Brendan Gaughan Scores First NASCAR Win in a Decade
Brendan Gaughan survived two early incidents and a race track dampened by rain for most of the second half as cars drove on rain tires to win the Gardner Denver 200 Fired Up By Johnsonville at Road America.
It was the first time that Gaughan has won a NASCAR race since October 11, 2003 at the Texas Motor Speedway when Gaughan was running full-time in the Camping World Truck Series. That year, Gaughan won six races and was in contention for the championship, until getting taken out by Marty Houston during the season finale at Homestead. Gaughan has eight career wins in the Camping World Truck Series.
It was just the third time in NASCAR history that a race has been run in the rain. The other two were in Montreal in 2008 and 2010, also on a road course.
Gaughan admitted loving racing in the rain. Perhaps this was the spark that Gaughan needed to ignite his drive to the win, to overcome his misfortunes early in the race. Thankfully for Gaughan, he did not do much damage to the car, other than using his grille as a lawn mower. It was Gaughan’s first win on the Nationwide circuit in 98 attempts.
“I love racing in the rain. It’s fun,” said Gaughan. When you are good at it, it makes it even more fun.”
On Lap 51, Gaughan passed Chase Elliott for the lead, who was able to hold off Elliott’s aggressive driving style for the victory. Elliott got to Gaughan’s bumper a couple of times, but nothing was going to deter Gaughan from the prize.
Alex Tagliani appeared to be the driver to beat, but ran out of fuel on lap 49. Tagliani stormed from 22nd on the green-white-checkered to finish 2nd.
If Justin Marks had not run out of fuel to bring out the caution, it’s likely Tagliani would never have had a chance to make the charge. “It was pretty intense,” Tagliani said.
Tagliani started the race from the pole position, hoping to become the fourth driver to win from the pole in the last five Nationwide races at Road America, but no cigar.
Kevin O’Connell finished third, followed by Elliott and J.J. Yeley.
Rounding out the top 10 were Jeremy Clements, Andy Lally, Landon Cassill, Elliott Sadler, and Mike Bliss.
McMurray Wins Coors Light Pole Award for Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway
Jamie McMurray won his second consecutive pole at Sonoma Raceway after a final run in the closing minutes of Knockout Qualifying with a track record qualifying speed of 96.350 mph. This is his third pole at Sonoma and his tenth series career pole.
McMurray is the eleventh different pole winner this season and his qualifying speed set the eleventh track record this year.
He spoke about the challenges of the new qualifying procedure, saying, “This Knockout Qualifying is just an emotional roller coaster, from not making it into the top twelve and then having to go out and bump your way in, to then being on the pole. There’s a lot of highs and lows that go into it.”
McMurray hopes to translate this pole into a better finish than his previous two poles that resulted in disappointing finishes of 37th and 25th.
“This race is about having good strategy and having a little bit of luck,” he explained. “It’s about not getting run into in Turn 4 or Turn 7 on a restart. I’ve run enough races here that I’ve had every issue you could have.”
He concluded by stating, “You have to put it all together. You have to have good strategy, you have to have a good car and you have to make good decisions as a driver.”
AJ Allmendinger will start on the outside pole in second place. “
I felt like I put in two good laps out there. You can nitpick and say I lost a little bit here and there but Jamie put in a hell of a lap, congrats to him,” Allmendinger said.
McMurray’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, rookie Kyle Larson, qualified third. Larson was happy with his starting position but realizes that the race will provide an opportunity to improve and gain valuable experience.
“I’ve still got a lot more to learn, especially when I get a few laps on the tires,’’ Larson said. “I struggle with that. I’m sure I’ll learn a lot throughout the race. I’ve just got to try to stay out of trouble.’’
Carl Edwards and Kurt Busch round out the top five for Sunday’s starting lineup. Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman, Brian Vickers, Paul Menard and Joey Logano complete the top ten starting positions. Danica Patrick and Casey Mears will start in eleventh and twelfth, respectively.
The teams were unsure what to expect with the new qualifying format at Sonoma but the two sessions ran smoothly with no on-track incidents. Surprisingly, no Hendrick Motorsports Cars advanced to the final round of top twelve drivers.
Other notables who did not advance to the last session include Matt Kenseth, Clint Bowyer, Tony Stewart, Greg Biffle and Brad Keselowski.
Television pre-race coverage for Sunday’s Sprint Cup race will begin at 2 p.m. ET on TNT. The green flag start is scheduled for approximately 3:19 ET.
Complete Starting Lineup for Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway
| 1 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | 96.350 | 74.354 |
| 2 | 47 | AJ Allmendinger | 96.088 | 74.557 |
| 3 | 42 | Kyle Larson # | 95.942 | 74.670 |
| 4 | 99 | Carl Edwards | 95.857 | 74.736 |
| 5 | 41 | Kurt Busch | 95.704 | 74.856 |
| 6 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | 95.655 | 74.894 |
| 7 | 31 | Ryan Newman | 95.616 | 74.925 |
| 8 | 55 | Brian Vickers | 95.574 | 74.958 |
| 9 | 27 | Paul Menard | 95.528 | 74.994 |
| 10 | 22 | Joey Logano | 95.417 | 75.081 |
| 11 | 10 | Danica Patrick | 95.414 | 75.083 |
| 12 | 13 | Casey Mears | 95.327 | 75.152 |
| 13 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | 95.617 | 74.924 |
| 14 | 20 | Matt Kenseth | 95.605 | 74.933 |
| 15 | 24 | Jeff Gordon | 95.552 | 74.975 |
| 16 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | 95.479 | 75.032 |
| 17 | 88 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 95.461 | 75.046 |
| 18 | 78 | Martin Truex Jr. | 95.451 | 75.054 |
| 19 | 16 | Greg Biffle | 95.432 | 75.069 |
| 20 | 18 | Kyle Busch | 95.378 | 75.112 |
| 21 | 14 | Tony Stewart | 95.308 | 75.167 |
| 22 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | 95.296 | 75.176 |
| 23 | 9 | Marcos Ambrose | 95.247 | 75.215 |
| 24 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 95.136 | 75.303 |
| 25 | 15 | Clint Bowyer | 95.044 | 75.376 |
| 26 | 3 | Austin Dillon # | 95.028 | 75.388 |
| 27 | 38 | David Gilliland | 94.992 | 75.417 |
| 28 | 95 | Michael McDowell | 94.972 | 75.433 |
| 29 | 43 | Aric Almirola | 94.897 | 75.492 |
| 30 | 5 | Kasey Kahne | 94.865 | 75.518 |
| 31 | 34 | David Ragan | 94.793 | 75.575 |
| 32 | 26 | Cole Whitt # | 94.734 | 75.622 |
| 33 | 98 | Josh Wise | 94.568 | 75.755 |
| 34 | 83 | Ryan Truex # | 94.562 | 75.760 |
| 35 | 51 | Justin Allgaier # | 94.491 | 75.817 |
| 36 | 33 | Alex Kennedy | 94.147 | 76.094 |
| 37 | 40 | Timmy Hill – DC1 | 94.012 | 76.203 |
| 38 | 23 | Alex Bowman # | 93.867 | 76.321 |
| 39 | 44 | David Mayhew – DC2 | 93.741 | 76.423 |
| 40 | 36 | Reed Sorenson | 93.498 | 76.622 |
| 41 | 32 | Boris Said | 93.377 | 76.721 |
| 42 | 7 | Michael Annett # | 92.282 | 77.632 |
| 43 | 66 | Tomy Drissi | 91.115 | 78.626 |
Jimmie Johnson Enjoying his Time in California, Focused on Another Win
While the actual race at Sonoma Raceway is of importance, it’s not the only thing going on this weekend for the stars of the Sprint Cup Series. El Cajon, California native Jimmie Johnson is back in his home state and enjoying every bit of it. The six-time Sprint Cup Series Champion spent this past week in the San Diego area attending a bunch of different festivities.
One of the highlights was the Jimmie Johnson Foundation Golf Tournament, where Johnson and foundation were able to raise $650,000 that they will use to help families in Southern California, Oklahoma and the Charlotte (NC) area.
“We had a new venue at Torrey Pines and played their south golf course over there,” Johnson commented. “To have the views and the golf and the scenery and to know this history of golf on that course and watching some of those awesome battles myself, made that experience all the sweeter.”
Though earlier in the week, Johnson was honored back in his hometown by June 17th being named ‘Jimmie Johnson Day’ for all of California and being given a guitar to the city, as opposed to a key to the city.
“Just a crazy experience and fans were everywhere,” Johnson commented. “I couldn’t believe how many people showed up. It was just an awesome experience. I got up here yesterday relaxing and enjoying this nice warm weather. I’m looking forward to some left and right hand turns.”
Now with his focus shifted to the on-track action, Johnson is hoping to continue Hendrick Motorsports’ recent string of success as the organization looks for their sixth straight victory. Johnson says it’ll be a challenge as his team looks for the right set-up for his No. 48 Lowes/Kobalt Chevrolet that is easy on the tires. He added that it’ll also be a challenge, personally, in making sure that he’s patient with the car and he doesn’t “run the rear tires off of it”.
Johnson hopes to have that magic so he can score his fourth victory of the year and second straight following his win last weekend at Michigan International Speedway.
A.J. Allmendinger Hoping to Find More Success Along the Road at Sonoma
Los Gatos, California native A.J. Allmendinger missed the trip to Sonoma Raceway as he didn’t have a full Sprint Cup Series ride last season.
“I missed being here,” Allmendinger admitted. “Being a home race for me, it is nice to see my family, and some friends and all that. But it is one of those things that you have to split up between doing your job, and then seeing all your friends and kind of hanging out and catching up.”
However while he wasn’t at Sonoma, he was at Road America running the Nationwide Series event, in which he won to help Team Penske towards their owner’s championship. As a result, there are a lot of fingers pointing Allmendinger’s way as a chance to be the race winner on Sunday. Allmendinger admits that it’s a good opportunity, but is trying to keep the pressure off by taking the weekend one step at a time.
Allmendinger adds that it will be tough to win as while days before you’d only see five to eight guys with a shot, there are now a lot more drivers that have a legitimate shot to win.
“Now it is so deep and everybody has gotten so good at road course racing in general,” Allmendinger commented. “We tested here for two days, which was big because I felt like what we started here with at the test, we would have been way off if we had come back and hadn’t tested. It was a good two-day test. I don’t want to walk into this weekend saying ‘If we don’t win this race, then it is a disappointment’. We just need to have a solid weekend, and if we can run inside the top-10, good. And, if we can be inside the top-five and have a shot to win it, then it’s a great weekend. That is how I look at it.”
If Allmendinger is able to reach victory lane, though, it’ll help solidify the growth that the JTG Daugherty organization has seen since Allmendinger joined them.
“Really proud of this team so far where we have gotten,” he commented. “Excited to announce that Clorox signed up for three more years, so that is good to have that on our race car and to get that solidified. By the end of their contract, I think it will be 20 years that they have been with this race team. Just a great brand to have on this car. Good things going into this weekend and hopefully we can build on that and have a good weekend all together.”
While being a 30th to 33rd place team before, they have grown to now have Allmendinger sitting 21st in points with three top 10s in the first 15 events this year.
“We just have to keep getting better each weekend,” Allmendinger commented. “We’re going to have our ups and downs. We’ve had some great runs this year. We’ve had some runs that you would expect from a single-car team that is trying to build. So, the good thing is our team owner, Tad Geschickter, he is the most patient person, and I’m not. So, I get done and I’m like “we’ve got to fix this’. As he told me when we started this, ‘this isn’t a one-weekend, a one-race, a one-year thing. I’m in this team for a long-term period’. We just have to keep getting stronger together.”
