Toyota Save Mart 350
This week the Nascar Sprint Cup series heads to the Sonoma Raceway in California for the Toyota Save Mart 350. The Sonoma Raceway is a 2 mile road course and is the first of two road races that Nascar runs each season. Martin Truex won this race last season and we’ve actually had 9 different winners over the past 9 races here. Qualifying is usually very important in the road course races from 1992-2005 the eventual race winner qualified no worse then 7th position. That trend has kind of reversed itself of late as 5 of the last 8 winners have qualified out of the top 10 including a 32nd starting position by Juan Pablo Montoya in 2007.
Jeff Gordon +425
Jeff Gordon is kind of an obvious pick here as he’s pretty much dominated this track over his career. In Gordon’s 21 starts at Sonoma he has 5 wins, 13 top five finishes and has lead an amazing 454 laps. Jeff Gordon is also having his best season in a few years as he’s currently leading the points standings and has finished in the top ten in 11 of the 15 races this season. One thing that kind of worries me about Gordon is he hasn’t had the fastest car so far this week. He qualified 15th and in the two practice sessions he just had the 9th and 11th fastest car.
Jeff Gordon Stats
Gordon is 1st place in the points standing.
Gordon has 5 wins at Sonoma Raceway.
Kurt Busch +650
Kurt Busch hasn’t had the best season so far as he’s way back in 26th place in the standings although he does have one win this season and with another win he should be guaranteed to make the chase. Busch does do pretty good at Sonoma where he has one win and six top 5 finishes in 15 starts here. Busch also has a fast car so far this week with the fastest time in the 1st practice session and he also qualified in the 5th position.
Kurt Busch Stats
Busch had the fastest car in the 1st practice session.
Busch has 6 top 5 finishes at Sonoma Raceway.
Busch has 1 win at Sonoma Raceway.
Clint Bowyer +900
Clint Bowyer is another driver who has struggled so far this season so a win this week would be absolutely huge for him. In 8 career races at Sonoma Bowyer has an average finishing position of 9.1 which is 2nd among active drivers and he also has five tops 5’s in those 8 starts. Bowyer has had the fastest car so far this week. He was 2nd fastest in the 1st practice and had the fastest car in the final practice but he had a poor qualifying session starting in the 25th position so he’ll definitely need that fast car to make his way up through the field.
Clint Bowyer Stats
Bowyer has a 9.1 averaging finishing position at Sonoma.
Bowyer has 5 top 5 finishes in 8 career starts at Sonoma Raceway.
