The six road course races on 2022 schedule have changed the face of NASCAR.
NASCAR ran its first road race in 1954 on a circuit laid out around an airport at Linden, N.J. Al Keller won in a Jaguar, one of a handful of Cup Series victories by a foreign manufacturer. Although not necessarily popular with oval-loving fans, the series has run at least one road race almost every year for most of its history.
Sunday afternoon’s Toyota/SaveMart 350-K at Sonoma, Ca., in fact, is the second of this year’s SIX left-turn/right-turn events. The series has already been to COTA in Austin, gets Sonoma this weekend, goes to Elkhart Lake and the Indy Road Course in July, then visits Watkins Glen International in August, and the Charlotte Roval in October.
Cup Series teams will practice and qualify on Saturday and run 110 laps (219 miles) around the 1.99-mile, 11-turn course on Sunday afternoon. The weekend’s 75-lap, 149-mile support race is Saturday afternoon’s DoorDash 250-K for the Camping World Truck Series. It’s the first CWTS race at Sonoma in 24 years; not surprisingly, nobody on the grid has ever raced there in a truck.
Al Keller (4) races for the win in NASCAR’s first road-course event in 1954.
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Among the Cup Series’ previous Sonoma winners still active: Kyle Larson won last year, Kevin Harvick in 2017, Martin Truex Jr. in 2013, 2018, and 2019, Kurt Busch in 2011, and Kyle Busch in 2008, 2015, and 2018. With five, retired four-time champion Jeff Gordon leads the list of 20 Sonoma winners in 32 races. Ricky Rudd won the track’s first Cup race in 1989.
A handful of proven road racers are looking at Sonoma as the perfect place to snap this year’s 0-for-15 losing streak and become (most likely) Playoff-eligible. Eleven drivers already have won through Round 15, leaving only five spots available in the 10-race, 16-driver Playoff field. The field will be set after Round 26, the Aug. 27 race at Daytona International Speedway.
Among the “getting nervous” drivers is Truex Jr., a four-time road race winner (three at Sonoma) who still hasn’t won this year. He’ll get a boost this weekend as former crew chief Cole Pearn “unretires” to help current crew chief James Small on Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 Toyota.
Martin Truex Jr. and Cole Pearn, right, hope to revive some of the magic they made in the NASCAR Cup Series before Pearn retired after the 2019 season.
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Pearn and Truex Jr. were together with team owner Barney Visser for the 2015-2019 seasons, winning 24 races and the 2017 Cup Series title. Pearn retired after that championship season and Truex Jr. moved the JGR when Visser shut down. Two of Truex Jr.’s three Sonoma victories (2018-2019) came with Pearn leading the team.
Former road course winners Harvick, Ryan Blaney, Christopher Bell, and AJ Allmendinger (maybe the best road racer of them all) also are winless this year. Harvick’s last victory was at Bristol in 2020 and he’s currently two points outside the Playoff cutline for the 16th and last spot. Clearly, his streak of making the Playoffs for the last 12 seasons is in jeopardy.
He won the 2017 Sonoma race, but limped home 22nd last year. The good news for him is that this weekend’s race is on the “old” 1.99-mile track with the familiar “chute” that was in play when he won. All told, he has that one victory and five top-5 finishes in 20 career starts at the track in California’s wine country.
Keyword: Pressure Mounts at Sonoma for 'Getting Nervous' NASCAR Cup Drivers