Know Your Track: Sonoma

Sonoma Raceway

Track Name: Sonoma Raceway

           

Nicknames: N/A

Location: Sonoma, California

Capacity: 47,000

Date of First Race: June 11, 1989

Layout: Sonoma is a 1.99 mile asphalt road course, one of the two road courses on the NASCAR schedule. The track features 10 turns, including a hairpin turn near the finish line (where drivers must slow to roughly 35 mph), and multiple elevation changes that make some turns blind to drivers. There is a longer 2.5 mile course that the IndyCar series uses.

Current Sprint Cup Races:

• June 28, 2015 - Toyota/Save Mart 350, a 224 mile (350 kilometer), 110 lap regular season points race. This is a Sunday afternoon event.

Most Wins:          

• All-Time: Jeff Gordon, 5 wins
• Active: Jeff Gordon, 5 wins
• Latest Winner:
• 2014 Toyota/Save Mart 350: Carl Edwards

Description: A track that once only gave out wins to just a few select drivers has now featured 10 different winners in the last 10 races. Sonoma has become a revolving door in recent years, but that still doesn't mean anyone can win there. For instance, Dale Earnhardt Jr. just scored his first top 10 in 15 tries at Sonoma last season. 

It takes the right combination of aggression and finesse from the driver to navigate the course properly, as well as the right pit strategy from the crew chief to score a victory here. Often times the difference between winning and losing at Sonoma comes down to the driver overshooting a turn or the car running out of fuel before the finish. Oh, and aggravation is a common thing here too.

Passing here often takes a driver multiple laps to complete. They need to close ground on the driver and "setup" the right time to pass, because there are really only two or three areas on the track to pass in. Still, races at Sonoma have been very entertaining over the past few years, and it will be interesting to see if an 11th different winner will show up this year.

Fun Facts: Sonoma uses nearly 3,000 sheep to maintain the tracks grass year after year.