FYI WIRZ: NASCAR’s top 5 talk race 16 at Sonoma road course

This week the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) shifts gears from predominate ovals to road course racing for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 on the 1.99-mile road course at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California.

Viewers can catch the twisting action at 3 p.m. Sunday on TNT as powerful stock cars maneuver left and right turns through 10 turns meant for sleek sports cars.

Drivers with road course experience like Boris Said and Marcos Ambrose have an advantage over less knowledgeable Sprint Cup drivers. Many drivers will attempt to observe both during practice runs. Ambrose admits to limiting his better moves until race time.

Ambrose explained racing a stock car on a road course during a recent NASCAR teleconference.

“To drive a big, heavy stock car around a road course is one of the hardest things you could ever do as a race car driver,” Ambrose said. “I’ve driven sports cars, fast, high-powered, open-wheel cars. I’ve driven them around the world on all types of racetracks, but getting a stock car around Sonoma for the total length of the race watt tires going away and the brakes going away and the drivers swarming over you like a bunch of bees on the rear bumper trying to get past you; it’s really challenging.

Photo credit: Dwight Drum at Racetake.com

“It’s a tough thing to do and that’s why you see a lot of guys that come from road race
backgrounds do okay when they turn up on Watkins again and Sonoma.”

The top five drivers in Sprint Cup points, Carl Edwards, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Jimmie Johnson shared comments about Infineon at Sonoma.

FYI WIRZ is the select presentation of motorsports topics by Dwight Drum @ Racetake.com. Quotes derived from motorsports media press releases.

Carl Edwards will compete in two races, the Sprint Cup race in Sonoma and Nationwide Series race on Road America in Elkhart, Wisconsin.

Carl Edwards (No. 99 Ford)

“The most demanding weekend of the year is this one,” Edwards said. “We compete on two tough road courses that are thousands of miles apart. Billy Johnson will practice and set up the Fastenal Mustang in Wisconsin Friday while I practice and qualify the Ortho Fusion in California, then we will travel to Road America to race Saturday, then back to Infineon for Sunday’s race. I feel that Saturday’s race will help me prepare for Sunday and will make up for the lost practice in the Sprint Cup car. There’s a lot of pride in winning on a road course, and a win at either event would be huge.”

Kevin Harvick (No. 29 Chevrolet)

“The Infineon course is tough because it’s narrow and very technical,” Harvick said. “Track position is probably the biggest key. You have to be technically and mentally sound and do everything right in order to stay on the race track and try to put yourself in position at the end of the race. It’s a challenging course, but very narrow.

“Everybody has prepared for it as long as I’ve been around. I know if you don’t prepare for it right you’re not going to be competitive and I think everybody knows that. I think the guys that weren’t as good at it in the first few years have gotten better at it because they’ve spent more time preparing for it.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88 Chevrolet)

“We ran really good there last year and finished 11th. I like Sonoma but it’s tough. Steve (Letarte) and Jeff (Gordon), there is a lot of talent there on road courses to lean on. I’m pretty confident with the setup we’ve got for this weekend. I’ve got some of the best road course racers as teammates, so we should be pretty good.”

Kyle Busch (No. 18 Toyota)

“The road courses are fun. For me, I enjoy it,” Busch said. “It’s pretty cool to go out there and race the road courses. You get to turn right, turn left and everything, so it’s fun. Sonoma is more technical just because there are more turns and it’s a little bit slower. You have to concentrate on getting off the corner a little bit and have good forward bite. Sonoma, in our M&M’s Pretzel Toyota, is going to be fun, going out there and seeing what these cars have this year. It will be a fun race, though. I always look forward to going up there and challenging the road course.”

Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Chevrolet)

“The Grand Am races I have competed in and looking at the data from the other drivers who have been Mark Goossens when I drove for Riley – Butch Leitzinger if you go all the way back when I first drove a DP car. Elliott Forbes-Robinson and then most currently with John Fogarty and Alex Guerny,” Johnson said. “In that environment you can (learn) and with the other stuff it’s really just been laps and seat time. I’ve been to the Bondurant school to learn – we’ve tested like crazy and I’ve run some Nationwide races just all trying to get reps and trying to let me search around and see what I need to do.”