Kentucky Quaker State 400 Storylines

MWR won at Sonoma, how about two in row with Truex Jr.? (Getty)

Clint Bowyer was perhaps the most disappointed driver of 2011. He was the first outside the top 10 in points after 26 races to miss qualifying for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™. Bowyer won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup road race at Sonoma on Sunday and hopes it builds momentum toward a Chase berth, which would be Michael Waltrip Racing’s first trip to the postseason.

Saturday night’s second Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway marks the beginning of the Race for the Chase – the season’s second-most important 10 weeks that ends with the 12-driver Chase field determined Sept. 8 at Richmond International Raceway. Nine of last year’s top 10 after the first 16 races made it to post-season play – ironically Bowyer being the odd man out.

Also interesting to note: champion Tony Stewart was 12th after Sonoma’s road race in 2011. He scratched and clawed his way into the Chase field and with five victories outlasted Carl Edwards on a tiebreaker.

Edwards continues to suffer through a championship near-miss slump. He’s 11th in points but, without a victory doesn’t currently figure in the Chase "Wild Card" battle headed by Quaker State 400 winner Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman.

Roush Fenway Racing’s Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle again are one-two in series points, the 15th week that one or the other has held the No. 1 spot. RFR loves the 1.5-mile intermediate tracks where in 25 seasons of NASCAR Cup competition the organization has collected 40 of its 127 victories.

NASCAR resumes its "tripleheader" format as the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series join the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Kentucky Speedway.

Joey Logano won three consecutive NASCAR Nationwide events in Kentucky (2008-2010) before Brad Keselowski stopped his streak a year ago. Logano has been red-hot in the series in 2012 winning four of the last five races he’s entered. The Feed the Children 300 is set for Friday night.

Keselowski will being doing triple duty at Kentucky Speedway beginning with Thursday night’s UNOH 225 in which he continues to seek his first NASCAR Camping World Truck victory to complete a sweep of all three NASCAR national series. The spotlight, however, may be on Nelson Piquet Jr. based upon what he did over the weekend. Piquet, a former Formula 1 competitor, became the first Brazilian to win a NASCAR national series event as he captured the NASCAR Nationwide Sargento 200 from a Coors Light Pole start.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

Race To The Chase Starts Now
Obviously the final 10 races of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season comprise the most important segment of the season. The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™ crowns the 2012 champion. But first you have to get there. The next 10 weeks – the Race to the Chase – sets the 12-driver field for the post-season beginning with Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 (TNT live 7:30 p.m. EDT) at Kentucky Speedway. The Chase lineup will be set following Richmond International Raceway’s event on Sept.8.

A look back at last year’s Race to the Chase: With 10 races to go, nine of the then-top 10 survived for post-season competition. Only Clint Bowyer missed the cut – and ironically Bowyer picked up his first victory of 2012 on Sunday in Sonoma. He’s ranked seventh, one spot better than a year ago.

Bowyer became the season’s 12th different winner – the most since 2003. Only two drivers ranked among the top 10 – Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick – are without a victory.

Of note: Tony Stewart, the 2011 champion, was 12th following last year’s Sonoma race.
Michael Waltrip Racing Comes of Age

Bowyer’s Sonoma victory was just the team’s third since formation in 2002. But it’s hard to say MWR and "dark horse" in the same sentence. Both Bowyer and Truex sit in the top 10. Truex led 15 laps in Sonoma where part-time MWR driver Brian Vickers, who’d spent the previous weekend competing in Le Mans’ famed 24-hour race, finished fourth.

MWR never has qualified a driver for the Chase, a short coming that likely will be ended this season.

‘Wild Card’ Competition Still Wide Open
A year ago, Brad Keselowski wasn’t being mentioned even as a favorite to pick up a "wild card" berth in the Chase, one of two spots reserved for drivers ranked 11th through 20th who have the most victories. But he’s a pivotal figure this year, battling Carl Edwards for the 10th points position which Keselowski grips by 11 points. Edwards, last year’s No. 2 points finisher, is "odd man out" at this juncture – out of the top 10 and without a victory thereby qualifying as a "wild card."

The top two "wild card" aspirants are Kyle Busch and Ryan Newman with one win apiece and ranked 12th and 13th.

Prominent Names Still Winless in ’12
Jeff Gordon, the active driver with the most NASCAR Sprint Cup victories (85) heads a number of 2011 winners still waiting for their turn in Victory Lane. Gordon led all three practices at Sonoma, qualified second (to Marcos Ambrose – winner of Coors Light Poles in back-to-back weeks) and finished sixth after leading 13 laps. Ambrose, eighth in Sonoma, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Paul Menard, David Ragan, Trevor Bayne and Regan Smith also won a year ago but haven’t repeated in the season’s first 16 races.

Roush Fenway Racing Drivers One-Two Again
Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle again hold the top two spots in the standings and along with Edwards look forward to competing on Kentucky Speedway’s 1.5-mile layout. Roush Fenway Racing, celebrating its 25th season in NASCAR, counts 40 of 127 victories (31%) 1.5-mile intermediate tracks. The organization is the top winner at three: Homestead-Miami Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway. Biffle won at Texas earlier this spring.

Second Year On Cup Schedule For Kentucky
Kyle Busch dominated last year’s inaugural Quaker State 400 leading the most laps from a pole position that was set via the rule book due to inclement weather that canceled qualifying. Busch needs a pick-me-up for sure. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has averaged a finish of 27.0 over his past four starts and has fallen from ninth to 12th in the points standings.

Two drivers who could use a Bluegrass State victory to close on career track sweeps are Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. Each lacks wins on one additional scheduled facilities – Gordon at Homestead and Stewart at Darlington. Gordon led his 23,000th lap in NASCAR Sprint Cup competition on Sunday in Sonoma. He’s the active leader of the category and seventh in the history of laps led.

Kentucky Etc. Edwards can join Kyle Busch as a winner in all three NASCAR national series at Kentucky Speedway. He won his first NASCAR Camping World Truck race there in 2003 as a rookie and added a Nationwide Series victory in 2005.

- NASCAR Media Services

Bowyer Captures First Career Road Course Win at Sonoma

San Jose Mercury-News

MWR finally grabs a 2012 win (Getty)

SONOMA--— Clint Bowyer held off Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch in a green-white-checkered finish to win the Toyota/Save Mart 350 on Sunday at Sonoma raceway.

Bowyer was leading the race when a caution flag came out with less than five laps to go. But he had an excellent restart and maintained the lead through the tight first two turns.

It is Bowyer's first career road course victory in what was his seventh Cup start at Sonoma raceway -- where he's finished in the top 10 four times. That included three fourth-place finishes.

Bowyer entered Sunday's race ninth in the Cup standings with five top 10 finishes in the last seven races.

Stewart was second, passing Busch in the last lap. Busch was third, easily his best finish of the season.

Busch entered Sunday 27th in the standings with just one top 10 finish this year. His best finish before this week was ninth at Fontana.

Sonoma Results

Final 2012 Sonoma Driver Ratings Following All Practice Sessions

Micah Roberts’ Top 10 Driver Ratings
Toyota/Save Mart 350
Sonoma Raceway
Sunday, June 24, 2012 -  12:16 pm (PDT)

Rating    Driver     Odds          Practice 1    Qualifying    Practice 2    Practice 3  
 1. Jeff Gordon 6/1                       1st               2nd              1st                1st 
Five-time winner; using best car he’s had on a road course since his last win in 2006.
 2. Marcos Ambrose 3/1              7th                1st              2nd               11th 
Finished sixth or better in past thee starts; fastest average speeds in final practice.
 3. Juan Pablo Montoya 8/1       22nd              12th             4th                3rd 
2007 winner and 2010 Watkins Glen winner; won on streets of Monaco in Formula-1.
 4. A.J. Allmendinger 40/1          11th              17th             3rd                5th 
Five time Champ Car winner on road/street circuits; driving for team that won in 2011.
 5. Jimmie Johnson 6/1              10th               3rd              7th                4th 
Using winning 2010 chassis this week; improving on roads, strong in all practice sessions.
 6. Kyle Busch 10/1                      5th               7th               6th               10th 
2008 winner who also won at Watkins Glen the same year. Consistently good in practice.
 7. Clint Bowyer 30/1                   3rd                6th               9th               14th 
Finished career best of fourth on three occasions; quick average speeds in practice.
 8. Carl Edwards 30/1                 13th              11th            16th                7th
Career best finish of third last season; using new car that tested on Virginia road course.
 9. Tony Stewart 6/1                   24th               24th            17th               21st 
Two-time winner with five other wins road wins at Watkins Glen; struggled in practice.
10. Brad Keselowski 25/1           15th              13th              5th               24th 
Career best of 10th last season, runner-up at Watkins Glen. Good average times in practice.

Note: The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series only runs two road course races a season.

Odds courtesy of the LVH Super Book.

Micah Roberts, a former sports book director, has been setting NASCAR lines in Las Vegas since 1995. For more Roberts insights and post-practice analysis on the race, go to VegasInsider.com or follow on Twitter @MicahRoberts7. 

Only two top tiered drivers for Sunday's race: Ambrose and Gordon (Getty) 

Betting Notes
Despite the road courses being more about the driver than the car like at other tracks, it doesn’t necessarily translate into long shots winning at the betting window. Sure, we’ve had a few surprises like Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson win at Sonoma in the recent past, but we still haven’t been shocked with a driver winning at 25-to-1 or higher odds.

This is why a betting strategy for Sonoma goes a little different than at other tracks. You have to respect the top speeds from practice a little more and wager upon fewer drivers. At Talladega or Daytona you can bet up to 10 drivers as various amounts and feel comfortable about the possibly hitting a driver with huge odds. At places like Charlotte or Texas, you can narrow it down to about four or five drivers.

When we hit the road courses, you have to decrease the amount of play on other drivers because the top drivers have such low odds. If playing more than two or three drivers at Sonoma, it severely decreases your profit margin when the favorite does win.

In this weeks case, a favorite should win and his name is Jeff Gordon. After everything we’ve seen over the weekend in practice, there really isn’t another logical choice than Gordon to begin all wagering strategies with. Finding 6-to-1 odds like Gordon was most of the week is now going to be tough to find.

Following Gordon, Marcos Ambrose is the next best choice. If betting both of those drivers, you’ve got a great chance to win, but at the lowest odds offered on the board. So it’s almost like you have to choose one of those top tiered drivers and then take a shot with longer odds from drivers like A.J. Allmendinger or Juan Pablo Montoya.

The area to play around with a little bit more than the odds to win is in driver matchups. You want a good quality finish and try to find the biggest mismatches. Carl Edwards and Clint Bowyer should both be drivers to key on that should fare well. Tony Stewart had a terrible bunch of practices, but it’s likely his prices will be drastically dropped because of those poor practices which in turn, offers value on one of the best road racers out there.

Another driver that may have odds stacked against him because of history and mediocre practices is Dale Earnhardt Jr. He’s never had a top-10 finish at Sonoma, but he’s also never had a consistent run on every type of track like he’s had this year. Junior leads all drivers with 12 top-10 finishes this season.

     

Sonoma Practice Notes: Gordon Tops the Charts in All Three Sessions

Jeff Gordon fastest in all 3 practice sessions, just like the old days (Getty)

By Micah Roberts

When looking at all three practice session times from Sonoma this weekend, it’s like getting a blast from the past to 2000, when Jeff Gordon was in the middle of his five career wins at the road course nestled in northern California’s wine country.

Gordon hasn’t won at Sonoma since 2006, but being faster than everyone in all three practices is pretty impressive and shows that his sixth win is on the horizon.

Gordon had the top speed in Friday’s first practice session that included mock qualifying runs, and was fastest in the final two practices Saturday reserved for just race runs.

Gordon was above everyone else in same fashion he was during the elite years when he was always the 2-to-1 favorite at Las Vegas sports books. Because of having somewhat of a Sonoma drought, Gordon is 6-to-1 this week. The drought is in reference to Gordon not winning, but he has still performed well at a high level with five straight top-10 finishes that includes being runner-up in last seasons race.

In those five races since his last win, he never had a car to show off like the one on display during practices this weekend. This car is fast and everyone in the garage know what they're up against.

As spectacular as Gordon looks, the dark cloud hanging over the team this season still looms large. This may be the first time Gordon has dominated all three practices, but he’s also had a few cars this year that could have won but managed to find trouble. The list of failures out of the No. 24 team is a long one. They have produced only one top-5 finish this season.

If there might be a track to get Gordon out of his slump, it might be a road course where he’s won nine times over his career between Watkins Glen and Sonoma.

Only three drivers were able to top 93 mph in the final 76-minute session. Greg Biffle had the fastest lap (93.202) for the first 25 minutes and then Gordon laid one down at 93.225 mph which stood as the top speed for the remainder of practice. Juan Pablo Montoya put down the third fastest lap (93.075) with five minutes remaining.

2010 Sonoma winner Jimmie Johnson had the fourth fastest lap (92.995), followed by former Champ Car ace A.J. Allemndinger (92.992). Allmendinger was strong in both Saturday practice sessions and should able to contend for the win Sunday.

Not only does Allmendinger have five Champ Car road/street wins, but he also is driving for the team that won at Sonoma last year. There’s a lot of grumbling about Allmendinger not seizing moments this season like Kurt Busch had done in the past. This is a golden opportunity for him to get at least a top-5 finish or maybe even his first career Cup win.

Race favorite Marcos Ambrose had the 11th fastest lap in final practice, but came in with the top average speeds. Ambrose ran 16 laps for a 92.223 mph average. MWR teammates Clint Bowyer and Martin Truex Jr. were the only other driver to average over 92 mph.

This race should come down to a Gordon-Ambrose battle down the stretch. Allmendinger and Montoya are live as well. Crazy things happen on the road courses with pit strategies and several teams being out of sequence with their fuel, but it’s rare that one of the fastest cars during practice doesn’t win on race day.

The outsiders that should make some noise on Sunday are Johnson, Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch  and Carl Edwards.    

 
Top-5 Sonoma Practice 3 Speeds:
1) Jeff Gordon 93.225 mph
2) Greg Biffle 93.202
3) Juan Pablo Montoya 93.075
4) Jimmie Johnson 92.995
5) AJ Allmendinger 92.992

Sonoma Practice 3 Speeds




Gordon Fastest Again in Saturday's Early Practice Session

By Micah Roberts

For the second straight Sonoma practice session, Jeff Gordon was faster than everyone around the 1.99-mile road course. Gordon will start Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 on the front row, with Marcos Ambrose on the pole, and looks to have one of the fastest cars seen from him in recent road course races.

Gordon jumped out of the gate early with the top speed at 94.312 mph in the first 15-minutes of the 45-minute session. It was 1 mph faster than Marcos Ambrose, who was second fastest (93.381).

Brad Keselowski had a good practice 2 session at Sonoma (Getty) 

Finding their way up the charts as expected was A.J. Allmendinger, Juan Pablo Montoya and Brad Keselowski, who rounded out the top-5 speeds of the session. All three drivers showed a vast improvements from what they ran in Friday’s session.

The average speed times almost mirror the single lap speeds. In each instance, Gordon is considerably better than everyone else with Ambrose and Allmendinger being his closest competitors.

The driver that stood out in average speeds in relation to his single lap time was Clint Bowyer, who had the fourth fastest average with the ninth fastest single lap.

Some notables that performed below what might have been expected included Tony Stewart (17th) and Kevin Harvick (22nd).

Jimmie Johnson (7th) and Kyle Busch (6th) look might be a pair to contend with as they each go for their second Sonoma win, while Dale Earnhardt (20th) might just get his first top-10 Sunday.

No top-10’s in 12 starts for Junior at Sonoma, but why not now? He only leads all of NASCAR with 12 top-10 finishes on the season. He’s also got a teammate in Gordon with the best set-up on the track that it‘s likely Junior will get the benefit of.

Aric Almirola ran the most laps (26), but was only able to capture the 32nd fastest speed.

Keselowski ran 21 laps and also led the way as one of the five drivers that ran 10-consecutive laps in long runs.

The final practice session is scheduled for 10:45 am (PT) today.

Top-5 Sonoma Practice 2 Speeds: 
1) Jeff Gordon 94.312 mph
2) Marcos Ambrose 93.381
3) A.J. Allmendinger 93.342
4) Juan Pablo Montoya 93.287
5) Brad Keselowski 93.244

Sonoma Practice 2 Speeds

Sonoma Practice 3 Speeds



Jeff Gordon Fastest in First Practice Session

By Micah Roberts

Jeff Gordon laid down the fastest lap (94.696 mph) in the final moments of Friday’s first practice session at Sonoma giving him a great shot at winning his sixth pole on the 1.99 mile road course. Gordon is a five time winner at Sonoma, the last time coming in 2006.

Gordon has the look of a winner (Getty)

Unlike the previous races during his Sonoma drought, Gordon finds himself almost in a must win situation Sunday. He needs wins and he needs them fast, because his chances are dwindling.

Gordon needs a little of his past magic this weekend and all indications are that he’s got a car good enough to get him there. Chad Knaus was talking on one of Speed TV shows earlier on the day and raved about how fast Gordon’s car was at the Virginia road testing.

Gordon’s first step to winning the Toyota/Save Mart 350 is qualifying well to get good start position. When the drivers qualify at 3:40 pm (PT), look for Gordon’s speed to get him a position near the front for Sunday’s race.

Martin Truex Jr. turned the second fastest lap (94.471) late in the 90-minute session that saw most teams run a qualifying set-up in the final 30 minutes. Clint Bowyer ran the third fastest lap (94.440) putting two Michael Waltrip Racing cars at the top of the charts.

44 drivers attempted a lap around the course. Road course ringer Tomy Drissi ran the most on the day with 23, followed by four others that logged in 21.

Last seasons Sonoma pole winner, Joey Logano, came in with the fourth fastest lap (94.387) followed by his Gibbs teammate Kyle Busch (94.348) to round out the top-5.

The favorite to win Sunday is Marcos Ambrose, a driver who is in a similar position regarding the Chase as Gordon. Ambrose had the seventh fastest lap at 94.314 mph.

Saturday’s final two practice sessions will be run entirely in race trim and will offer more valuable average speeds to work with than Friday where we had a mix of race and qualifying set-ups.

Top-5 Sonoma Practice 1 Speeds: 

1) Jeff Gordon 94.696
2) Martin Truex Jr. 94.471
3) Clint Bowyer 94.411
4) Joey Logano 94.379
5) Kyle Busch 94.348

Sonoma Practice 1 Speeds

Sonoma Practice 2 Speeds

NASCAR.com Average Speeds

Ambrose on Pole - Sonoma Starting Lineup

Dale Earnhardt Jr Preview: 2012 Sonoma Toyota/Save Mart 350

Preview: NSCS Sonoma Preview: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Junior is 50-to-1 to win this week at the LVH Super Book (Getty)

Venue: Sonoma, Calif., racetrack (1.99-mile road course)
Event: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (Race 16 of 36)

News & Notes

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES: Dale Earnhardt Jr. captured his first NASCAR Sprint Cup win of the 2012 season last weekend at Michigan International Speedway. Earnhardt dominated the event by leading a race-high 95 laps and taking the checkered flag with a more than five-second margin of victory. The win is Earnhardt's 19th career victory and his second in the Cup series with Hendrick Motorsports.

POINTS AFTER MICHIGAN: After winning last weekend's race at Michigan, Earnhardt ranks second in the Sprint Cup championship standings and trails leader Matt Kenseth by four points. Earnhardt has ranked second in the standings after the 15th race of the season two other times in his career -- 2003 and 2004.

SEASON-TO-DATE STATS: After 15 races this season, Earnhardt has scored one win, six top-five finishes, 12 top-10s and led 218 laps. Earnhardt leads all drivers with 12 top-10 finishes during the season and is the only driver to complete all 4,648 laps during the first 15 races of the 2012 season.

EARNHARDT AT SONOMA: Earnhardt has scored five top-15 finishes in 12 Sprint Cup starts at Sonoma, Calif. He has completed 93.4 percent of all the laps he's attempted (1,241 laps of 1,329 total) at the 1.99-mile California road course.

CHASSIS CHOICE: This weekend, crew chief Steve Letarte and the No. 88 team will unload Hendrick Motorsports Chassis No. 88-601. Earnhardt most recently raced this chassis to a 15th-place finish at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International in August last year.

HENDRICK AT SONOMA: In 23 Cup events (78 starts) at Sonoma, Hendrick Motorsports leads the competition at the road course in victories (six), top-five finishes (26), top-10s (37), pole positions (nine) and laps led (572). Jeff Gordon owns five of Hendrick Motorsports' wins at Sonoma, while Jimmie Johnson earned the organization's most recent victory there in 2010.

- Hendrick Motorsports

More Parity Than Ever Before at Sonoma

Explain Kasey Kahne's 2009 win at Sonoma? Parity? (Getty)

by Micah Roberts

There have been seven consecutive different winners at Sonoma dating back to 2005 showing a massive amount of parity compared to what we used to see in road course racing where it was only a select few that could win. None of the seven winners were road course ringers, and surprisingly, five of the winners were first time winners on the roads where they make both right and left turns.

The one correlation between drivers doing well compared to their past may lie within the introduction of the ‘Car of Tomorrow’ in 2007 -- a name that still sounds just as ridiculous today and it did yesterday, and even tomorrow.

How else do you explain Kasey Kahne’s 2009 win at Sonoma when his best finish in five previous starts was 23rd and didn't crack the top-30 in his four other starts?

Jimmie Johnson was never as bad as Kahne at Sonoma, but it took him nine years until he finally won a road race in 2009.

Prior to 2007, the Sonoma races were won by NASCAR’s premier road course drivers every year. Jeff Gordon had won five times, Tony Stewart twice, with other great road drivers like Robby Gordon, Mark Martin and Ricky Rudd capturing wins as well.

For some reason, the advantage drivers like Gordon and Stewart had with the old car isn’t as pronounced today. Perhaps age has something to do with it, but it‘s more likely that their edge was been taken away because of the COT, a car they are both still searching for their first Sonoma win with.

We could just be seeing a shift in the talent pool of today's NASCAR with the current drivers having a much broader background on the road courses than the drivers of the past. For whatever reason, it seems that drivers growing up west of the Mississippi River experienced more road courses in their maturation process than those on the east coast.

Today's NASCAR is littered with west coast drivers. The last driver from NASCAR's roots of Carolina to win at Sonoma was Dale Earnhardt in 1995.  

Last 10 Sonoma Winners
2011 - Kurt Busch
2010 - Jimmie Johnson
2009 - Kasey Kahne
2008 - Kyle Busch
2007 - Juan Pablo Montoya (first year of COT)
2006 - Jeff Gordon
2005 - Tony Stewart
2004 - Jeff Gordon
2003 - Robby Gordon
2002 - Ricky Rudd

Sonoma Notes
• Only three drivers in the top 10 in points have a road-course win: No. 4 Jimmie Johnson (1); No. 6 Kevin Harvick (1); No. 9 Tony Stewart (7).

• Tony Stewart has two wins, four top-fives and eight top-10s in the past 10 road-course races, scoring the most points during that span. He has won five of the past 15 road-course races (two at Sonoma) and finished first (seven times) or second in 11 of his past 22 road-course starts. He has led in seven of the past eight races at Sonoma.

• Points leader Matt Kenseth (24 starts) has never had a top-five on a road course and only one top-10 (eighth at Sonoma in 2008) in the past 14 such races.

• Second place Dale Earnhardt Jr. (24 starts) has never had a top-10 at Sonoma; his best finish is 11th, three times (2003, '04 and '10). He has not had a road-course top 10 since finishing 10th at Watkins Glen in 2005.

• Third place Greg Biffle (18 starts) has three top-fives (two at Sonoma) and five top-10s (three at Sonoma) on road courses, but has finished 21st or worse 10 times (three at Sonoma) and 23rd or worse in the past three such races (and four of the past five).

• Five drivers in wild-card standing have a road-course win: No. 2 Kyle Busch (2); No. 16 Kasey Kahne (1); No. 17 Marcos Ambrose (1); No. 19 Juan Montoya (2); No. 20 Jeff Gordon (9).

• Marcos Ambrose has the best road-course average finish among active drivers, 8.1 in eight races. He has finished in the top six in the past seven road-course races (all but a transmission failure at Sonoma in his first career Cup start 2008).

• Marcos Ambrose has finished 13th or better in four of the past five races, including all three of his top-10 finishes this season; he started in the top 10 in three of the past four races, including his first Cup pole at Michigan.

• Juan Montoya has eight top-10 results (four at Sonoma) in his 10 road-course races. Montoya's win at Sonoma in 2007 was his first road-course start. Both of his Cup wins have come on road courses.

• Jeff Gordon has finished in the top 10 in the past six races at Sonoma, the longest current streak. His five wins, 12 top-fives, 15 top-10s and 437 laps led at the track tops all drivers. Jeff Gordon has the most road-course wins with nine, including six in a row from August 1997 to June 2000.

• Hendrick Motorsports has the most wins at Sonoma (6) and the most road-course wins (15).

• Hendrick Motorsports has won four of the past five races this season with three different drivers (plus both All-Star races).

2012 Sonoma Preview: Chase Chances Could Hinge on Courses

NASCAR to thrive for next few weeks as TV ratings will be sky high (Getty) 

By Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com

Leave it to Dale Earnhardt Jr. to make the biggest splash of the 2012 NASCAR season with his dominating Michigan performance last Sunday that ended a 143 race winless drought. It wasn’t so much that it had been nearly four years to the date of his last win, or that it came on the same track, it was the manner it which it happened, more specifically, occurring on Fathers Day.

It also helps the moment that half the crowd wearing their green No. 88 gear at the track finally got to see their driver win a race and had the stands looking like a frenzied Shea Stadium after Bill Buckner booted the ball in the 1986 World Series. The crowd was as loud as I’ve heard a NASCAR race be since July of 2001, another Junior win coming at Daytona the year his Father passed away.

The only person probably happier to see Junior win was NASCAR President Brian France who admitted before the season that NASCAR would be greatly helped if Junior was winning races.

The effect of Junior’s win should be a tidal wave of renewed enthusiasm for NASCAR which means a boom for television ratings. NASCAR ratings have either dropped or been flat over the last four years and while the economy has been attributed to some of the declines, a lot of it has to do with Junior not being successful.

Junior fans are passionate and proud, but they haven’t had a lot to cheer about. Losing 143 straight times as a fan in any sport can be a heavy burden to carry. A lot of the Junior nation had a thought process that went. 'Why waste my Sunday afternoon going to the race or watching it on television when the most likely scenario is being strapped with an inevitable loss.'

Losing teams always have lower attendance in every sport, but the franchise of Dale Earnhardt Jr. is now on a winning streak. He also has himself firmly entrenched in second-place of the standings, four points behind Matt Kenseth.

With the way he’s been running all season, most knew a win was on the horizon, but what about winning the championship? Could Dale Earnhardt Jr. actually be in line to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship? If the answer is yes, you had better make a run over to the LVH Super Book at get your 10-to-1 ticket.

One thing is certain this week, we won’t be seeing Junior get back-to-back wins because this week’s race is on the road course in Sonoma, a place where Junior has never cracked the top-10 in 12 career starts.

When I look at the candidates to win this week, I can’t seem to take my eyes off the name of Jeff Gordon. Maybe I’m searching for feel good stories like we had last week, but it just seems like a good spot for the Hendrick Motorsports driver. In the last month we’ve seen Gordon’s teammates of Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Earnhardt Jr. all win races. The only goose egg on the team board belongs to Gordon.

Gordon needs wins to get in the Chase and he has the luxury over the next two months of racing on two tracks where he has a considerable advantage. Gordon is a five-time winner at Sonoma and a four time winner at Watkins Glen, but hasn’t tasted victory on either track since 2006.

Gordon has shrugged off the recent winless streak on the road courses saying the races didn’t mean as much in their overall picture which is why his team focused less on his road set-ups than they did in the past when he was dominating. But these races now mean everything to his season.

Because he’s sitting 20th in points, and has virtually no chance at making the Chase based on points, he needs to get at least two wins to secure one of the final two at-large bids that go to the drivers with the most wins. There are currently four drivers ahead of him with one win each.

Gordon was runner-up last season at Sonoma and hasn’t finished outside the top-10 in the five races since his last win there. Look for Gordon to treat this event like the most important race of his season and fight not to just finish in the top-5, but fight for the win. I like the desperation angle this week.

The driver Gordon will have to beat is Marcos Ambrose who finally got his first Cup win last season at Watkins Glen after several near misses. Ambrose finds himself in the same situation as Gordon regarding the Chase, except he's in 17th-place. Ambrose could find himself making the Chase by grabbing both road races, a situation that seems far more probable than Gordon's.

And Ambrose really loves the layout of the track.

“Sonoma is a great track and I love it," Ambrose said earlier this week. "It is one of the smallest, most technical, race tracks that a driver can go to, and we are going there with one of the biggest, laziest, dinosaurs you could ever imagine. A stock car around that place is unreal. I never imagined we could run so fast at that kind of place with as little throttle as we do. It’s really just all about momentum and looking after your tires and that’s what makes Sonoma so great. It’s also what makes the racing fantastic, because it is all in the drivers hands and I like that type of racing. Sonoma is one of my favorite races of all time.”

A driver that you always have to pay attention to at Sonoma is Juan Pablo Montoya just because of his long history of road racing in all major racing series. He won his first career race at Sonoma in his first try, but hasn't finished better than sixth in his last four attempts.

“A lot of memories from Sonoma. Good and bad," said Montoya who is currently 16th in points. "Obviously I got my first Cup win there five years ago but ever since then we’ve struggled. Which is surprising considering how well we run at Watkins Glen.

"We tested at VIR a couple of months back and I was really happy with the car so hopefully we figured something out coming into the race this weekend. You’re at that point in the season where you need to step things up. It’s really important for us to run well at Sonoma and have a strong finish for the Target team."

The driver that wins will probably stick to the game plan regarding fuel strategy without much alteration. The goal is to make only two pit stops. Sometimes that goal gets comprosmised when a caution occurs a bit earlier than the initial game plan allows for. To keep control of their own fate, it's also important to qualify well and run up front. Trouble usually finds those who are mired in the back, especially on double-file restarts.

A.J. Allmendinger has a nice look this week. He's got five career road wins in Champ Cars and is driving for the team that won at Sonoma last year with Kurt Busch driving.

Looking forward to a change of pace on the season.

Top-5 Finish Prediction:
1) #24 Jeff Gordon (8/1)
2) #29 Kevin Harvick (8/1)
3) #9 Marcos Ambrose (4/1)
4) #14 Tony Stewart (5/1)
5) #42 Juan Pablo Montoya (6/1)        

      

Driver Notes & Quotes for 2012 Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma

Elevation changes are one of the highlights of Sonoma's course (Getty)

KEVIN HARVICK ON SONOMA: “I love road racing. Sonoma is obviously very close to my hometown in Bakersfield, Calif., so you get a lot of family and friends that come out, but just the change of pace is something that I enjoy. I grew up racing go-karts on roadcourses so going to Sonoma and getting to race one of the two road courses we have on the schedule during the year should be fun.”

HARVICK CHASSIS CHOICE: Harvick will pilot Chassis No. 395 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. The No. 29 Chevrolet was built new for competition in 2012 and will be put through its first competitive laps this weekend at Sonoma.

JEFF BURTON CHASSIS CHOICE: Burton will race chassis No. 357 from the Richard Childress RacingNASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable this weekend. This No. 31 Chevrolet, built during the 2011 season, was driven by RCR teammate Kevin Harvick last year at Sonoma where he started 26th and finished ninth.

PAUL MENARD CHASSIS CHOICE: Menard will pilot Chassis No. 358 from the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stable. Built new in 2011, this No. 27 Chevrolet was last utilized in competition at the 2011 Sprint Cup Series race at the Sonoma, Calif.-based road course.

TONY STEWART CHASSIS CHOICE: This is a brand-new racecar that has never turned a wheel on the racetrack. The Toyota/Save Mart 350k on the road course at Sonoma, Calif., will mark Chassis No. 14-731’s on-track debut. 

RYAN NEWMAN ON ROAD COURSE RACING: “I like road courses. They are difficult to pass on. It seems like there are only a couple of passing zones. I’ve always said the more corners there are without passing zones, the more opportunities there are to fall behind the guy who’s in front of the guy who’s in front of you. Road courses are unique in their own right. I wish we had a third one because I think they are fun. I enjoy hustling the racecar around the track, and Sonoma’s a good road course. Personally, I enjoy Watkins Glen a bit more, but I enjoy them both and I look forward to racing out there. It’s a big track-position race, and fuel mileage has become a big part of the racing there. But it’s the same for everybody. In road-course racing, the driver, in my mind, can make up more than he can at an oval just being able to hustle a car. You have the added mannerism, I guess you could say, of braking. When you brake at short tracks, it’s not the same as when you brake and downshift. So, you have to be a smooth downshifter, you have to be a good braker. Obviously, you have to turn right. There are extra characteristics, I guess, that you have to include at road courses that you don’t have to include at ovals. That separates the men from the boys, typically.”

RYAN NEWMAN CHASSIS CHOICE: Chassis No. 39-651 has just two starts to its credit – last season’s road course races at Sonoma, Calif., and Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. Newman started fifth at Sonoma and was in the top-five for the race’s first 25 laps. But on lap 38, while entering the final turn on the course, Newman was caught up in a multi-car accident that all but ended his chance of victory. During the accident, Newman spun in the middle of the corner and managed to stay away from the outside retaining wall. But as he was about to put the car in gear and begin driving forward, his Chevy was hit by another car attempting to dodge the melee. After substantial repairs, Newman finished 25th. At Watkins Glen, Newman started fifth. The team had a good strategy going into the race, planning to pit early, but the strategy didn’t pan out. Newman recorded a 16th-place finish. After undergoing a facelift for the 2012 season, the car will make its first start this week at Sonoma.

JAMIE McMURRAY CHASSIS CHOICE: Crew Chief Kevin “Bono” Manion and the No. 1 McDonald’s team will bring Chassis #1012 to Sonoma this weekend. This road course chassis will make its third Sonoma appearance and fifth race, overall. This chassis has finished 15th at Sonoma twice, and earned sixth and 17th place finishes at Watkins Glen in 2010 and 2011, respectively.

JUAN PABLO MONTOYA ON SONOMA: “A lot of memories from Sonoma. Good and bad. Obviously I got my first Cup win there five years ago but ever since then we’ve struggled. Which is surprising considering how well we run at Watkins Glen. We tested at VIR a couple of months back and I was really happy with the car so hopefully we figured something out coming into the race this weekend. You’re at that point in the season where you need to step things up. It’s really important for us to run well at Sonoma and have a strong finish for the Target team.”

MONTOYA CHASSIS CHOICE: Crew Chief Chris “Shine” Heroy and the No. 42 Target team will bring Chassis #1014 to Sonoma this weekend. This chassis boasts a victory at Watkins Glen in 2010 and a seventh-place finish in 2011. It finished 10th and 15th at Sonoma in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Chassis #1014 has led a total of 80 laps; two of those laps were at Sonoma.

JIMMIE JOHNSON CHASSIS CHOICE: Chassis No. 543 serves as the primary for Johnson at Sonoma. This car has raced in the last six road courses, with Johnson capturing the win at Sonoma in 2010. Chassis No. 590 serves as the backup.

MARCOS AMBROSE ON SONOMA: “Sonoma is a great track and I love it. It is one of the smallest, most technical, race tracks that a driver can go to, and we are going there with one of the biggest, laziest, dinosaurs you could ever imagine. A stock car around that place is unreal. I never imagined we could run so fast at that kind of place with as little throttle as we do. It’s really just all about momentum and looking after your tires and that’s what makes Sonoma so great. It’s also what makes the racing fantastic, because it is all in the drivers hands and I like that type of racing. Sonoma is one of my favorite races of all time.”

AMBROSE CHASSIS CHOICE: The No. 9 RPM team has prepared chassis No. 772 for this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race at Sonoma. This Stanley Ford was previously tested this season at Virginia International Raceway.

CARL EDWARDS ON SONOMA: “Sonoma is one of the most fun tracks we go to. It is real slippery and it is so much different than what most of us grew up racing, it is a huge challenge. To me, it is one of the tracks I look forward to the most. We have had really goodraces and bad races there but it is challenging. It is so neat to drive a stock car like that with all the horsepower and you are shifting gears and jumping off curbs and locking up the tires. There is a lot of driving going on. It is a very physical race and it is usually hot out there and grueling. A good run there, to me, is special. It says a lot about not only the car and team, but there is a lot of pride as a driver to run well because it is so much work.”

EDWARDS CHASSIS CHOICE: The Aflac team will be bringing chassis RK-816 this weekend to Sonoma. It is a new carthat the team tested at VIR.

GREG BIFFLE ON SONOMA: “I’m looking forward to Sonoma. I love road racing, it’s a lot of fun. The thing I don’t like about it is the restarts. Everybody gets bunched up going in the corner, people are in the grass, people are everywhere. Restarts are rough, but other than that I really enjoy it and I’m looking for a top-five finish. I guarantee there will be action this weekend.”

BIFFLE CHASSIS CHOICE: Primary: RK-764 Last ran Watkins Glen – finished 31st

BRIAN VICKERS ON SONOMA: “I’m really looking to getting back into the No. 55 Toyota at Sonoma — especially after being away for so long, but it has been great to continue to build a relationship and run with (owner) Rob Kauffman. The No. 55 team has been running very well with Mark and I hope I can continue that momentum. They were SO close at Pocono. Rodney and the guys gave me a great car at the VIR test. We ran very competitive laps times against some guys that are considered the road race experts. So I am pretty pumped about that. I’ve had some success at Sonoma too. The last being the pole in 2009 and leading a bunch of laps before getting caught up in an incident.

VICKERS CHASSIS CHOICE: 690 – first race in 2012.

A.J. ALLMENDINGER ON SONOMA: “As always, the key for Sonoma is keeping all four wheels on the track. You need your car set up to be able to make your move underneath entering Turn 11 because that is the major passing point on the track. The biggest thing is that you have to have forward drive off all the way through the ‘esses’ andthat’s certainly what we’ll be hoping to have working for us this weekend.”

BRAD KESELOWSKI ON SONOMA: “It took a while, but I’ve become a big fan of road courseracing over the last couple of years. As a racecar driver, it’s not easy when you have to step out of your comfort zone and road course racing was definitely uncomfortable to me. Now it’s something I take a lot of pride in. Versatility, in this sport or any sport, is a good thing. The two drivers that came before me in the Miller Lite Dodge were good road course racers and I hope to be able to continue to carry on that tradition. We’ve been close before, but a road course win would rank right up there with the best wins of my career.”

KESELOWSKI CHASSIS CHOICE: The No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Chargerteam will race chassis PRS-806 during Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma. This is a brand-new chassis to the No. 2 fleet.

ROBBY GORDON ON SONOMA:“Even though I have been out of the NASCAR scene for about three months, we have been extremely busy with off-road racing and the introduction of SST. We tested the No. 7 MAPEI / SPEED Energy car last week in South Carolina and look forward to competing with the regular NSCS group this weekend. Sonoma is a fun race track, and we have had great results there so I am looking forward to putting on a good show for our fans."

- FROM TEAM PRESS RELEASES

Sonoma Toyota/Save Mart 350 Storylines

Big win for Earnhardt Jr solidifies his place in in the standings (Getty)

Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s 19th career victory at Michigan International Speedway dramatically changed the conversation from “when” to “what’s next?” Earnhardt emphatically ended a four-year, 143-race winless drought and closed to within four points of championship leader Matt Kenseth. The victory further cemented the 37-year-old Earnhardt’s status as a legitimate title contender.

NASCAR goes road racing this weekend: the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series makes its annual pilgrimage to Sonoma, north of San Francisco while the NASCAR Nationwide Series tackles Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis. The NASCAR K&N Pro Series West shares the Sonoma track while GRAND-AM Road Racing is in action at Road America.

Four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon, a five-time Sonoma winner, said road racing no longer is an after-thought for many teams. The new car has leveled the playing field and double-file restarts contribute to short track style competition. Sonoma’s Toyota/Save-Mart 350 has seen seven consecutive different winners – the last four for the first time in a Sprint Cup road race.

To be determined is how the top three in current NASCAR Sprint Cup points standings will fare. Kenseth, Earnhardt and Greg Biffle are winless as road racers in NASCAR’s premier series.

Chase “wild card” action continues to simmer with two road racing experts joining the top 20 in points following the Michigan weekend. Former Sonoma winner Juan Pablo Montoya (19th) and Gordon (20th) are now eligible for a post-season berth if they can amass enough wins.

With neither Carl Edwards nor Reed Sorenson in the field, there will be a new winner of the SARGENTO 200. Richard Childress Racing teammates Elliott Sadler and Sunoco Rookie of the Year leader Austin Dillon are one-two in points entering the season’s first of three road course races.

The Road America field is full of part-time road racing specialists including Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and Watkins Glen International NNS winner Ron Fellows of Canada.

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competitors Nelson Piquet Jr. and Miguel Paludo take advantage of an off week in the schedule to compete at Road America with the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The trucks return to competition on Thursday, June 28 at Kentucky Speedway.

NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES

Junior Eyes Next Goal: A Road Course Win
Ending a 143-race winless streak at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday just whetted Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s appetite. Junior obviously wants to join his late father Dale Earnhardt as a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. First, he wants a road course victory and he’ll get his next opportunity at Sonoma on Sunday. Junior has yet to finish in the top 10 at the 1.99-mile layout but has a pair of top-five finishes at Watkins Glen International, the other left and right turn course on the schedule.

“We have to go to Sonoma and figure out how to get around there and how to get my first top-ten at that place. We have a lot (left) to accomplish this year,” he said. Accident damage and overheating relegated Junior to a 41st-place finish at Sonoma in 2011.

Points Leaders More Than Just Contenders
Roush Fenway Racing vs. Hendrick Motorsports. Ford vs. Chevrolet. What’s not to like about that? The two organizations/manufacturers share the top four spots in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings with RFR’s Matt Kenseth holding a four-point lead over Dale Earnhardt Jr. Greg Biffle, who led the points for much of the year, is third followed by five-time champion Jimmie Johnson. Not to rule out anyone among the top 10 – or Wild Card possibles as well – but the four leaders are red hot. They claimed all but one top five positions in Michigan.

Kenseth, Earnhardt and Biffle have yet to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup road race.

Gordon: Road Course Racing Changes For The Better
Jeff Gordon is a five-time Sonoma winner but that doesn’t mean he’s got the keys to the Northern California course in his pocket. Far from it. Gordon last won in 2006 – the season before the current NASCAR Sprint Cup chassis was introduced. The new car has evened the playing field and brought more contenders into the mix. No longer do many teams bring older, short track cars to the road courses. And, Gordon added, double-file restarts have made the road races more like Martinsville’s slamming and shoving than traditional, follow the leaders and hit your marks affairs.

Want more proof? Sonoma’s last seven races have produced seven different winners. The last four – Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne and Kyle Busch – posted their first Sprint Cup road course victories.

It’s the annual homecoming race for Gordon, who was born in Vallejo a few miles east of Sonoma. Busch, Kahne, Johnson and the Busch brothers also hail from the west coast along with Watkins Glen road race winner Kevin Harvick.

Who’s Next To Join Road Race Winners’ List?
If there’s an eighth different Sonoma winner he could be Clint Bowyer or Brad Keselowski. Both are battling to retain top-10 points positions and each has a knack for turning left and right. Bowyer, ninth in the standings, finished seventh in Michigan. He owns the third-best average finish among active drivers (11.2) at Sonoma trailing only Jeff Gordon (8.7) and Juan Pablo Montoya (9.0). Keselowski is a relative newcomer to NASCAR Sprint Cup road racing but finished 10thin last year’s Sonoma race and was second at Watkins Glen after Marcos Ambrose initiated a pass two laps from the checkered flag. Keselowski stands 10th – three points ahead of another non-road race winner Carl Edwards.

Speaking of JPM
It’s been a trying year and half for Juan Pablo Montoya, who entered last weekend’s Michigan race with a single top-10 finish and a points ranking outside the top 20. The Columbian finished eighth running among the top 10 throughout the second half of the 400-mile race. “Our team has a lot of potential and today we showed a little bit of what we can do,” said Montoya who accomplished one goal: reaching the top 20 and a shot at a “wild card” entry into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup™. JPM qualified for NASCAR’s post season just once finishing eighth in 2009. He scored his first NASCAR Sprint Cup win at Sonoma in 2007.

Jeff Gordon also became Wild Card eligible (20th) with his sixth-place finish but the category’s leaders remain Kyle Busch (12th), Ryan Newman (13th), Joey Logano (15th) and Kasey Kahne (16th). Each has a single win. The two highest ranked competitors with the most wins occupying points positions 11-20 qualify for the post season.

- NASCAR Media Services

Ambrose Has $1 Million Reasons to Win at Sonoma This Week

Ambrose has finished sixth or better in past three Sonoma starts (Getty)

CONCORD, N.C. (June 19, 2012) - Marcos Ambrose and his Stanley team will be “Racing for a Miracle” this weekend at the 1.99-mile road course in Sonoma, Calif. Should Ambrose bring home his second NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career victory this weekend, Stanley will donate $1 million to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals through The Ace Hardware Foundation as part of the “Racing for a Miracle” program. This multi-faceted program benefits sick and injured children by raising funds for the hospitals that provide their care. In addition to the possible $1 million donation, Stanley has already pledged $100,000 to the program this year and has donated over $500,000 since the inception of the partnership.

As part of the special “Racing for a Miracle” initiative, Ambrose, Crew Chief Todd Parrott and members of the No. 9 Stanley pit crew will visit the UC Davis Children’s Hospital in Sacramento, Calif., this Thursday. While at the hospital, Ambrose and crew will spend time with the patients and their family members. In addition, the No. 9 pit crew will perform pit stop demonstrations, participate in remote control car races, go “tape measure fishing” and other fun kid-friendly activities.

In addition, Ambrose’s car will have a different look this weekend. Stanley will run a special paint scheme on the No. 9 Ford Fusion. The car will feature the names of one child from each U.S. state and Washington D.C. who is a current or former Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals patient who has met their unique medical challenge with courage.

The Australian native heads to Sonoma with some impressive stats. He has four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts at the 1.99-mile road course and his best starting and finishing positions (third) came in 2009. Ambrose’s average starting position on the California track is 6.0 and his average finishing position is 14. In his last three races at Sonoma, Ambrose has finished sixth or higher. He sits in 17th position in the Sprint Cup Series driver point standings heading into the 110-lap event.

Marcos Ambrose’s Thoughts on the “Racing for a Miracle” Program:
“I’m really looking forward to going to Sonoma and racing for $1 Million to help benefit sick and injured children through ‘The Racing for a Miracle’ program. I’m very fortunate to have such a great sponsor in Stanley, who partnered with the Ace Hardware Foundation and Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals to make this special program a reality. It’s going to be an extraordinary week for my whole Stanley Crew and I and I can’t wait to get it started.

“I’m going to have four good luck charms to help me end up in Victory Lane on Sunday as four very special kids from UC Davis Children’s Hospital will be my ‘Honorary Pit Crew’ for the entire weekend. My team and I are honored to be able to host these children and show them what racing is all about. It’s just great to be a part of such a special program and it means the world to my crew and I to see the smiles that will be on these kid’s faces throughout the weekend.”

Ambrose on Racing at Sonoma:
“Sonoma is a great track and I love it. It is one of the smallest, most technical, race tracks that a driver can go to, and we are going there with one of the biggest, laziest, dinosaurs you could ever imagine. A stock car around that place is unreal. I never imagined we could run so fast at that kind of place with as little throttle as we do. It’s really just all about momentum and looking after your tires and that’s what makes Sonoma so great. It’s also what makes the racing fantastic, because it is all in the drivers hands and I like that type of racing. Sonoma is one of my favorite races of all time.”

Comments from Crew Chief Todd Parrott on Going to Sonoma:
PACSUN“Sonoma owes Marcos a win and the Stanley team has extra incentive to end up in Victory Lane this weekend with $1 million on the line for charity though the ‘Racing for a Miracle’ program. We are really looking forward to going to Sonoma because we know it’s a track where we can win. We’ve got one of the best road course racers behind the wheel of the Stanley Ford this weekend and that will definitely play to our advantage. At Sonoma we’ll have to have a car that has good forward bite. The Stanley Ford will have to get off of Turn 11 well and we’ll need to make sure the transmission ratios are set because you can make up a lot of time though Turn 11 if they are spot on. Brakes are very important. We need a car that is good through the breaking zones, Turns 11, 5 and 7, and has good drive off of the corners. Fuel mileage will also come into play at Sonoma, so it’s very important we keep a close eye on that and have good strategy.”

Chassis History:
The No. 9 RPM team has prepared chassis No. 772 for this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race at Sonoma. This Stanley Ford was previously tested this season at Virginia International Raceway.

About Richard Petty Motorsports
A performance and marketing driven company, Richard Petty Motorsports, co-owned by NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty and successful business entrepreneurs Andrew Murstein and Douglas Bergeron, is one of the most recognized brands in all of motorsports. With a history of over 200 wins and business partnerships with national and global leaders, today the race operation fields two teams in competition in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Aric Almirola pilots the famous No. 43 Ford Fusion with primary partners Smithfield Foods, U.S. Air Force and STP and Marcos Ambrose drives the No. 9 machine with primary partners Stanley and DEWALT. In addition, Michael Annett wheels the No. 43 Pilot Flying J Ford Mustang full-time in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. The team is headquartered in Concord, N.C.

- Richard Petty Motorsports

Gordon Needs Sixth Sonoma Win to Keep Chase Hopes Alive

Jeff Gordon has five wins and 12 top-five finishes at Sonoma (Getty) 

SONOMA, Calif. (June 18, 2012) - Could a week of celebrations end with another one Sunday at Sonoma, this one fit for a king?

Last Sunday at Michigan, Jeff Gordon captured his 400th careertop-10 finish in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. With the start of that race delayed by rain and his children at home, Father’s Day was “delayed” for Gordon, as well. But attention this week will quickly turn from father to daughter as Ella celebrates her fifth birthday on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Gordon will head west to Sonoma for this weekend’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 where he will attempt to become the first driver to reach double digits in victories on serpentine tracks.

“It will be a busy but fun week,” said Gordon, a native of nearby Vallejo. “We’ll have some fun with Ella’s party before heading out to an area I love for so many reasons.

“It’s ‘home’ for me and where I was born, so a lot of family and friends will come out to the track. I love the wine country, too, which is one of the reasons why I have (the Jeff Gordon Collection Wine).

“And that track has been great to us.”

Gordon leads most performance statistics at the 1.99-mile track. In 19 starts, his five wins are three more than any other driver while he ranks first in poles (five), top-fives (12), top-10′s (15) and laps led (437). In fact, Gordon has eight more top-fives than any driver competing in Sunday’s race and he has led 266 more laps than anyone else at the 10-turn track.

LiveNation.com“(Sonoma) is very challenging,” said Gordon, who is 13 laps shy of 23,000 laps led during his 20-year career. “To me, it’s a track where you have to be really precise and patient.

“At Watkins Glen, you have to attack really hard and be aggressive. I feel like Sonoma is the exact opposite of that, and I think that suits me a little bit better.”

While the two road courses on different sides of the country are polar opposites, the four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion enjoys the change in direction.

“While we haven’t had the same success we once had on road courses, I look forward to those events,” said the runner-up in last year’s event here. “The road courses bring a different set of challenges, and those challenges are fun.

“Challenges that I always look forward to as a driver.”

- Performance PR Plus

LVH Super Book Odds to Win 2012 Sonoma Toyota/Save Mart 350

Jeff Gordon is in desperation mode and has an advantage this week (Getty)

TOYOTA/SAVE MART 350
SONOMA
SUNDAY, JUNE 24, 2012

MARCOS AMBROSE 3
TONY STEWART 6
JEFF GORDON 6
JIMMIE JOHNSON 6
KEVIN HARVICK 10
JUAN MONTOYA 8
KYLE BUSCH 10
KASEY KAHNE 25
DENNY HAMLIN 30
CARL EDWARDS 30
ROBBY GORDON 40
BORIS SAID 50
BRAD KESELOWSKI 25
MARTIN TRUEX JR 30
RYAN NEWMAN 50
KURT BUSCH 40
JOEY LOGANO 40
JAMIE McMURRAY 40
AJ ALLMENDINGER 40
CLINT BOWYER 30
DALE EARNHARDT JR 50
GREG BIFFLE 50
JEFF BURTON 100
BRIAN VICKERS 100
MATT KENSETH 100
PAUL MENARD 100
DAVID GILLILAND 100
ARIC ALMIROLA 300
REGAN SMITH 500
FIELD 60

2012 Sonoma Toyota/Save Mart 350 Odds & Ends

At Sonoma:

History

·         The track opened as a 2.52-mile road course and drag strip in 1968.

·         The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was held in 1989.

·         The first nine races were 300 kilometers and switched to a 350k format in 1998.

·         The track was reconfigured to 1.949 miles in 1998 with the installation of an 890-foot chute between the original Turns 4 and 7.

·         The track was reconfigured to 2.0 miles in 2001 and re-measured at 1.99 miles in 2002.

Notebook

·         There have been 23 NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Sonoma since the first race there in 1989.

·         Rusty Wallace won the first NASCAR Sprint Cup pole.

·         Ricky Rudd won the first NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

·         14 different drivers have won poles; only four have won more than one.

·         Jeff Gordon (five) leads all pole winners. Ricky Rudd has four, including three consecutive (1990-92), Rusty Wallace and Kasey Kahne each have two.

·         There have been consecutive pole winners three times: Ricky Rudd (1990-92) and Jeff Gordon (1998-99 and 2004-05).

·         15 different drivers have won races; five have multiple victories there – led by Jeff Gordon with five. Ernie Irvan, Ricky Rudd, Tony Stewart and Rusty Wallace (all with two) are the other multiple-race winners.

·         Jeff Gordon is also the only driver with consecutive wins, winning in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

·         Five of 23 races have been won by the pole winner, including three times by Jeff Gordon. His victory from the pole in 2004 is the most recent.

·         The lowest starting position by a race winner was 32nd, by Juan Pablo Montoya; it also was his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win.

·         Boris Said posted his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pole.

·         Jeff Gordon is the all-time leader in road-course victories, with nine. Tony Stewart is second, with seven.

·         Youngest NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sonoma winner: Kyle Busch (06/26/2008 – 21 years, 1 month, 2 days).·         Oldest NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sonoma winner: Ricky Rudd (06/23/2002 – 45 years, 9 months, 11 days).

 

Sonoma Data

Race #: 16 of 36 (06-24-12)

Track Size: 1.99 miles

Race Length: 110 laps / 219 miles/ 350 Kilometers

Number of Turns: 12

 

Top 12 Driver Rating at Sonoma

Marcos Ambrose....................... 108.8

Tony Stewart............................. 107.9

Kurt Busch................................ 106.1

Juan Pablo Montoya.................. 104.0

Jeff Gordon................................. 99.1

Jimmie Johnson.......................... 94.1

Ryan Newman............................ 93.5

Kyle Busch................................ 92.1

Jamie McMurray......................... 86.6

Carl Edwards.............................. 85.8

Clint Bowyer............................... 85.1

Elliott Sadler.............................. 84.9

Note: Driver Rating compiled from 2005-2011 races (seven total) at Sonoma.

 

Qualifying/Race Data

2011 pole winner: Joey Logano, (93.256 mph, 76.821 seconds)

2011 race winner: Kurt Busch, (75.411 mph, 2:54:10, 06-26-11)

Track qualifying record:  Jeff Gordon, (94.325 mph, 75.950 seconds, 06-24-05)

Track race record: Ricky Rudd, (81.007 mph, 2:42:08, 06-23-02)

 

Driver Ratings for Winners

Driver	Year	Driver Rating	Series Driver Rating Rank
Kurt Busch	2011	100.0	5th
Jimmie Johnson	2010	80.4	18th
Kasey Kahne	2009	58.7	30th
Kyle Busch	2008	90.6	10th
Juan Pablo Montoya	2007	N/A	1st race at Sonoma
Jeff Gordon	2006	77.2	19th

* Pre-Race Driver Ratings of the year the driver won at Sonoma (last six races).

 

NASCAR in California

·         There have been 132 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in California:

Track Name	City	NSCS
Auto Club Speedway	Fontana	23
Sonoma	Sonoma	23
Ascot Stadium	Los Angeles	3
Bay Meadows Race Track	San Mateo	3
California State Fairgrounds	Sacramento	6
Capitol Speedway	Sacramento	1
Carrell Speedway	Gardena	4
Marchbanks Speedway	Hanford	3
Merced Fairgrounds	Merced	1
Oakland Stadium	Oakland	3
Ontario Motor Speedway	Ontario	9
Redwood Speedway	Eureka	2
Riverside International Raceway	Riverside	48
Santa Clara Fairgrounds	San Jose	1
Willow Springs Speedway	Lancaster	2

 

·         418 drivers from NASCAR’s three national series (all-time) have their home state recorded as California.

·         There have been 34 race winners from California in NASCAR three national series:

Driver	NSCS	NNS	NCWTS
Jeff Gordon	85	5	0
Jimmie Johnson	57	1	0
Kevin Harvick	18	37	14
Marvin Panch	17	0	0
Ernie Irvan	15	3	0
Dick Rathmann	13	0	0
Dan Gurney	5	0	0
Eddie Gray	4	0	0
Parnelli Jones	4	0	0
Eddie Pagan	4	0	0
Robby Gordon	3	1	0
Ray Elder	2	0	0
Danny Letner	2	0	0
Marvin Porter	2	0	0
Dick Brooks	1	0	0
Marvin Burke	1	0	0
Jim Cook	1	0	0
Lou Figaro	1	0	0
Danny Graves	1	0	0
Johnny Mantz	1	0	0
Casey Mears	1	1	0
Bill Norton	1	0	0
John Soares	1	0	0
Danny Weinberg	1	0	0
Ron Hornaday Jr	0	4	51
Jason Leffler	0	2	1
David Gilliland	0	1	0
Joe Ruttman	0	1	13
Boris Said	0	1	1
Mike Skinner	0	1	28
Matt Crafton	0	0	2
Justin Lofton	0	0	1
Scott Speed	0	0	1
Brandon Whitt	0	0	1