{"id":42877,"date":"2023-06-08T08:21:08","date_gmt":"2023-06-08T13:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=42877"},"modified":"2023-06-12T13:25:47","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T18:25:47","slug":"nascar-weekend-preview-sonoma-raceway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/08\/nascar-weekend-preview-sonoma-raceway\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Weekend Preview: Sonoma Raceway"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer<\/em><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service<\/em> <\/b><\/p>\n

Daniel Suarez mounts defense of NASCAR Cup Series Sonoma victory on the upswing<\/b><\/p>\n

Daniel Suarez will return to the scene of his only NASCAR Cup Series victory this weekend, and he will do so with considerable momentum from his top-10 run last Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway.<\/p>\n

Suarez won last year\u2019s event at Sonoma Raceway by 3.849 seconds over runner-up Chris Buescher, and he\u2019ll try to defend that triumph in Sunday\u2019s Toyota\/Save Mart 350 (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Sonoma Raceway is one of six road courses on the Cup Series schedule this year\u2014including the Chicago Street Course\u2014and Suarez feels he ready for the challenge of defending his win.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely, man,\u201d said the driver of the No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. \u201cEvery time we head to a road course, whether it\u2019s Sonoma or somewhere else, I am excited. I feel at home, and I am excited to go back to a place where we had great memories last time, and hopefully we can repeat it. <\/p>\n

\u201cSunday’s race at St. Louis was great for us. It was a good, solid run from start to finish. We just need to build on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, Suarez showed excellent speed throughout last Sunday\u2019s Enjoy Illinois 300, finishing 10th in the first stage, fifth in the second stage and seventh at the checkered flag. Suarez comes to Sonoma 16th in the series standings, on the bubble when it comes to making the Playoffs on points.<\/p>\n

Suarez recalls the final moments of his breakthrough victory with crystalline clarity. He is the only Mexican driver to win in NASCAR\u2019s premier division.<\/p>\n

“I was just trying to stay calm,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew that it was a big stake on the line, but I was trying to stay calm. I was silent. I wanted to do my thing. I didn\u2019t want too much noise on the radio. I knew what I had to do. <\/p>\n

\u201cI would say after the white flag is when I got out of control. I just started crying inside the helmet, just thinking about it. Especially because I had a big gap. If it wasn\u2019t a big gap, I would be focused. Since I had a big gap, I was just thinking about every single moment that has caused me to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suarez isn\u2019t the only driver who will come to Sonoma with a head of steam. Michael McDowell ran ninth at Gateway after recovering from an early spin, and he arrives in wine country hoping to improve on the third-place finish he achieved last year.<\/p>\n

Road course standout Chase Elliott also makes a return at Sonoma\u2014from a one-race suspension for wrecking Denny Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.  <\/p>\n

Elliott has two top fives and four top 10s in six starts at Sonoma, including a runner-up finish to Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson in 2021.<\/p>\n

Inaugural NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Sonoma attracts double-duty drivers<\/b><\/p>\n

NASCAR Xfinity Series regulars will have their hands full in Saturday\u2019s DoorDash 250 at Sonoma Raceway (8 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). <\/p>\n

The influx of seven full-time NASCAR Cup Series drivers eager to gain seat time at the 1.99-mile road course has swollen the entry list for the first-ever Xfinity race at Sonoma to 41, with only 38 spots available on the starting grid.<\/p>\n

Foremost among the interlopers are the last two Cup Series winners at the track\u2014Daniel Suarez (2022) and Kyle Larson (2021). Other double-duty Cup regulars are Ross Chastain, Ty Gibbs, Ty Dillon, AJ Allmendinger and Aric Almirola.<\/p>\n

Though Allmendinger claimed both of his Cup Series victories and 11 of his 16 Xfinity wins on road courses, his finishes at Sonoma haven\u2019t matched his acknowledged talent on tracks with both right and left turns.<\/p>\n

In 11 Cup starts at Sonoma, Allmendinger has but two top 10s and an average finish of 23.5. The Los Gatos, Calif., driver hopes he can improve those numbers dramatically this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cSonoma is always a special, important weekend for me,\u201d Allmendinger said. \u201cIt\u2019s near where I grew up, and I still get to see a lot of friends and family there. Quite honestly, it\u2019s a race track that I don\u2019t have a very good average finish. I\u2019ve felt like I\u2019ve always been fast there, but it hasn\u2019t worked out.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to run both races, I\u2019m really looking forward to it. Sonoma is a race track I\u2019ve always wanted to win at, knowing it\u2019s my home racetrack and I would be able to do that in front of a lot of friends and family. Hopefully, we can go back there and have some success to keep building on our program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sonoma Raceway is one of eight road courses on the Xfinity Series schedule this year and the second straight. Cole Custer won last Saturday\u2019s event at Portland International Raceway, outdueling Justin Allgaier in a close finish. <\/p>\n

For either Custer or Allgaier to win this Saturday, however, they\u2019ll have to beat some of the best drivers in NASCAR\u2019s top division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service  Daniel Suarez mounts defense of NASCAR Cup Series Sonoma victory on the upswing Daniel Suarez will return to the scene of his only NASCAR Cup Series victory this weekend, and he will do so with considerable momentum from his top-10 run last Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway. Suarez […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":39507,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[16,455],"class_list":["post-42877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-nascar","tag-sonoma-raceway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/GettyImages-1402529127-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1706","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-b9z","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42877"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42878,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42877\/revisions\/42878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}