NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 Sonoma Raceway
Sunday, June 22 Time: 3 p.m. (ET) TV: TNT, 2 p.m. (ET)
Radio: PRN, Sirius XM Ch. 90 Distance: 218.9 miles (110 laps)
NASCAR Nationwide Series Gardner Denver 200 Fired Up by Johnsonville
Road America Saturday, June 21 2:45 p.m. (ET) TV: ABC 2:30 p.m. (ET)
Radio: MRN, Sirius XM Ch. 90 Distance: 202.4 miles (50 laps)
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series UNOH 225 Kentucky Speedway
Thursday, June 26 8 p.m. (ET) TV: FOX Sports 1, 7:30 p.m. (ET)
Radio: MRN, Sirius XM Ch. 90 Distance: 225 miles (150 laps)
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has two road course races in the year at one at Sonoma & the other one at Watkins Glen with this type of racing it changes everything. Nine different Sonoma winners over the last nine seasons. Sonoma Winners: 2005 – Tony Stewart, 2006 – Jeff Gordon, 2007 – Juan Pablo Montoya, 2008 – Kyle Busch, 2009 – Kasey Kahne, 2010 – Jimmie Johnson, 2011 – Kurt Busch, 2012 – Clint Bowyer, 2013 – Martin Truex Jr.. 5 out 9 of these cars have Hendrick engines who have the most wins this season. 2014 Cars/Teams with Hendrick engines: Hendrick Motorsports: 3 wins Car 48 Jimmie Johnson Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet, 2 wins Car 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. National Guard/Superman Chevrolet, 1 Win Car 24 Jeff Gordon Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet. Stewart – Haas Racing: 2 Wins Car 4 Kevin Harvick Budweiser Chevrolet & 1 Win Car 41 Kurt Busch Haas Automation Chevrolet
Hendrick Motorsports Chasing Record
Rick Hendrick’s drivers have won 5 consecutive races – Jeff Gordon Panasonic Chevrolet at Kansas, Johnson Lowe’s Chevrolet at Charlotte and Dover, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet at Pocono and Johnson again at Michigan. The record of 6 consecutive wins by an owner in The Modern Era, was already set by Hendrick during the 2007 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. That year, Gordon won two in a row followed by a 4-win that carried Johnson to his second-consecutive series championship.
Note: The Modern Era is considered to have begun in 1972, when the number of races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season was drastically reduced, from 48 to 31. Since then, there have never been more than 36 points-paying races in a season. The all-time record for consecutive car owner victories is an incredible 16 by Carl Kiekhafer in 1956. Kiekhafer was a Rick Hendrick prototype, a multi-car team owner who dominated NASCAR’s top series in 1955-56. Four different drivers won for Kiekhafer during his streak: Buck Baker, Tim Flock, Herb Thomas and Speedy Thompson. There were 56 races in the 1956 season which actually started on Nov. 13, 1955, meaning the season lasted 371 days.
Hendrick team mate: Car 5 Kasey Kahne Farmers Insurance Chevrolet would like nothing more than to get a win at Sonoma since he did it in 2009 & really needs a win to make the Chase.
Hendrick drivers to watch for is Kahne, Johnson and the all-time road course king Jeff Gordon, who has a record 9 career road-course wins.
The Sonoma/Save-Mart 350 is part of NASCAR’s annual “road-course weekend” for national series competition, with the NASCAR Nationwide Series visiting the historic Road America facility in Elkhart Lake, Wisc. for a Saturday afternoon event. In addition, also on Saturday, the K&N Pro Series West will race at Sonoma with 4 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers slated to compete – Justin Allgaier, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Car 9 Marcos Ambrose DeWalt Ford: When NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France announced the new championship format, one of the first thoughts that crossed many fans’ minds had to be: “This is Ambrose’s best chance to make the Chase.” Ambrose is a road-course whiz, a ringer who also is a series regular, with two prime opportunities to parlay that into a spot in NASCAR’s playoffs. The first comes this weekend in Sonoma, where he has finished in the top 10 in five consecutive races. He does have two road course victories, both at Watkins Glen.
Car 15 Clint Bowyer 5-Hour Energy Toyota in 16 road-course starts has a win at Sonoma in 2012, 6 Top fives and 9 Top 10s. At Sonoma specifically, Bowyer joins Kurt Busch as the only two drivers with 3 consecutive Top 5 finishes coming into this race. For a driver who does not have a win in 56 races he needs a win to make the Chase.
Car 14 Tony Stewart Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 Chevrolet has 2 wins at Sonoma, the last coming in 2005. He has been strong since that win nearly a decade ago, finishing in the top 10 in five of the last seven races. Tony Stewart has a Hendrick engine & needs a win to make the Chase, if he is not rubbing look for him to be up front.
Road America: NASCAR Nationwide Series
Road America is the state of Wisconsin’s road-racing jewel; a four-mile road course in Elkhart Lake that boasts 14 turns and elevation changes that exceed 170 feet in one lap. The famed course has hosted many different series over the years, but this weekend, the NASCAR Nationwide Series makes its return for the Gardner Denver 200 Fired Up by Johnsonville (June 21 on ABC at 2:45 p.m. ET).
Road America is the first of three road courses (Watkins Glen and Mid-Ohio) on the series schedule in 2014. The track’s four-mile course is the largest of the three on the schedule and it has the most turns (14).
Road America Lures IMSA Hopefuls
Competing on a road course like Road America is nothing new for current IMSA TUDOR United SportsCar Championship drivers Andy Lally and Alex Tagliani, but this time the two are trading sports cars for stock cars when battling the 4-mile, 14-turn track this weekend.
Lally has competed in all three of NASCAR’s national series, and this weekend will drive for car owner Jimmy Dick in the Car 55 Viva Auto Group Chevrolet. Lally has made three road-course starts in the NNS, two at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve (Montreal) and once at Watkins Glen where he finished in the top 10. This will be Lally’s series debut at Road America.
Lally drives the Car 44 Magnus Racing Porsche 911 GT America in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship GT Daytona (GTD) class. He and co-driver John Potter are currently third in points and won earlier this season in the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring Fueled by Fresh From Florida. He also won three championships in the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series.
Tagliani has competed in the NNS four times, all at road courses. His best finish was in 2011, when he finished second at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
This weekend when Tagliani drives for Roger Penske in the Car 22 Ford, it will be his series debut at Road America. The Car 22 team won this race last season from the pole with Allmendinger behind the wheel.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
NASCAR Next and NASCAR Drive For Diversity graduate Darrell Wallace Jr. added a chapter to the record books last October when he became the first African-American driver to win a NASCAR national series event since NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Wendell Scott won in 1963 in Jacksonville, Fla. Just 10 starts later, Wallace secured his second win, this time in NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ thrilling return to Gateway Motorsports Park last Saturday night.
The entire Kyle Busch Motorsports team celebrated the win as the two trucks in the series have combined for five of the seven wins this season. KBM truck chief Chris Showalter earned his 30th-career NCWTS win and extended his streak of never missing a NCWTS race, dating back to the series’ inaugural race on Feb. 5, 1995 at Phoenix International Raceway.
Darrell Wallace Jr. showed at Gateway that the young NCWTS drivers can get it done – but don’t forget the veterans, many of whom are on the championship fast track. Johnny Sauter leads the standings, with Matt Crafton, Ron Hornaday Jr., and Timothy Peters completing the top four. Ryan Blaney, who is 20 years old but has two series wins, is fifth.
The top four drivers have a combined 980 series starts with 26 wins and five championships. Hornaday leads the way in wins and titles with 51 and five, respectively. Current leader Sauter is next with nine wins, followed by Timothy Peters with seven.
Crafton, the defending series champion, follows with five wins and is attempting to become the first driver to win back-to-back titles.
Sprint Cup Contingent To Run With K&N West At Sonoma
The 34th running of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West at Sonoma Raceway on Saturday will have a star-studded field expected to include a handful of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers. As of Monday, the Sprint Cup representation includes Michael Annett, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. among the 33 entries for the Carneros 200. They’ll have to compete with season points leader Greg Pursley, who has posted five road-course wins during his career. The last two Sprint Cup competitors to win at Sonoma in a K&N West car were Joey Logano in 2011 and David Gilliland in 2012.
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East will be in action on the opposite coast Saturday with the Visit Hampton VA 175 at famed Langley Speedway. Each of the series’ three previous trips to the Hampton, Va. oval has featured different winners, including current NASCAR Nationwide Series rookie Dylan Kwasniewski a year ago.
Saturday’s NASCAR regional touring series slate also includes the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Waterford Speedbowl for the Mr. Rooter 161. The Connecticut shoreline short track has produced a different winner in 15 of the 19 all-time events there, including NASCAR Next driver Ryan Preece last year. The 161 scheduled laps is a tribute to the late Hall of Fame member Richie Evans, who drove a No. 61 modified throughout his career.
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