NASCAR Cup Series

It is not always just about NASCAR, as most of us got a chance to check out other things since the boys and girl last ran at Michigan. There was a basketball game in Cleveland I understand of some note. The NHL has an amateur draft this week and it seems you will have yet another reason to go to Las Vegas in the winter soon enough.

The Series heads to Sonoma Raceway for the first of two road course events on the 2016 NASCAR calendar. Hamlin owns one top-five finish and two top-10 results in 10 career starts at the 1.99-mile track, with a career-best fifth in 2009.

Furniture Row Racing’s No. 78 Camry, driven by Martin Truex Jr., will carry the logo of the California National Guard during this weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series road race – the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

In many ways, this weekend’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway is a drive into the unknown for rookie driver Ryan Blaney and the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Racing team.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series veteran driver Michael McDowell is eager to return to Sonoma Raceway, a track that brought him early success in his racing career, with the hopes of continuing those achievements behind the wheel of the No. 95 K-LOVE Radio Chevrolet this weekend.

Brian Scott adds a new look to the No. 44 Ford Fusion in the team's first road course race of the season. Blue-Emu, an over-the-counter muscle and joint cream, will be a co-primary partner with Safeway on the No. 44 Ford Fusion at Sonoma Raceway this weekend.

After a weekend off to recharge in North Carolina, Richard Petty Motorsports is ready to take the No. 43 Smithfield Ford out west to Sonoma Raceway.

Richard Childress Racing in Wine Country ... In 63 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 25 top-10 finishes. The Welcome, N.C.,-based team has led 137 laps at Sonoma, completed 6,564 of the 6,610 laps contested (99.3 percent) and recorded just one DNF (Did Not Finish) over that stretch (1989-2016).

SONOMA STATS: Sonoma Raceway is the first of two stops this season at a road course for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. In Kasey Kahne’s 12 starts at the 10-turn track, he’s earned the pole position twice – 2008 and 2010. Kahne won in only his sixth event at the 1.99-mile track after starting from the fifth position and leading 37 laps.

Stenhouse Jr. has three NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) starts at Sonoma Raceway with an average starting position of 33.7 and average finishing position of 26.0.