weekend, and one Modified Tour rainout.
- Brad Sweet led all 40 laps from the pole to win the 54th Jim Raper Memorial Dirt Cup at Skagit Speedway, taking the $100,026.26 victory by 0.135 seconds over Brent Marks. 7
- SCCA's Hoosier Super Tour ran June 19-21 at Watkins Glen, the eighth of nine events on the 2026 schedule; Sunday's program covered eight run groups and 22 classes. 8
- Fred McConnell won H Production in a new MG Midget tribute car, while SCCA listed Sunday winners across classes including Daniel Richardson in American Sedan, Jeremy Hill in Formula Atlantic, Tony Ave in GT-2 and Francisco Barroso in Spec Miata. 8
- NASCAR postponed the Whelen Modified Tour's Thunder in the Mountains 200 at White Mountain Motorsports Park from June 20 to July 18 because of the forecast for North Woodstock, New Hampshire. 9
This week: Sonoma and Watkins Glen overlap
All times below are shown in UTC, converted from the official listings.
| Date | Series | Event | Venue | Watch |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 26, 22:30 | ARCA Menards Series West | General Tire 150 | Sonoma Raceway | FloRacing / NASCAR Channel 10 |
| June 27, 17:00 | IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge | LP Building Solutions 120 | Watkins Glen | Peacock 11 |
| June 27, 18:00 | NASCAR Cup | Sonoma practice | Sonoma Raceway | truTV 12 |
| June 27, 19:10 | NASCAR Cup | Sonoma qualifying | Sonoma Raceway | truTV 12 |
| June 27, 19:30 | IMSA WeatherTech | Watkins Glen qualifying | Watkins Glen | Peacock 11 |
| June 27, 21:30 | NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series | Pit Boss/FoodMaxx 250 | Sonoma Raceway | The CW 12 |
| June 28, 16:00 | IMSA WeatherTech | Sahlen's Six Hours of The Glen coverage | Watkins Glen | Peacock 11 |
| June 28, 19:30 | NASCAR Cup | Toyota/Save Mart 350 | Sonoma Raceway | TNT Sports 12 |
The West Series preview is worth keeping open because Sonoma is only one of two road-course races on that 2026 schedule. Trevor Huddleston brings a 24-point lead to the weekend, and the entered names include Hailie Deegan, Mason Massey, Andrew Ranger, Sam Corry, Todd Souza, Patrick Staropoli, Taylor Mayhew, Sage Karam and Jeff Anton. 10
Garage notes
Wood Brothers Racing made the week's clearest long-range Cup move: Jesse Love will take over the No. 21 Ford in 2027, beginning with the Daytona 500. The team said Love is the 2025 O'Reilly Auto Parts Series champion, has seven Cup starts, and currently sits second in that series' standings. 13
That announcement closes one question and opens several more. Fox's updated silly-season tracker has Alex Bowman, Austin Cindric, Ryan Preece, Daniel Suarez, Michael McDowell, AJ Allmendinger, Ty Dillon and several lower-table seats still unresolved or unclear for 2027. 14 For this week, though, the immediate test is simpler: Sonoma can turn the Cup cutline again before the series leaves California.
References
- 1NASCAR race recap
nascar.com
- 2NASCAR race results PDF via Jayski
jayski.com
- 3NASCAR infraction report PDF via Jayski
jayski.com
- 4NASCAR driver points PDF via Jayski
jayski.com
- 5
- 6
- 7FloRacing Super Dirt Cup results
floracing.com
- 8
- 9NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour postponement
nascar.com
- 10ARCA Sonoma preview
arcaracing.com
- 11NASCAR weekly TV guide
nascar.com
- 12NASCAR Sonoma weekend schedule
nascar.com
- 13Wood Brothers Racing announcement
woodbrothersracing.com
- 14FOX Sports NASCAR silly-season tracker
foxsports.com
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