NASCAR’s weekend schedule at Sonoma, Gateway

After a week off the Sprint Cup Series returns this weekend with the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. Meanwhile, the Camping World Truck Series is still in the Midwest as it visits Gateway Motorsports Park for its Drivin’ for Linemen 200.

Here is the full weekend schedule for both series, including TV and radio times.

All times are Eastern.

Sonoma Raceway

Friday, June 24

11:30 a.m. – 9 p.m. – Sprint Cup garage open

3 – 4:55 p.m – Sprint Cup practice (Fox Sports 1)

6:30 – 7:55 p.m. – Final Sprint Cup practice (Fox Sports 1)

Saturday, June 25

10 a.m. – 6 p.m. – Sprint Cup garage open

2:15 p.m. – Sprint Cup qualifying; multi-car/two rounds (FS1, Performance Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Sunday, June 26

10 a.m. – Sprint Cup garage opens

1 p.m. – Driver-crew chief meeting

2:30 p.m. – Driver introductions

3 p.m.  – Toyota/Save Mart 350; 110 laps, 218.9 miles (FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Camping World Truck Series

Saturday, June 25

8 a.m.  – Truck garage opens

9:30 – 10:25 p.m. – Truck practice (No TV)

11: 30 a.m. – 12:55 p.m.  – Final Truck practice (FS1)

4 p.m. – Driver-crew chief meeting

5:45 p.m. – Qualifying; multi-car/three rounds (Fox Sports 2)

8 p.m. – Driver introductions

8:30 p.m. – Drivin’ for Linemen 200; 160 laps, 200 miles (Fox Sports 1, Motor Racing Network, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Chase Elliott will get extra track time and extra help at Sonoma

Chase Elliott will do double duty this weekend at Sonoma Raceway, competing in Sunday’s Sprint Cup race and Saturday’s K&N Pro Series West race.

This weekend marks Elliott’s first time at Sonoma Raceway, a 1.99-mile road course. It’s not uncommon for drivers competing there for the first time to run the companion K&N West race to gain more track time.

Trevor Bayne competed in the K&N West race last year, finishing 10th, a day before his first Cup start at Sonoma. Austin Dillonplaced sixth in last year’s K&N West race to gain extra experience on the road course a day before his second Cup start there. Kyle Larson won the 2014 K&N West race a day before his first Cup start at that track. Elliott is the only Sprint Cup driver on the preliminary entry list for this weekend’s K&N West race.

Elliott has competed in seven road course races in his NASCAR career, six in Xfinity and once in the Camping World Truck Series. He won the 2013 Camping World Truck race at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park after contact with leader Ty Dillon on the final corner of the last lap.  

Also this weekend, Hendrick Motorsports stated that Elliott’s father, NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott, will serve as a second spotter. It’s not uncommon for teams to use a second spotter on the road course to help with a portion of the track the main spotter might not have as good a view.

Elliott enters this Cup weekend having scored six consecutive top-10 finishes. Kurt Buschhas the series’ longest active streak of top-10 finishes with nine.

Entry list for Truck series race at Gateway Motorsports Park

The Camping World Truck Series has a standalone race this weekend at Gateway Motorsports Park in Madison, Illinois.

There are 34 trucks on the initial entry list for the Drivin’ for Linemen 200.

With the Sprint Cup Series at Sonoma Raceway, there are no Cup drivers entered into the race.

Cole Custer is the defending winner at Gateway, which has hosted 15 Truck races since 1998. This will be the third Truck race after a three-year absence.

Rookie William Byron will seek to win his third race in a row. That hasn’t been done sinceKyle Busch – who owns Byron’s truck – did it at Kansas, Charlotte and Dover in 2014.

Entry list 

Furniture Row Racing honoring California National Guard with logo on car at Sonoma

Beginning with this weekend’s race at Sonoma Raceway, the No. 78 of Furniture Row Racing will honor the military with special logos placed on its car.

The recognition begins with the patch of the California National Guard.

According to a press release, the California National Guard is “among the nation’s largest and most frequently deployed National Guard force. Cal Guard soldiers and airmen have deployed across the world more than 44,000 times since 9/11, and 29 of its soldiers have sacrificed their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

In 2013, the California National Guard reportedly had 21,000 troops, including 16,565 soldiers and 4,572 airmen. FRR racing features nine military veterans. Among them is owner Barney Visser.

“The longer I live and the more things I experience the more I appreciate the sacrifice and dedication that our military men and women have made, and will continue to make to preserve our freedom,” said Visser in a press release. Visser is a Vietnam veteran, having served in the U.S. Army’s 173rd Airborne Brigade in the late 1960s. “We are proud to showcase the California National Guard, which not only responds and takes action in state emergencies but also in combat deployment throughout the world.”

Martin Truex Jr. will make his 11th start at Sonoma Raceway. Truex won the 2013 race at the road course for the second win of his career.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. considers a top-five finish at road courses ‘a win’

Before Dale Earnhardt Jr. can return to one of his best tracks, he must go to one he probably could do without.

The Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway is peeking around the corner for Earnhardt. But he and the rest of the Sprint Cup Series are on the opposite coast this weekend at Sonoma Raceway in California.

If you saw Earnhardt and his No. 88 team celebrating like crazy after his third-place finish at Sonoma in 2014, there’s a reason. He and the road courses of Sonoma and Watkins Glen are not on the best of terms.

“The road courses are basically… you know you’re just kind of swinging at whatever comes at you at those race tracks and doing the best you can to complete the weekend without any major mistakes,” Earnhardt told NBC Sports in May. “I don’t go to the road courses with any confidence that I can win the race. I go in there really just thinking survive just let’s try not to screw it up.”

If anyone needs a confidence boost this weekend in the Toyota/ Save Mart 350, it’s Earnhardt. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has yet to win this season to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup and is currently 11th in the points. That’s after he peaked at sixth in the standings following a runner-up result at Bristol. In the seven races since, Earnhardt has finished in the top 10 just once, another runner-up finish at Pocono Raceway.

But Sonoma could be a surprising wild card for Earnhardt. Prior to 2014, Earnhardt has never finished better than 11th on the road-course. But in the last two visits to wine country, the No. 88 has finished in the top 10. Earnhardt earned a result of seventh last year.

“I go into every other race, I mean if it’s an oval I go in there knowing that there is potential we can win the race,” Earnhardt said. “But we go to Watkins Glen and Sonoma basically if we get in the top 10 in qualifying and we finish in the top five that’s a win. We celebrated harder when we finished third at Sonoma than we did during any of the wins in 2014 and when we won the Daytona 500. Those road courses are a real challenge.”

Not all would be lost if Earnhardt falters on the West Coast. Of the 10 tracks before the start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Earnhardt has won at five of them (Daytona, Michigan, Pocono, Bristol and Richmond).

But the key point could be Daytona, a track he’s won at four times in his Sprint Cup career. But his restrictor-plate abilities haven’t been helpful in his last two visits to Daytona and Talladega. Earnhardt recorded a DNF in each race after his car crashed following spinning out on its own.

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