NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

Next Race: Toyota/Save Mart 350

The Place: Sonoma Raceway

The Date: Sunday, June 28

The Time: 3 p.m. (ET)

TV: FOX Sports 1, 2 p.m. (ET)

Radio: PRN, SiriusXM Ch. 90

Distance: 218.9 miles (110 laps)

Pattern Of Parity At Sonoma

No claims here as Albert Einstein or Stephen Hawking; anyone watching has noticed the pattern of parity at Sonoma Raceway.

The last ten races at the road course have produced ten different winners. Two of those drivers – Tony Stewart in 2005 and Jimmie Johnson in 2010 – went on to win the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

All ten previous winners will compete for the checkered flag in Sunday’s Toyota / Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway including Carl Edwards (2014), Martin Truex Jr. (2013), Clint Bowyer (2012), Kurt Busch (2011), Jimmie Johnson (2010), Kasey Kahne (2009), Kyle Busch (2008), Juan Pablo Montoya (2007), Jeff Gordon (2006) and Tony Stewart (2005).

The only track with a longer active streak of different winners is New Hampshire Motor Speedway with 11. 

Homecoming King: Jeff Gordon Returns To Hometown Track For Final Time      

Northern California is about to witness the end of an era.

Native son Jeff Gordon, born in Vallejo, California, will make his last start at Sonoma Raceway – a track he has dominated during his career – in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350. In all, Gordon has finished third or better in 13 of his 22 starts at Sonoma.

Still, Gordon has not visited Victory Lane at the 12-turn loop since 2006, but boasts the track record for wins (5), Coors Light Pole Awards (5), average finish (7.9), top-fives (14), top-tens (18) and laps led (457).

Here is a list of drivers second in each group for comparison: wins (four drivers, with two wins), Coors Light Pole Awards (Ricky Rudd, with four), average finish (Dale Earnhardt, 8.4), top-fives (Ricky Rudd, ten), tops-tens (Mark Martin, 13), laps led (Rusty Wallace, 171).

Gordon stands as NASCAR’s all-time leader in road course wins with nine. 

Ring It Up: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Engages In Some Road Course Racing

For 12 consecutive years, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has held the title of ‘NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver.’ As of a week ago, he now has a new one: ‘fiancé.’

Earnhardt proposed to his girlfriend Amy while on a vacation in Germany (spoiler alert: she said yes), and sealed the deal with a shiny engagement ring. The circular ring is a symbol of eternity. So it’s odd timing that Earnhardt now heads to one of the few NASCAR tracks that isn’t a circle – Sonoma Raceway.

It took a while, but Earnhardt might finally love Sonoma as much as Amy. After 15 starts, he got his first top-ten finish at Sonoma last year, a third-place result. Still, his average Sonoma finish of 20.3 makes the track tied with Homestead for his second worst, behind only Watkins Glen (22.4), the other road course track in the series.

Earnhardt has all but locked up a spot in this year’s Chase thanks to a win at Talladega, and now aims to grow his Chase bonus points total. All 16 Chase drivers will have their points reset to 2,000 to start the Chase, with three bonus points added for each win in the regular season. 

NoCal Products Hoping For Home Cooking

Though Jeff Gordon wears the crown as ‘Homecoming King,’ two other local drivers can upend him in Sonoma – Kyle Larson, from Elk Grove, and AJ Allmendinger from Los Gatos. Larson, the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year, finished 28th in his lone Sonoma start, last season. Allmendinger has two top-tens at Sonoma, and won last year’s Watkins Glen race – the second of two Sprint Cup Series road-course races. 

Follow Him If You Want To Win!

Schwarzenegger Saddles Up As Sonoma Pace Car Driver

Arnold Schwarzenegger is a man with many talents, and faces.

He’s been a Terminator, Mr. Freeze, a governor, even a kindergarten cop.

On Sunday, he will lead the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series field to green as the Official Pace Car Driver for the Toyota / Save Mart 350.

Schwarzenegger will pilot a 2016 Toyota Mirai, a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle that emits only water from its exhaust. It will be the first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle used as a pace car in Sonoma. As Governor, Schwarzenegger championed and established California’s Hydrogen Highway, the nation’s first network of hydrogen fueling stations.

The long-time actor/bodybuilder/politician joins a star-studded list of celebrities who have participated in NASCAR festivities this year, including: Vince Vaughn, Guy Fieri, Bill Goldberg, SpongeBob SquarePants and Rob Gronkowski.

Hopefully, he’ll be back.

Stewart a Mobil(e) One at Sonoma

Tony Stewart – a multi-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and sure-fire NASCAR Hall of Famer – has struggled so far in 2015.

He claims only one top-ten finish–a sixth-place showing in a wild rainy race at Bristol in April.

Still, Stewart can make the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with a win and top-30 points finish.

Sonoma Raceway could be where he clinches that win.

The No. 14 Chevrolet driver is a Mobil(e) one at the Northern California Race track. (Get it? Mobil 1 is his sponsor. #punny)

Stewart owns two wins (12.5%), five top fives (31.2%), nine top-tens (56.2%) and a Coors Light Pole Award in 16 starts at Sonoma. Among active drivers at the 1.99-mile road course, he boasts the most fastest laps run (79), the second-best average running position (12.0), the second-most quality passes (274) and the third-best driver rating (98.8).

Bowyer Aims For First Win At Strongest Track

Clint Bowyer’s reputation is as  a short-track ace. But in actuality, his best track is the Sonoma Raceway road course. He has an average finish there of 9.2, which make the Northern California track his best. He comes into this race with four consecutive top 10s at Sonoma, including a win in 2012.

In that 2012 win, Bowyer had an incredible average running position of 1.8, along with 71 laps led and a driver rating of 142.8 (a perfect rating is 150.0).