NASCAR Cup Series

“You go there thinking about different things because your driving style on approach, and things you do in the car, is a lot different. We go to Sonoma working as hard as we can in practice to get our car to drive as good as it can because certainly there are a lot more opportunities for mistakes from a drivers standpoint at that track."

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.

The No. 43 Medallion Financial Ford should look right at home at Sonoma this weekend - weaving right and left as if it were navigating the streets of New York City.

Landon Cassill has never competed at the raceway in Sonoma, Calif., but he's turned several laps at the 1.99-mile, winding road course. Without his tires ever touching the asphalt, Cassill has dashed his way around Sonoma using iRacing technology.

When it comes to road racing at Sonoma, Travis Kvapil prefers a less intricate approach. Despite the complexities of making left-and right-hand turns, his game plan for success is simple: keep the Burger King/Dr Pepper Toyota on course for all 110 laps.

It was never supposed to be like this. The story wasn’t supposed to be written this way. The plot one that was never considered.

Finally. Dale Earnhardt Jr wasn't the only one wishing them final laps would quickly go by, lessening the opportunities for things to just go to hell. But they did not, and four years (and two days) after he won on fuel mileage at Michigan, Junior did it again.

Well after 143 races, rumors of conspiracy, alien abduction, and sabotage, Dale Jr found victory lane again today at Michigan International Speedway. As big a story as that is it is questionable whether it is the biggest story of the weekend.

Sometimes it is fun to step out of the shadows of media objectivity and tell it like it is. I don’t just enjoy writing about NASCAR, I’m a fan of the sport.

So, the long drought is over. All is well in the world of the Junior Nation tonight. NASCAR's most popular driver has found victory lane again.