pandr
06-22-2012, 07:37 PM
Sonoma not the road best traveled
Top 3 in Cup points have 2 top-5 finishes in 33 starts
By Jim Utter - charlotteobserver
Thursday, Jun. 21, 2012
During recent seasons, the road courses races on the Sprint Cup Series schedule have provided plenty of fireworks.
Circumstances provide a unique opportunity in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma, Calif., to drastically shape up the series points race as well.
In an odd coincidence, the top three drivers in points – Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Biffle – have found very little success at the track.
Kenseth, who leads the series standings by four points over Earnhardt, has a single top-10 finish on the 1.99-mile road course in 12 starts.
Earnhardt, fresh off his first Cup win in four years, has never finished better than 11th at Sonoma in 12 starts.
Biffle, 13 points behind Earnhardt, has cracked the top five. He finished fourth in 2006 and fifth in 2007 and has three top-10 finishes in nine starts.
Besides signaling potential problems for the series leaders, this weekend also will offer the opportunity to toss yet another driver into position to claim one of the two wild-card spots in the Chase for the Sprint Cup should it produce a surprise winner.
“That has probably been my worst track since we started racing in the Cup series,” Kenseth said of Sonoma. “It is always a challenge and one that I sort of look forward to trying to go there and get better and look forward to leaving on Sunday night, too.
“Hopefully we can get a good result and get our cars running better there. All our cars (at Roush Fenway Racing) were fast at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) last year and hopefully we get them going fast at Sonoma this year.”
Kenseth has a little more success at the road course in Watkins Glen, with three top-10 finishes in 12 starts.
Earnhardt has yet to find himself comfortable enough at Sonoma to be happy with his performance.
“It’s just a real hard track to get around. It’s got a lot of turns and stuff and these cars aren’t really built for road courses. So, it just really makes it a hassle trying to race and pass,” he said.
“It’s probably really, really fun to watch because you just know somebody’s going to get run over and every other lap somebody’s going to be in the tires and you see a lot of guys screwing up and driving crazy and running into each other.”
It certainly sounds entertaining but probably not high on the list for drivers looking to establish championship-level consistency.
Biffle said his racing style just doesn’t fit well on road courses.
“I’m inherently an aggressive type of driver and tend to overdrive the race car a lot of times, so I’m a little more ‘go get ‘em’ on the race track,” he said. “You can only do what your car will do as well.
“I try and stay calm enough to not break the gear box and keep on the race track and not run the brakes off of it, so, other than that, I go as hard as I can.”
That sounds like a simple philosophy but one that doesn’t always pay the best dividends on road courses.
“I’m pretty decent at this race track, but I still haven’t mastered this place at all,” Biffle said.
C/P Thats Racin
Top 3 in Cup points have 2 top-5 finishes in 33 starts
By Jim Utter - charlotteobserver
Thursday, Jun. 21, 2012
During recent seasons, the road courses races on the Sprint Cup Series schedule have provided plenty of fireworks.
Circumstances provide a unique opportunity in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma, Calif., to drastically shape up the series points race as well.
In an odd coincidence, the top three drivers in points – Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Biffle – have found very little success at the track.
Kenseth, who leads the series standings by four points over Earnhardt, has a single top-10 finish on the 1.99-mile road course in 12 starts.
Earnhardt, fresh off his first Cup win in four years, has never finished better than 11th at Sonoma in 12 starts.
Biffle, 13 points behind Earnhardt, has cracked the top five. He finished fourth in 2006 and fifth in 2007 and has three top-10 finishes in nine starts.
Besides signaling potential problems for the series leaders, this weekend also will offer the opportunity to toss yet another driver into position to claim one of the two wild-card spots in the Chase for the Sprint Cup should it produce a surprise winner.
“That has probably been my worst track since we started racing in the Cup series,” Kenseth said of Sonoma. “It is always a challenge and one that I sort of look forward to trying to go there and get better and look forward to leaving on Sunday night, too.
“Hopefully we can get a good result and get our cars running better there. All our cars (at Roush Fenway Racing) were fast at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) last year and hopefully we get them going fast at Sonoma this year.”
Kenseth has a little more success at the road course in Watkins Glen, with three top-10 finishes in 12 starts.
Earnhardt has yet to find himself comfortable enough at Sonoma to be happy with his performance.
“It’s just a real hard track to get around. It’s got a lot of turns and stuff and these cars aren’t really built for road courses. So, it just really makes it a hassle trying to race and pass,” he said.
“It’s probably really, really fun to watch because you just know somebody’s going to get run over and every other lap somebody’s going to be in the tires and you see a lot of guys screwing up and driving crazy and running into each other.”
It certainly sounds entertaining but probably not high on the list for drivers looking to establish championship-level consistency.
Biffle said his racing style just doesn’t fit well on road courses.
“I’m inherently an aggressive type of driver and tend to overdrive the race car a lot of times, so I’m a little more ‘go get ‘em’ on the race track,” he said. “You can only do what your car will do as well.
“I try and stay calm enough to not break the gear box and keep on the race track and not run the brakes off of it, so, other than that, I go as hard as I can.”
That sounds like a simple philosophy but one that doesn’t always pay the best dividends on road courses.
“I’m pretty decent at this race track, but I still haven’t mastered this place at all,” Biffle said.
C/P Thats Racin