STORYLINES: Infineon Raceway and Milwaukee Mile
This week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has one of its two road-course events, going to Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350. Meanwhile, the NASCAR Nationwide Series and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will be at the Milwaukee Mile.
Following are potential storylines for this weekend, starting with a rundown of “in the garage” competitors with local/regional ties to the events in Sonoma and Milwaukee.
In The Garage – And From The Area: The Local Angles
More NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers call California home than any other state. Seven are California natives. Below is the list, along with other members of the NASCAR garage who hail from California and Wisconsin:
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series California natives
AJ Allmendinger (Los Gatos) – No. 84 Driver
David Gilliland (Riverside) – No. 38 Driver
Jeff Gordon (Vallejo) – No. 24 Driver
Robby Gordon (Orange) – No. 7 Driver
Kevin Harvick (Bakersfield) – No. 29 Driver
Jimmie Johnson (El Cajon) – No. 48 Driver
Casey Mears (Bakersfield) – No. 5 Driver
Scott Meesters (Hanford) – No. 9 Engine Tuner
John Smeltzer (Santa Cruz) – No. 24 Engine Tuner
Ron Liddell (Redding) – No. 29 Engine Tuner
J.D. Frey (Ferndale) – No. 42 Mechanic
Charley McDonnel (Anderson) – No. 9 Mechanic
Ronnie Hornaday III (Palmdale) – No. 10 Mechanic
Andy Morgan (Roseville) – No. 96 Mechanic
Todd Carmichael (Redding) – No. 19 Mechanic
Roger Parkinson (San Diego) – No. 41 Shock Specialist
Luke Cunnington (Lodi) – No. 2 Shock Specialist
Dan Graves (Newcastle) – No. 5 Tire Specialist
Robby Maschhaupt (San Dimas) – No. 10 Transport Driver
Rick Pennington (Oakland) – No. 9 Catch Can
Clint Almquist (Blythe) – No. 07 Catch Can
Robby Maschhaupt (San Dimas) – No. 10 Catch Can
Gordy Arbitter (Los Angeles) – No. 22 Front Tire Changer
Clay Robinson (Simi Valley) – No. 24 Front Tire Changer
Doug Newell (Oxnard) – No. 83 Gas Man
Mike Morrison (Redding) – No. 07 Gas Man
Rich Gutierrez (Yorba Linda) – No. 48 Gas Man
Jeff Patterson (Escondido) – No. 20 Gas Man
Gabe Barajas (Saugus) – No. 22 Rear Tire Carrier
Don Schenkel (Long Beach) – No. 45 Rear Tire Carrier
Tom Hubert (Cottonwood) – No. 22 Rear Tire Changer
Chad Avrit (El Centro) – No. 84 Rear Tire Changer
Jeremy West (Harbor City) – No. 48 Rear Tire Changer
NASCAR Nationwide Series Wisconsin natives
Jon Hanson (Madison) – No. 88 Car /Truck Chief
Ethan Marquardt (Merrill) – No. 31 Front Tire Carrier
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Wisconsin natives
Darin Bavery (Edgerton) – No. 51 Car /Truck Chief
Richie Wauters (Green Bay) – No. 51 Crew Chief
Ethan Marquardt (Merrill) – No. 40 Front Tire Carrier
Jim Schneider – No. 07 Front Tire Carrier
Steven Tautges (Abbortsford) – No. 11 Front Tire Changer
Brandon Rekow – No. 21 Jack Man
NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
Earnhardt In Victory Lane, In Pursuit Of Series Point Lead
Kyle Busch is hearing the footsteps. Dale Earnhardt Jr. broke a 76-race winless streak this past Sunday at Michigan International Speedway, and as a result closed the gap between himself and Busch, the NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader. Earnhardt, third in the standings, trails Busch by only 84 points.
The last time Earnhardt led the series points: after race 27 at New Hampshire in 2004.
Earnhardt has yet to win a road race in NASCAR Sprint Cup competition. In eight career starts at Infineon, he has yet to post a top-10 finish. The track likely also posts some other, inner challenges to Earnhardt. In 2004, during a sports car practice session for another racing series, a Chevrolet Corvette he was driving crashed and burst into flames. Earnhardt escaped serious injury.
Gordon Always a Favorite
At this point last season, Jeff Gordon had four wins and was first in the points standings. This year, he’s still in the top 12, but has yet to visit Victory Lane. That could all change this weekend. Gordon is the all-time leader in road course wins with nine – five of which have come at Infineon Raceway. He last won there in 2006 and won three straight from 1998-2000.
Montoya Returns To Site Of Historic Win
Juan Pablo Montoya’s struggles this season are well-documented; he’s 22nd in series points. Chances are he welcomes this week’s stop; Montoya notched his NASCAR Sprint Cup win – and his only one, to date – last year at Infineon Raceway.
Seeing Red (Bull): Teammates Vickers, Allmendinger On The Upswing
Team Red Bull’s drivers – Brian Vickers and AJ Allmendinger – are looking better all the time in their respective Toyotas. Vickers has posted consecutive top-five finishes at Pocono (second) and Michigan (fourth); Allmendinger had consecutive top-20 runs (12th and 19th).
Allmendinger has had past success on road courses; in the 2006 Champ Car season he won four road-course events.
Vickers is closing in on the top 12 in points – and a potential berth in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. He’s 16th in points, 97 out of 12th.
Road Course Ringers Time to Shine?
Races at the Infineon Raceway and Watkins Glen International road courses add a wrinkle to the event, and another challenge to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regulars – the road course ringers.
This season is no different. This Sunday’s field will include road course aces Boris Said, Brandon Ash, Max Papis, Ron Fellows, Brian Simo and Marcos Ambrose, who his also a regular in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
Said is the most successful of the bunch, with four top-10 finishes in eight starts at Infineon Raceway.
But the surprising statistic to this storyline: A road course ace hasn’t won a road course event in over 30 years. The last to do so was Mark Donohue at Riverside International Raceway in 1973.
Ken Clapp Central To Track’s 40 Years, 20 NASCAR Events
Infineon Raceway will be hosting its 20th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday – the highlight of the track’s 40th anniversary season.
The person responsible for bringing NASCAR to Northern California back in 1989, Ken Clapp, will be on-hand all weekend and will be inducted into the raceway’s Wall of Fame on Friday.
Clapp, who has spent nearly 60 years in auto racing, was also instrumental in the creation of Infineon Raceway.
Clapp worked for NASCAR in a variety of capacities for more than 20 years and was a personal mentor of Chairman/CEO Brian France.
Clapp’s resume spans many different areas in racing:
• From 1966-2006, he promoted 4,150 single-day NASCAR-affiliated racing events in Calif., Washington and Oregon.
• From 1967-1970, he was a VP at Infineon Raceway, where he promoted NASCAR late model races, IndyCar Series events, Trans Am sports car racing, NHRA drag racing and motorcycle events.
• He promoted more than 40 “World of Outlaw” Sprint Car events in Oregon and Calif.
• From 1977-99, Ken served as a Commissioner on the NASCAR National Commission.
• Other key roles at NASCAR: 1970 - 1983: Director of PR and Marketing for Western US, Japan, Australian and Mexico; 1983-1995: NASCAR VP of Western Operations; 1995-1999: NASCAR VP of Marketing Development; 1999 – present: Sr. Consultant to NASCAR Digital Entertainment.
• From 1990-2002, he made 17 trips to Japan to plan the NASCAR Japan exhibition effort.
• In 2002, he was inducted into the West Coast Hall of Fame and in 2006 inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame (Calif.).
Kenseth Comeback: Former Champion ‘Chasing the Chase’
Matt Kenseth has proven it before – never, ever, count him out.
After making the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in each of the four seasons since its 2004 inception, earlier this season it looked as if Kenseth might not make it five-for-five in 2008.
After race No. 10 (Richmond), Kenseth was in 22nd place, 204 points out of the Chase cut-off of 12th place.
Unbelievably, he has made up all but 14 points of that deficit thanks to five consecutive finishes in the top-seven, including a third-place finish at Michigan this past Sunday.
This improbable launch up the standings isn’t a new practice for Kenseth. In 2005, Kenseth was in 24th place after race No. 14 (Pocono). It took him only until race 25 (Fontana) to climb back into the top 10. (In 2005, the top 10 drivers made the Chase.)
Tight Races Throughout The Standings
Though NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader Kyle Busch picked up 11 points on second-place Jeff Burton this past weekend, he finds another driver in hot pursuit – Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Earnhardt, 145 points out of first going into Michigan, closed the gap considerably with his dramatic win. Earnhardt slashed the deficit by 61, and is now only 84 points behind Busch.
And it gets tighter as you go down the standings – especially at the all-important 12th-place position.
Clint Bowyer failed to crack the top 20 for his fourth consecutive race, and has fallen from fourth after his win at Richmond all the way to 12th. There’s more bad news. That 12th-place cushion couldn’t be much smaller. Bowyer is only 10 points ahead of 13th place David Ragan, and 14 points ahead of 14th place Matt Kenseth.
NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES
Kenny Wallace To Join Exclusive Club
Kenny Wallace has over 750 starts in NASCAR’s national series and No. 400 in the NASCAR Nationwide Series is slated for Milwaukee. A start Saturday will put Wallace in select company – only two other drivers have 400 starts in the series. Tommy Houston was the first and ended his career with 418 before Jason Keller (whose last win was at Milwaukee in 2003) passed Houston last fall and holds the current mark at 438 – and counting.
Wallace’s first series start came at Martinsville in 1988. He’s accumulated nine wins and 10 poles. He’ll be sharing his monumental start with brother, Mike, and nephew Steve who are also entered at Milwaukee.
Logano An Immediate Hit
His crew chief, Dave Rogers, said it best. “Three races, two poles, one win. He’s okay.” “He” is Joey Logano, an 18-year-old talent who is living up to plenty of hype. He’ll make his fourth start for Joe Gibbs Racing Saturday at The Milwaukee Mile and goes in as one of the favorites. Logano became the youngest driver in series history to win when he did so from the pole at Kentucky last Saturday eclipsing the mark set by Casey Atwood at Milwaukee in 1999 (18 years, 10 months, 9 days). Logano was 21 days past his 18th birthday. The No. 20 car won the race and pole at Milwaukee last year and this year has won a series-best seven races with four different drivers. But the one constant has been Rogers at the helm.
Series-Only Regulars Continue Upward March
Brad Keselowski is second in the standings to leader Clint Bowyer, the highest ranking for a series-only regular at this stage of the season since 2005 when Reed Sorenson was first and Martin Truex Jr. was 36 points behind in second (Truex then captured the lead following his second-place finish at Milwaukee that season). Five regulars remain in the top 10 in the standings heading to Milwaukee. Three series regulars have won three races this year, the last two in a row. Five teenagers with solid credentials are entered at Milwaukee – Colin Braun, 19, won the pole at Mexico City in only his third series start. Bryan Clauson, 19, posted his career-best finish (fifth) at Kentucky last week. Landon Cassill, 18, has ninth and 11th-place finishes in his last two races while James Buescher, 18, has top-15 results in his two series starts. And Joey Logano, 18, enough said.
Wisconsin’s Wimmer, Bires Seek Milestone
Two of the last three races at Milwaukee have been won by a Wisconsin native. Scott Wimmer (Wausau) and Kelly Bires (Mauston) hope to add their names to the list. Wimmer came close last year, finishing second. In nine starts this year he has a win (Nashville in March), four top fives and four top 10s including a runner-up finish at Kentucky last weekend. Bires has been the surprise strength of the JTG Racing team that also includes Marcos Ambrose (who attempts his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start at Infineon this weekend). It was Ambrose who was expected to excel this year; instead, Bires came out of the gate quickly. He earned a career-best fifth-place finish at Nashville in March and has been ranked in the top 10 standings five times this season. He’s currently 13th. He was 30th in his series track debut at The Mile last year.
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES
Points Lead Ever Changing
Nobody appears to want the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series point lead. It changed hands for the fifth time in as many races following event No. 10 on Saturday at Michigan International Speedway. Four different drivers have held it after the last five races.
Everything Going Benson’s Way
Johnny Benson is the driver with the hot hand. He’s got the NASCAR Craftsman Truck point lead for the first time – and he’s going for three wins in a row on Friday at The Milwaukee Mile.
Winners Galore at Milwaukee
Nine competitors with 11 of the track’s 13 victories will be in the field this week in Milwaukee. That’s the most previous winners who will compete at any track in 2008. Five of the current top 10 – Johnny Benson, Ron Hornaday Jr., Mike Skinner, Jack Sprague and Terry Cook – have won at The Milwaukee Mile.
Roush Fenway Going for Win No. 50
Roush Fenway Racing goes for milestone victory No. 50 at The Milwaukee Mile. Following Erik Darnell’s victory in Michigan, the team has 13 more wins than any other NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series team.
Ballew Hopes for Bliss Boost
Mike Bliss hopes to spoil the party for series regulars. The 2002 champion will be behind the wheel of Billy Ballew Motorsports’ No. 51 Toyota that stands second in series owners’ championship points – eight behind Benson’s No. 23 Toyota owned by Gail Davis.
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