No other manufacturer has visited Victory Lane at Sonoma Raceway more often than Chevrolet. The Bowtie Brand has been in Winner’s Circle 11 times at the 11-turn, 1.99-mile venue.
KAHNE BY THE NUMBERS: In 14 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career starts at Sonoma, Kasey Kahne has an average start of 14.9 and an average finish of 17.9. He’s completed 1,526 of 1,547 (98.6 percent) career laps, and has led for a total of 41 laps. Kahne has earned two poles, one win (2009), two top-five and six top-10 finishes at the 1.99-mile road course.
Trevor Bayne returns to the seat of the No. 6 Ford this weekend at Sonoma and the 2011 Daytona 500 Champion will sport a different look for his return. AdvoCare Rehydrate® will be featured on the No. 6 as the summer months roll on, and for the remainder of AdvoCare’s primary races this season.
Sonoma Preview: The Series heads to Sonoma Raceway for the first road course event of the season where Hamlin will look to capture his second career road course victory. Hamlin has three top-five and four top-10 finishes at the 12-turn road course including a fourth-place finish in last year’s race following a 14th-place qualifying effort.
Coughlin will climb behind the wheel of chassis no. 101 at Gateway Motorsports Park this weekend. This chassis was utilized four times during the 2017 NCWTS season, securing one top-five and three top-10 finishes. This will be the first time during the 2018 season that the No. 2 team will run chassis no. 101.
Stenhouse Jr. has five Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS) starts at Sonoma Raceway with an average starting position of 30.0 and average finishing position of 28.4.
AJ ALLMENDINGER, NO. 47 KROGER CLICKLIST CAMARO ZL1 - RACING AT SONOMA RACEWAY: "I love racing at Sonoma Raceway," Allmendinger said. "It’s a racetrack where when we go there, we feel like we always have a chance to run up front and be in the top-five, maybe win the race. Sonoma is really hard on rear tires, so that's something we always focus on in practice. We have some good notes from last year to help set up the car to save the rear tires, but we can always make improvements on our long run speed."
When talking about road course racing Martin Truex Jr.’s voice tends to rise a few decibels. “I love the challenge of road racing,” Truex said. “I grew up racing go-karts on road courses (in New Jersey) and fell in love with that quickly. The excitement level definitely goes up a few notches when we compete at a road course.”
The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards will make its return to Gateway Motorsports Park for the first time since 2007 with Friday's Papa Nicholas Coffee 150. The event will mark the halfway point of the series' 2018 season.
Richard Childress Racing in Wine Country ... In 69 starts at the 10-turn stadium course, Richard Childress Racing owns two wins, with Dale Earnhardt in the 1995 Save Mart Supermarkets 300 and with Robby Gordon in the Save Mart 350 in 2003, one pole award (Earnhardt, 1995), 14 top-five and 26 top-10 finishes. The Welcome, North Carolina,-based team has led 140 laps at Sonoma, completed 7,224 of the 7,270 laps contested (99.4 percent) and recorded just one DNF (Did Not Finish) over that stretch (1989-2017).
The NASCAR Cup Series and the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series are at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend while the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series is at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.
Hendrick Motorsports has piled up more than twice as many wins as any other organization (11) in the crown jewel event and also leads in top fives (29), top 10s (46) and laps led (1,101).
Funny Car driver Daniel Wilkerson was .042 of a second away from securing his first NHRA win on Sunday in Sonoma and he will have another opportunity for redemption at this weekend’s 37th annual Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways.
