Toyota/Save Mart 350 preview: With plethora of new things going on at track, Kyle Larson looks for second straight victory at Sonoma
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Don Lex (LuckyDuckImages.com)
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
When NASCAR returned to Wine Country last year, it was the first race at Sonoma Raceway in two years.
But this season, the North Bay road course is bringing many positive changes for their fans in the first year where they can have a maximum capacity crowd since 2019.
The most notable on-track change will be the configuration. In 2019 and 2021, Sonoma Raceway used the carousel configuration, which cut the lap count to 90 laps. In 2022, the short chute from turn 4 to turn 7 returns, and the race will go back to 110 laps. It also returns the track’s length to 1.99 miles instead of the 2.5 miles it has been in the last two races. The state breaks will come at lap 25, 55, and 110.
“It will be more exciting for the fans just because those are a couple of wild corners with some new hairy passing zones,” said 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Champion and Toyota/Save Mart 350 race winner Kyle Larson in a press release. “Mistakes can be made in those corners when you’re bouncing over curves so the cars will be moving around a lot. It will be exciting. It will be pretty wild because you can go all the way to exit of Turn 4 on the other side of the curve and barely miss the wall.”
Sonoma Raceway Executive Vice President and General Manager Jill Gregory also said this is something the fans have been pushing for.
“We heard from many fans and drivers how much they loved it when we raced the Chute,” she said in a January press release. “The Carousel was part of the original course and we reverted back to it for our 50th Anniversary in 2019 and used it again in 2021. But we race to bring excitement and drama to the fans, and an overwhelming majority of them asked us to bring back the Chute.”
Among the other changes for fans, this year is the many new areas around the track. Turn 11 is meant for Save Mart guests who underwent a renovation last year and is now going to be brand new for the race.
“Our goal is to create a welcoming and high-end focal point for our facility that represents Sonoma Valley well,” Gregory said in a June 2021 press release. “We look forward to entertaining our guests in this new space beginning next summer.”
Also, new this season is a variety of different ticket packages, some of which are meant to get Northern California racing fans’ favorite drivers. This year, the track has two different areas and ticket packages around Larson.
When the race does start, it should be very interesting since it will be the first race at the road course with the new NextGen car that debuted in LA this year. So far, the season has been filled with great moments thanks to the new car. It has also given us 11 different winners in 14 races so far this season.
This season, two of the new teams from 2021 are now two-car teams. Trackhouse Racing has Daniel Suarez and Ross Chastain. They are co-owned by Pitbull. Meanwhile, 23XI racing now has Bubba Wallace and Kurt Busch in the new 45 car. They are co-owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin.
Speaking of new teams, Richard Petty Motorsports merged with GMS Racing to form Petty GMS Racing. They field a two-car team with Ty Dillon in the No. 42 car and Erik Jones in the famous 43 car. Kaulig racing has now gone full-time Cup Series racing with two entries. Justin Haley is the driver of the 31 car and the 16 car is being rotated around with four drivers. Los Gatos’s AJ Almendinger will be behind the wheel at Sonoma.
There is a three-driver rookie class that will be tackling the road course for the first time in Sonoma. Austin Cindirc, Harrison Burton, and Todd Gilliland are the three drivers with rookie stripes on their cars this season. Brad Keselowski is now a co-owner at Roush Fenway Keselowski racing after spending his whole Cup career at Team Penske.
The only two-time winners this season are William Byron who won Atlanta and Martinsville, Chastain who won the first road course race of the season and his first career race at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, and Talladega, Hamlin who won at Richmond and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Memorial Day weekend, and Joey Logano who won the throwback race at Darlington on Mother’s Day and last week at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway in St. Louis. Cindric began the year by winning the Daytona 500, Larson got his lone win this season at Auto Club in Fontana, Alex Bowman won at Las Vegas, Chase Briscoe picked up his first career win at Phoenix Raceway, Kyle Busch won on the dirt at Bristol on Easter, and Chase Elliott won at Dover,
“Well, I thought for sure we would have it last year when Michael McDowell won the Daytona 500,” Gregory recalled of McDowell’s cinderella win to begin the season and how it would change the playoff landscape. “ But you know, I think so. I think there’s a couple of big names that haven’t won yet. You haven’t seen that one car domination. So, I think we’ll probably see a couple of the guys that have already won rack up a few more, so a couple twos and threes. I think there’s a pretty good chance that winning is not going to be good enough.”
Larson was the first driver to sweep the stages and win the race since stage racing started in 2017. He has also been the polesitter for the last three Toyota/Save Mart 350s, dating back to 2018. It was also Larson’s first career road course victory, which he later added to in 2021 with wins at Watkins Glen in August and the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL in October. He also became the third Northern California-born driver to win at Sonoma Raceway, joining Ernie Irvan (1992, 1994) and Jeff Gordon (1998, 1999, 2000, 2004, and 2006), and Kevin Harvick (2017). Irvan was born in Salinas, Gordon was born in Vallejo, and Harvick was born in Bakersfield.
Cup Series practice and qualifying will take place on Saturday from 1:30 to 2:30 in groups A & B, which will then be followed by qualifying in groups. This will take place in between races on Saturday. The top five drivers from each group will compete for the pole and set the top ten starting spots.
The Toyota/Save Mart 350 will air on Fox Sports 1 at 1 pm on Sunday, June 12th. Pre-race coverage will begin on FS1 at 11 am with NASCAR RaceDay. This year, the Fox booth consists of Mike Joy and Clint Bowyer with a different personalities every week. For Sonoma, 2016 winner Tony Stewart will make his third and final appearance of the season in the Fox booth. It will be the final race of the Fox Sports portion of the schedule before NBC Sports takes over in Nashville.
A jam-packed Saturday of racing action
That’s not the only thing that will be new this year. For the first time in 24 years, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will return to the road course. Boras Said won the most recent running of the DoorDash 250 back in 1998.
The main reason the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is coming out to Northern California this year is to provide more racing content for the fans.
“It was all about more content,” Gregory explained. “I would say we’ve always had a relatively light schedule, just having been at other facilities. While I know it did allow the teams and media folks to enjoy a weekend out in Wine Country, which I know they enjoyed – from an on-track content perspective, that’s a missed opportunity or something that I thought ‘what could we do to give the fans more racing action.’”
Some big-name drivers are set to race in the DoorDash 250 on Saturday. Kyle Busch and Chastain will be the lone Cup Series drivers in the field. They will have the most laps of anyone on the road course. Busch has made four of his five appearances this season without being able to pick up a win. Meanwhile, Chastain recently won the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Charlotte over Memorial Day weekend.
Other non-series regulars to win this season include Corey Heim who won at Atlanta and Gateway with Byron who won at Martinsville.
Others in the field that have turned laps at Sonoma include Haillie Deagan, Grass Valley’s Matt DiBenedetto, Zane Smith who had a fast car in last year’s ARCA West race but didn’t finish due to an engine failure, Derek Kraus, Parker Kligerman, Matt Crafton, Johnny Sauter, Todd Bodine, Timmy Hill, Lawless Alan, and Loomis’s Jack Wood.
That being said, they have all turned laps in a car instead of a truck. This means it will be a wild card race since the majority of the field hasn’t ever seen Sonoma.
This season, five series regulars have punched their ticket to the playoffs with wins. Zane Smith has won three times this season at Daytona, COTA, and Kansas. Chandler Smith won at Las Vegas, 2021 Champion Ben Rhodes won his lone race of the season at the Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt at Bristol, John Hunter Nemechek won at Darlington, and Stewart Friesen won at Texas Motor Speedway on All-Star weekend a few weeks ago.
While it’s not nearly as big of a deal as the Cup Series, the NASCAR Camping World Trucks also have new bodies this year. The main reason behind this was so that the manufacturers can have the trucks that they are selling be more recognizable on track.
The 75-lap DoorDash 250 will air on FS1 at 4:30 pm with Vince Welch and Phil Parsons on the call for the race. The stage breaks will come at laps 20, 45, and 75.
The ARCA Menards Series West will run the General Tire 200 as well on Saturday, which means there will be a doubleheader of racing action. Briscoe is the defending winner of the race. It will be 50 laps long.
The ARCA Menards West has run just four races this season. Taylor Gray won the season-opener at Phoenix, Tanner Reif won at Irwindale Speedway, Landen Lewis won at Kern County Raceway Park, and Jake Drew won at Portland.
“If we can compete with last year, that would be great,” Gregory said. “What I always love about this race is that there’s someone that’s an unexpected winner or someone that’s a West Coast ringer.”
The General Tire 200 will go green at 11:30 am live on FloRacing before airing on Thursday, June 16th at noon on USA Network on tape delay.
The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and ARCA West will have their practice and qualifying on Friday. The trucks will begin the on-track action with a 50-minute practice that starts at 3:05 pm. The ARCA West cars will follow with an hour and 20-minute practice and qualifying session that begins at 4:05 pm. The whole weekend schedule of on-track action can be seen here.
Other things happening during race weekend
Following the DoorDash 250, country music artist Chris Lane will perform.
For the first time in three years, fans will also have more opportunities to see their favorite drivers up close with the pre-race ceremonies taking place on the front stretch. The pre-race ceremonies will also feature the Patriot Jet Team, which has become a staple on Sunday. Giving the command to start engines will be the Bella twins who will serve as this year’s Grand Marshalls.
For more information as to what’s happening, make sure to download the RaceSonoma app, follow the track on social media @RaceSonoma, and visit sonomaraceway.com.
