NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Next Race: Toyota/Save Mart 350 The Place: Sonoma Raceway The Date: Sunday, June 22 The 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 Next Race: Gardner Denver 200 Fired Up by Johnsonville The Place: Road America The Date: Saturday, June 21 The Time: 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 Next Race: UNOH 225 The Place: Kentucky Speedway The Date: Thursday, June 26 The Time: 8 p.m. (ET) TV: FOX Sports 1, 7:30 p.m. (ET) Radio: MRN, Sirius XM Ch. 90 Distance: 225 miles (150 laps) Johnson’s Rebound Has Hendrick Chasing Record Jimmie Johnson’s recent, dramatic turnaround has placed him squarely into the middle of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship discussion, while also fueling yet another run of excellence for Hendrick Motorsports. Rick Hendrick’s drivers have won five consecutive races – Jeff Gordon (No. 24 Panasonic Chevrolet) at Kansas, Johnson (No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet) at Charlotte and Dover, Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88 Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet) at Pocono and Johnson again at Michigan. That streak is one short of the “Modern Era” record of six consecutive victories by an owner, set by Hendrick during the 2007 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. That year, Gordon won two in a row followed by a four-victory streak 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.) “Im thrilled on multiple levels,” Johnson said after his Michigan victory. “The success that weve had as a team, kind of hitting our stride and getting to Victory Lane three times in the last four weeks … “Our teammates and their success, the company, and you look at our engines in our cars and what theyre able to do … Rick gives us all the tools to go out there and do our jobs and to have everything so fast and so good, you want it to last forever. We know that it wont, but its just a good time to sit back and reflect and enjoy it.” Added Hendrick: “Everybody is really putting out a lot of effort right now, and its paying off.” Hendrick driver Kasey Kahne (No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet) would enjoy coming up with a record-tying victory on Sunday, in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 road-course event at Sonoma Raceway. Kahne is one of those “odd-man-out” drivers still looking for a first 2014 victory – and an all-but-assured berth in the newly expanded Chase. It could happen. After all, it has happened. Kahne won at Sonoma in 2009, making him part of a list of nine different Sonoma winners over the last nine seasons. Here’s the list: 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. Notice the three Hendrick drivers on that list: Kahne, Johnson and the all-time road course king Jeff Gordon, who has a record nine career road-course victories. Not on that list: Earnhardt, whose current momentum could change a shaky Sonoma past. In 14 previous Sonoma starts, Earnhardt has yet to finish in the top 10. 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. (See Page 3). In addition, also on Saturday, the K&N Pro Series West will race at Sonoma with four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers slated to compete – Justin Allgaier, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Who Will Make It A Perfect 10? As discussed on Page 1, nine different drivers have won the last nine races at Sonoma. Maybe even more noteworthy: For the last seven of those winners, it was the first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series road-course win of their careers. Of course, that begs the following question: Who can make it 10-for-10 … and better yet, 8-for-8. It’s a surprisingly long list. Glad you asked … Marcos Ambrose: 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. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: A Sonoma win for Earnhardt is an unlikely scenario, despite the “career yea” he is having. In 14 Sonoma starts, Earnhardt has yet to finish in the top 10 – let alone win. His best finish is was 11th, which he’s done three times. Still, he enters this weekend on the heels of three consecutive top-10 finishes, including his second win of the season, at Pocono. Earnhardt has yet to win a road-course race of any kind in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Matt Kenseth: Like Earnhardt, Kenseth is a superb talent with a surprisingly rocky record in road course races. In 14 starts at Sonoma, he has only one top-10 finish. He, too, is a career “0-fer” at road courses. AJ Allmendinger: When Allmendinger showed up to a NASCAR Nationwide Series race in 2013, he won. In two starts, both at road courses, Allmendinger took the Team Penske No. 22 Ford to Victory Lane, leading a combined 102 of the 149 laps run at Road America and Mid-Ohio last year. At Sonoma, Allmendinger has two top 10s and has finished 13th or better in each of the last four races. Bowyer A Modern Day Road Course Ringer For a driver who built his career on short- and dirt-track dominance, Clint Bowyer took to road-course racing as if he came up through the sports car ranks. In 16 road-course starts, Bowyer has a win (at Sonoma), six top fives and nine top 10s. At Sonoma specifically, Bowyer joins Kurt Busch as the only two drivers with three consecutive top-five finishes coming into this race. It’s a perfect storm for a Bowyer victory. Looking to snap a 56-race win drought, Bowyer also looks to capitalize on his Sonoma success and his recent momentum; he has three consecutive finishes of 11th or better to climb from 20th to 14th in points. And who knows, a Sonoma win could snowball into a bigger things. It did in 2012. After his Sonoma win, Bowyer won again at Richmond and Charlotte, eventually finishing second in the series championship standings. Gordon, Stewart Have The ‘Right’ Stuff Twice a year, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers turn left and right – at Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen International. And in those two races, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart are no-doubt-about-it threats to win. Gordon wears the road-course crown as the series’ all-time winner in this style of racing. He has a series-high five wins at Sonoma, the last coming in 2006. Since then, he has done just about everything but win, scoring top-10 finishes in each of the last eight races – the longest streak in the series at Sonoma. Last year, he finished second to Martin Truex Jr. Stewart has two wins at Sonoma, the last coming in 2005. He, too, has been strong since that win nearly a decade ago, finishing in the top 10 in five of the last seven races. He’s also had a string of solid starts recently. Stewart finished seventh in Dover, and followed that up with a performance at Pocono that could’ve ended in victory – if not for a pit road speeding penalty that Stewart labeled as a “driver error.” NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Etc. Thursday, June 19, will mark the 65th anniversary of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ first race, held in 1949. In what was then called the Strictly Stock division, the race was held at Charlotte Speedway, a .75-mile dirt track, and won by Jim Roper. It featured a 33-car field that included NASCAR Hall of Famers Tim Flock, Buck Baker, Lee Petty and Herb Thomas. … Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored two top-10 finishes at Michigan last weekend – a third in the NASCAR Nationwide Series race and a seventh in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event – to boost his NASCAR national career top 10 total to 299. One more, and he’ll become the 30th driver to reach the 300 top-10 plateau. … In conjunction with Hendrick Motorsports’ streak of five consecutive wins, Chevrolet has also won five straight. The last manufacturer to win six straight races in NASCAR’s premier series: Chevrolet in 2007, when Hendrick Motorsports also won six consecutive races. Road America: Where The Series Meets The Road 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). Unpredictability has been the latest theme when it comes to road-course racing in the NNS. Road America has hosted the series four times and has produced four different winners, none of whom are entered this weekend, making a fifth first-time winner at Road America the only guarantee. Roush Fenway Racing’s Carl Edwards captured the inaugural NNS event (2010) at Road America from the pole. Then Turner Scott Motorsports rallied off two wins with Reed Sorenson (2011) and Nelson Piquet Jr. (2012). Team Penske’s formidable No. 22 team with AJ Allmendinger won last season. Three of the four winners of this event have started from the pole position making Coors Light Pole Qualifying on Saturday morning, June 21 (ESPN2 11:30 a.m. ET) very important. One driver with Road America on his mind is series standings leader Regan Smith, who holds a 14-point lead over second-place Elliott Sadler. Smith is looking to rebound from last season’s finish at Road America of 32nd; one of only two races he finished outside the top 20 in 2013. Smith’s series average finish on road courses is 20.6. Sam Hornish Ignites Status Quo With Notable Part-Time Performance Almost like a throwback to the early days when teams would race select events, Sam Hornish Jr. has taken a part-time schedule and maximized his opportunities. Driving the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota in Kyle Busch’s stead this weekend is no small task, but Hornish has been in lock-step with Busch this season. Hornish has made three starts in 2014, finishing fifth at Talladega, winning at Iowa and pulling-in a second-place finish last weekend at Michigan. His average finish this season is 2.7 and his season-to-date (three-race) Driver Rating is 119.2 - second only to Kyle Busch’s 128.6. Busch and Hornish have combined to give the No. 54 team four wins and four Coors Light poles in 13 races this season. Their impressive finishes have put Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 54 team atop the owner standings by 59 points over second-place, Team Penske’s No. 22 team. Hornish has a NASCAR Nationwide Series career average finish of 8.6 on road courses. He has made two starts at Road America posting two top-five finishes. 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 No. 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 No. 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 No. 22 Ford, it will be his series debut at Road America. The No. 22 team won this race last season from the pole with Allmendinger behind the wheel. While Tagliani will moonlight this weekend his day job entails driving the No. 08 RSR Racing ORECA FLM09 prototype in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Prototype Challenge (PC) class. Tagliani is relatively new to sports car racing after a successful career in open-wheel racing. His best IMSA finish thus far this season is fifth in four starts. NASCAR Nationwide Series Etc. Wisconsin native Paul Menard posted Chevrolet’s seventh win of the season last weekend at Michigan, bolstering the organization’s lead (582) in the NNS manufacturer standings to four points over Toyota (578); Ford is third, 50 points back from the standings leader. … The state of Wisconsin has held 23 NASCAR Nationwide Series races, four at Road America and 19 at The Milwaukee Mile; 13 drivers in the NASCAR national series history have their home state recorded as Wisconsin, five of which have won in the NNS. … JR Motorsports announced Josh Berry will make his NNS debut at Iowa this season. Wallace Adds Another Win To Resume 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. Showalter is the only crew member to never miss a race in the 468-race history of the series. Youth Wins But Veterans Show The Way 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. Quiroga Scores Career-Best Finish Although his didn’t pick up his first career win last weekend, three-time NASCAR Mexico Toyota Series champion German Quiroga is moving ever closer to becoming the first Mexican-born driver to win a NASCAR national series event. Quiroga finished second to Darrell Wallace Jr. at Gateway to score a career-best second-place finish. Quiroga had then-career-best finishes of third last year at Texas and Pocono – both of which populate the remaining series schedule. Both are quality chances for him to nab the thus-far elusive first NASCAR national series victory. Quiroga, who drives for Red Horse Racing, is currently sixth in the standings, one point behind Ryan Blaney. 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.
Posted on: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 21:42:34 +0000
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