The best stories in NASCAR are the ones that are stranger than fiction: Kurt Busch losing a wheel in the final race of 2004, missing the pit wall by inches and holding on to win the Sprint Cup title; Trevor Bayne winning the 2011 Daytona 500 in only his second Sprint Cup start one day after he turned 20; and last year, Kyle Busch recovering from devastating injuries to win his first series championship despite missing the first 11 races of the year. “It’s been a long time since a new person has won”, he said.
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And where better than Sonoma, Calif., Stewart’s favorite track where he owns three victories and has finished in the top 10 in 17 of 18 career starts at the track? But it hasn’t happened yet. Stewart will likely now qualify for the Chase field later this season based on this win.
Carl Edwards smiles during a media conference after qualifying for the pole position for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series auto race Saturday, June 25, 2016, in Sonoma, Calif. Hamlin finished second at Watkins Glen International in 2007; he matched that with a second in the Toyota / Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
“I don’t know if it’s the dirt track, but just sprint cars and stuff the suspension moves around a lot and you can feel the balance of the vehicle”. “… He knows what’s up”. “He knows what’s up, he knows he has to win”. There is no need for me to remind him of that fact. He knows what it takes and what is expected of him.
Tony Stewart reclaimed the lead from Denny Hamlin on the final turn of the race Sunday and won NASCAR’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. In fact, he had not raced on a road course until he arrived in NASCAR.
The decision to step away from the NASCAR world and concentrate on other area of racing such as Stewart’s role as a sprint auto team owner, series owner and track operator, is something that had been brewing for some time. He was fastest in the first practice session on Friday, so he wasn’t thrilled to wind up in the third row after qualifying. As soon as they were in the pit window, teams would call their drivers to pit road. Allmendinger needs to turn that luck around this weekend as its his best chance at making the Chase. “I really enjoy it. I wish we did more”.
Certain drivers excel on the road courses and A.J. Allmendinger is one of the most skilled road racers on the circuit. “There are just other things I want to do now”. “Right now we are just struggling in the slow-speed type corners – turn seven, turn 11, even a little bit in turn four”.
“I don’t think this is a place where you can throw it around”, he said. “There were weeks that you would think about ‘man I really want to go to Monaco and see the Monaco Grand Prix or I really want to go to Knoxville, Iowa and be out there for the A-main of the Knoxville Nationals or the Kings Royal at Eldora”.
Now it’s time for Larson to produce in his full-time job.
Ganassi, whose NASCAR teams have been inconsistent throughout his stock auto tenure, acknowledges his team is “a work in progress” and “in a big development still”. But Larson is getting close to changing that. “There are a crop of us young guys in our early 20s that would like to get a win”. “There’s no pressure on me”. “I think it shows the versatility we have as drivers and the teams as well, that set up the auto and make the vehicle get around here”. “But I’ve felt like if we got things right, that it was still there”. We have made huge gains so far this season. “We just have to stay on top of it and hope we get a win”.
For at least one weekend, Smoke was back.
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“That would be awesome”, he said. Is there anything in particular we should check out?
