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| Kevin Harvick won at Sonoma last season and is 4/1 co-favorite to win Sunday. |
Next Race: Toyota / SaveMart 350
The Place: Sonoma Raceway
The Date: Sunday, June 24
The Time: 3 p.m. ET
TV: FS1, 1:30 p.m. ET
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 218.9 miles (110 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 25),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 50), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 110)
Five For Busch?
Only one driver in the last decade has won multiple races at the scenic Sonoma Raceway road course nestled in the hills of California wine country. And Kyle Busch absolutely earned that impressive distinction winning his first race there 10 years ago as a 23-year old and answering that win with an incredible victory three years ago – his first of the 2015 season after missing 11 races with a leg injury suffered at Daytona during the season-opening Speedweeks.
The Sonoma win was the first of five Busch would score en route to the 2015 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship.
And Busch’s inaugural Sonoma win in 2008 was the most dominant showing of the last decade. He led 78 of the 112 laps.
A victory this Sunday in the Toyota/Save-Mart 350 (3 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) would give the current championship leader and Joe Gibbs Racing driver five wins on the 2018 season. His biggest competition of the year – five-time winner Kevin Harvick – is the defending winner at Sonoma – capturing his first victory at the track and second road course trophy (he won at Watkins Glen in 2006) of his career.
Class of the Field
Not only have Harvick, Kyle Busch and two-time race winners Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer established themselves the class of the 2018 season so far, interestingly, they are also the four most recent winners among active drivers at the Sonoma Raceway road course.
Harvick won last year, Busch won in 2015, Truex won in 2013 and Bowyer in 2012. Retired drivers Tony Stewart (2016) and Carl Edwards (2014) are the only other winners in that span.
Sonoma Lap Leaders
Among the last 10 Sonoma Raceway winners, Kurt Busch holds the distinction of leading the most laps over the course of his career. The 2011 race winner has led 197 laps in 17 starts at the road course. Since his victory, he has only one finish outside the top-10, 12th-place in 2014. He has four top fives in the last seven races.
Californian Jimmie Johnson, the 2010 Sonoma winner, has led 143 laps at Sonoma and boasted a healthy string of seven top-10s from 2009-2015. Kyle Busch has the next best total of 110 laps led with two victories, followed by 2013 winner Martin Truex Jr. who has 92 laps out front. He led the most laps last year (25) but did not win. He led 51 laps in his 2013 victory.
Of the last six race winners, Kevin Harvick has led the fewest number of career total laps at Sonoma (60).
Three times since 2008, the race winner has led at least 70 of the 112 scheduled laps. Kyle Busch led 78 in his 2008 win. Kurt Busch led 76 laps in his 2011 win and Bowyer led 71 laps in his 2012 victory.
Youthful Enthusiasm
One of the primary storylines in Northern California this week will undoubtedly be whether NASCAR’s young talent breaks out to earn a toast in Sonoma’s storied Victory Lane. There is a good cause to believe in the possibility.
Both Chevrolet drivers Chase Elliott, 22, and Kyle Larson, 25, have won on the Sonoma course (the 2016 and 2014 K&N Pro Series races, respectively). And Elliott won his first-ever NASCAR national series race on a road course, the 2014 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park.
Erik Jones, 22, has already taken a Sonoma 'tutorial,' the Joe Gibbs Racing driver revealed last week, spending a full day on the course last month making laps under the guidance of a driving school coach. He was 25th in his Sonoma debut last year, but scored a 10th-place finish at Watkins Glen later in the summer.
He won the Bowmanville, Ontario, Camping World Truck Series race in 2015 but did not have a road course top-five in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition.
Rookies William Byron, 19, and Bubba Wallace, 24, bring some strong reference material as well. Byron, who is ranked 20th in the Monster Energy Series standings, scored a pair of top-10 finishes at the Watkins Glen (10th) and Road America (sixth) road course venues last year in the Xfinity Series and had a 10th-place showing at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in the Camping World Truck Series in 2016.
Wallace, who is ranked 24th and trails Byron by 30 points in the standings, has four previous road course top-10s as well – three in the Xfinity Series. He was eighth at Mid-Ohio, fifth at Road America in 2015 and ninth in 2016. He also finished fourth in the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park truck race in 2013.
‘Dinger the Ringer
For much of his NASCAR career A.J. Allmendinger has been considered the top shelf of road course racing because of his background in IndyCar and sports car racing prior to his fulltime move to stock cars.
And although Allmendinger has a win at the Monster Energy Series’ road course, in Watkins Glen, N.Y., he is still looking for one in his native California. An absolute favorite every time he shows up in Sonoma, Allmendinger has won a pole position (2015) but struggled come race time. He has only two top-10 finishes in nine starts with a best of finish of seventh in 2009. He has finished 35th or worse in three of the last four Sonoma races in the No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet but led laps in all those outings.
Compare that to the Watkins Glen road course, where Allmendinger has a win (2015), a pole position (2015) and three top-10 finishes in the last four races there.
California Dreamin’
There are five California natives competing this weekend, including Kevin Harvick (of Bakersfield), Jimmie Johnson (of El Cajon), AJ Allmendinger (of Los Gatos), Kyle Larson (of Elk Grove) and Matt DiBenedetto (of Grass Valley).
Of those, only Harvick and Johnson have a win at Sonoma in the Monster Energy Series. Larson won the 2014 NASCAR K&N Pro Series West there, leading every one of the 66 laps. He won the pole position in last year’s Cup race and led nine laps, but is still looking for his first top-10 finish in four career starts.
His Time
Denny Hamlin may be winless at Sonoma, but the Joe Gibbs Racing driver provided one of the most memorable finishes in history at the track. His closing laps duel with eventual winner Tony Stewart in 2016 produced one of the sport’s most dramatic checkered flags.
But Hamlin, who has led an impressive 92 laps in his career at Sonoma, is still looking for that maiden win. He is 0-for-12 despite his time out front, but has back-to-back top-five finishes in the last two races with a fourth-place last year to follow-up his career-best runner-up finish to Stewart in 2016.
He answered that 2016 Sonoma near-miss with a victory at the series’ other road course, Watkins Glen, later that summer and was fourth at The Glen last year – his two best showings at the track.
Movement in the Standings
Five positions changed among the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series’ top-10 points standings following the Michigan race. Four-time race winner Kyle Busch still remains on top – his fourth-place finish at Michigan helping him hold a steady and hefty 75-point edge over five-time race winner Kevin Harvick.
But Michigan winner Clint Bowyer moved up a position into fifth place in the standings and trails another “mover” Brad Keselowski in fourth place, by only four points. Martin Truex Jr., who won at Pocono two weeks ago, finished a frustrating 18th-place at Michigan. It dropped him from fourth to sixth place in the championship points standings, but he trails Bowyer by only four points.
Ryan Blaney’s eighth-place run in the Irish Hills, coupled with Larson’s 28th-place finish, meant the two young drivers swapped positions in the standings. Blaney is now in ninth with a 14-point edge over Larson in 10th.
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