Weekend Recap: Sonoma, Road America

Weekend Recap: Sonoma, Road America

Nationwide Series: Sargento 200 @ Road America (Elkhart Lake, WI)

It was a day of firsts for Nelson Piquet Jr. 

Saturday at the 11-turn Road America, Piquet Jr. lead his first ever laps in Nationwide, won his first ever NASCAR sanctioned race, and became the first Brazilian to ever win in NASCAR. He dominated the day and won in only his third Nationwide start, an extremely impressive feat for the young driver. Piquet Jr. is a full-time driver in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and has yet to score a win in that series, though it is interesting to note that the Truck Series does not have a road race on its schedule, a type of track that Piquet Jr. excels at due to his past Formula One experience.

This race was in stark contrast to last year's race in terms of that there was no last lap fuel drama, as Piquet Jr. won easily. However, the race was not completely without controversy. First year full-time driver Danica Patrick was set to score her best finish of the season as she ran in the top-5 throughout the day more than any other driver. She even took the lead briefly about halfway through the race, but gave it back when she was too late in braking only two turns later. While Patrick was running in 4th place on the last lap, Canadian driver Jacques Villenuve drove straight through the back of Patrick's car going into turn 5, leaving Patrick in the gravel trap and marred with a 12th place finish. Patrick gave a very gracious post race interview and kept her composure, even though it was obvious that she was furious.

Elliott Sadler, the series points leader coming into the race, was also wrecked by Villenuve earlier in the race, but was able to come back and retain the points lead after Austin Dillon (2nd in points) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (3rd in points) had good days, but couldn't gain ground. Michael McDowell finished the race in second, followed by Canadian road course specialist Ron Fellows in third, Italian road racing specialist Max Papis in fourth and Sam Hornish Jr. in fifth.

The series heads to Kentucky this weekend to race on the quick 1.5 mile track.

Sprint Cup Series: Toyota/Save Mart 350 @ Sonoma (Sonoma, CA)

Another race at Sonoma, another different winner.

Clint Bowyer became the eighth different winner in the last eight races at Sonoma and also became the sixth consecutive winner at Sonoma to earn their first Sprint Cup road course win. Bowyer dominated the day, much like Kurt Busch did last year when he won. Funny thing was, Bowyer had to hold off an extremely fast Busch to score the win. Busch, running for an underfunded Phoenix Racing team, arguably had the fastest car of the day, just as he did last year. He was just tailing Bowyer in the final ten laps, constantly bumping Bowyer in the turns to let him know, "I'm here!". But just before a caution flew with four laps to go, Busch came around turn-11 and caught the front of his car on a tire barrier and broke a piece on the car. Busch claimed that the tire barrier used to never be bolted down, but it was this year which caused the damage.

Bowyer then held off Tony Stewart on the final restart to score his sixth career victory and his first on a road course, though the win was not a huge surprise as Bowyer had previously finished 4th at Sonoma three separate times. Kurt Busch was able to hold onto third, with part-time driver Brian Vickers coming home in fourth and Jimmie Johnson rounding out the top-5.

Jeff Gordon, Martin Truex Jr., and Marcos Ambrose also led for considerable times throughout the day. Ambrose started on pole and led the first 11 laps of the 110 lap race before his car suddenly fell off drastically as he burned his tires up too quickly. Ambrose faded outside of the top-10, but was able to make a late run to finish in the 8th position. Gordon took the lead from Ambrose after the first 11 laps and went on to lead the next 11 laps before he too burned off his tires and surrendered the lead to Bowyer. Gordon looked as though he was coming back to the front, but ran out of gas just before his second pit stop of the day. Fortunately, he was able to rally back and finish 6th. As for Truex, he lead on a few separate occasions, mainly due to the fact that he would pit well before everyone else and take the lead after the rest of the field pitted. It looked as if the strategy would guarantee him a top-5, but he was wrecked with two laps left by Joey Logano, and wound up 22nd, a very undeserved finish for Truex.

Matt Kenseth retained the series points lead as last week's winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. got involved in a late race wreck. There were no drivers who fell out of the top-10 in points.

The Series also heads to Kentucky next week as part of a triple header with the Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series.