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.
Under unexpected cloudy skies and even some rain drops, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 25th annual Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
On to the first of two road course races for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series this week, Sonoma being the 1.99 mile road course on Sears Point this week. Possibly one of the best things about heading to Sonoma this week, is the track is a destination not only for California's NASCAR fans, but also many racing enthusiasts in general.
Tony Stewart; the man you should never count out no matter what. Tony said prior to the 2011 chase that he didn't even deserve to be in it with how poorly he was running. Two months and five wins later, he was hoisting the Sprint Cup trophy at Homestead. This year, Stewart-Haas Racing has had a rough time finding their footing with these Generation Six cars and have been forced to endure some pretty bad days at the track.
The driver of the No. 15 5-Hour Energy Toyota couldn’t be happier, finishing second in the Chase standings, just 39 points behind champion Brad Keselowski and a mere one point ahead of third place finisher and five time champ Jimmie Johnson.
On July 31st, it was announced that Sonoma Raceway will undergo three slight modifications to its track layout before the GoPro Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma. The changes made to turns seven, nine, and eleven were conducted with the intent to create more overtaking throughout the race weekend.
For the second time in Kentucky Speedway’s brief 12-year history, the big guns of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will set their sights on the 1.5-mile, D-shaped demon. My forecast for the weekend, ‘it’s going to be HOT!’
The last few weeks have been tough on Kurt Busch. From struggles with performance, saying the wrong things and getting suspended, he finally had a nice Sunday drive with no controversy.
I was looking forward to a solid race where I could see the action. No doubt the action was heated on track with the feuds, though the coverage took away from that greatly.
