{"id":19613,"date":"2018-06-21T17:13:54","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T22:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=19613"},"modified":"2018-06-22T17:26:55","modified_gmt":"2018-06-22T22:26:55","slug":"sonoma-raceway-and-gateway-motorsports-park-weekend-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/06\/21\/sonoma-raceway-and-gateway-motorsports-park-weekend-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonoma Raceway and Gateway Motorsports Park Weekend Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With a pole position and third-place finish at Michigan two weeks ago \u2013 and five top-10 efforts in the last six races of the season \u2013 it feels inevitable that Kurt Busch is on the verge of hoisting his first trophy since the 2017 Daytona 500.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Chase Elliott, driver of the #24 Kelley Blue Book Chevrolet, leads a pack of cars during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Toyota\/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 25, 2017 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Chris Trotman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

And Sonoma Raceway\u2019s winding and picturesque Northern Californian hillside road course is a promising opportunity for the former Monster Energy NASCAR Cup champ to claim his first win of the 2018 season.<\/p>\n

The Toyota\/SaveMart 350 (June 24 at 3 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) has been a historically favorable event for the Stewart-Haas Racing driver, who won there in 2011 and whose 197 career laps led is most in this week\u2019s starting field.<\/p>\n

Busch\u2019s driver rating (107.5) is also easily tops among his competitors. Jimmie Johnson is next at 99.6. In all, Busch leads five of the six statistical categories ranking drivers at Sonoma including Average Running Position (9.9), Fastest Laps Run (88) and Laps in the Top-15 (78.6 percent) as well.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was an immediate good relationship between driver and course.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoyed it right off the bat,” said Busch, who drivers the No. 41 Ford for SHR. \u201cI thought it was fun and different and I worked at it to develop the skills that I have in Legends Car races and Late Model races. I even went to the Bob Bondurant Driving School.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first professional type of road-course race was in the Truck Series. I jumped right in there. (Greg) Biffle won that day and I beat Ron Fellows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Succeeding on NASCAR\u2019s two traditional road courses \u2013 at Sonoma and Watkins Glen, N.Y. \u2013 takes both good skill and good attitude. Often times early in the sport\u2019s history, drivers \u201ctolerated\u201d the non-oval races. These days, they embrace the change in course. Sonoma has had 10 different winners in the last 11 races, with Kurt\u2019s younger brother Kyle Busch the only multiple winner (twice) in the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a good driver and you want to be in the top tier of NASCAR, you\u2019ve got to drive well everywhere,” Kurt Busch said. \u201cThe road courses were a bit more of a specialty back in the day and you used to be able to take advantage of the guys who didn\u2019t put forth the full effort in the road courses, but not anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love road racing and I think it\u2019s fun. It\u2019s important to have a positive mindset everywhere, but it\u2019s not a problem for me at the road courses.\u201d<\/p>\n

And his results would prove as much.<\/p>\n

He and SHR teammate Clint Bowyer lead all drivers with seven top-five finishes at Sonoma. Busch won pole positions at both road courses in 2006. He has led laps in four of the last seven races at Sonoma, highlighted by his 76-laps out front en route to his win.<\/p>\n

YOUTH MOVEMENT<\/b><\/p>\n

This week\u2019s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race presents another prime opportunity for the series\u2019 youth movement to hoist a trophy. The slate of most recent winners at Gateway Motorsports Park is a group of 20-somethings who have made a real name for themselves in the sport.<\/p>\n

John Hunter Nemechek is the defending winner of Saturday\u2019s Villa Lighting delivers the Eaton 200 presented by CK Power (June 23 at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio). He won at the age of 20. Before that Christopher Bell won in 2016 (then 21), Cole Custer in 2015 (then 17) and Bubba Wallace in 2014 (then 20) celebrated important career victories there before moving onto new opportunities in the Xfinity and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.<\/p>\n

Last week\u2019s Iowa winner, Brett Moffitt, is only 25.<\/p>\n

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/b><\/p>\n

Next Race: Toyota\/SaveMart 350<\/b><\/p>\n

The Place:  Sonoma Raceway (Sonoma, Calif.)<\/b><\/p>\n

The Date: Sunday, June 24<\/b><\/p>\n

The Time: 3 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

TV: FS1<\/b><\/p>\n

Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio<\/b><\/p>\n

Distance: 218.9 miles (110 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 25),<\/b><\/p>\n

Stage 2 (Ends on lap 50), and Final Stage (Ends on lap 110)<\/b><\/p>\n

What to Watch For:<\/b> There have been 11 different winners in the last 12 races at Sonoma. Current championship leader Kyle Busch is the only repeat winner in that time. And he is the only multi-time (twice) winner in the field this weekend. \u2026 Kevin Harvick is the defending race winner. The only driver to win consecutive races was Jeff Gordon, who won three straight from 1998-2000. \u2026Four of the last 10 race winners \u2013 Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jeff Gordon \u2013 are no longer competing in the Cup series. \u2026. The four 2018 season multi-race winners \u2013 Kyle Busch, Harvick, Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer \u2013 are also the four most recent active drivers to win at Sonoma. \u2026. Kurt Busch has led the most career laps (196) among the starting field this weekend. \u2026 The driver who has led the most laps has not gone on to victory in the last four races. \u2026 There are only seven former Sonoma winners in the field. \u2026 New NASCAR Hall of Fame selection Jeff Gordon is NASCAR\u2019s winningest road racer with nine victories. Kyle Busch leads current drivers with four career wins \u2013 two at Sonoma and two at Watkins Glen. \u2026 Jamie McMurray leads the series with three pole positions at Sonoma. \u2026 Juan Pablo Montoya is the only driver to have scored his first Cup win at Sonoma (2007). \u2026. The Sonoma Raceway holds a unique distinction. No race has ever been postponed or shortened nor qualifying cancelled because of poor weather. \u2026 The front row of the grid has produced the most winners (28 percent). The race winner has started from a top-five position on the grid 52 percent of the time.<\/p>\n

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series<\/b><\/p>\n

Next Race: Villa Lighting Delivers the Eaton 200 presented by CK Power<\/b><\/p>\n

The Place: Gateway Motorsports Park (Gateway, Ill.)<\/b><\/p>\n

The Date: Saturday, June 23<\/b><\/p>\n

The Time: 8:30 p.m. ET<\/b><\/p>\n

TV: FS1, 8 p.m.<\/b><\/p>\n

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio<\/b><\/p>\n

Distance: 200 miles (160 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on lap 35),<\/b><\/p>\n

Stage 2 (Ends on lap 70), Final Stage (Ends on lap 160)<\/b><\/p>\n

What to Watch For:<\/b>  John Hunter Nemechek is the defending race winner and the only race winner entered this week. He won at the age of 20 last year, the latest in a line of youthful production at Gateway. \u2026 Of the three immediately preceding winners, Christopher Bell was oldest \u2013 winning at 21 two years ago. Cole Custer was only 17 when he won in 2015. \u2026 Last week\u2019s pole winner at Iowa, Harrison Burton, 17, scored a career-best showing of third-place. His next scheduled race is Aug. 16 at Bristol, Tenn. \u2026 There are 11 drivers making their track debut this weekend, including last week\u2019s winner Brett Moffitt \u2013 who has two wins in 2018 already.  \u2026 Points leader Johnny Sauter is still looking for his first Gateway win, but he has never finished worse than fourth in six starts. He was third in the race last year. \u2026 Another veteran and former champion Matt Crafton is also looking for his first Gateway trophy. His fourth-place finish last year was a career-best and one of only two top fives in 14 starts at the track. \u2026 NASCAR Next driver Zane Smith will make his series debut this week. The 19-year old Californian will drive the No. 54 Toyota Tundra. He is a three-time winner in the ARCA Series this year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – With a pole position and third-place finish at Michigan two weeks ago \u2013 and five top-10 efforts in the last six races of the season \u2013 it feels inevitable that Kurt Busch is on the verge of hoisting his first trophy since the 2017 Daytona 500. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[484,16,455],"class_list":["post-19613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-gateway-motorsports-park","tag-nascar","tag-sonoma-raceway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/MENCS-Sonoma-Elliott-062517.jpg?fit=3576%2C2556&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-56l","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19613"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19616,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19613\/revisions\/19616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}