Kyle Larson's Team Suffer Penalties

Cliff Daniels, Donnie Tasser, Brandon Johnson Have Been Suspended

 

Kyle Larson started the Toyota/Save Mart 350 from Pole. Unfortunately, he lost a right-front tire late in the final stage at Sonoma Raceway during Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race. Larson finished the event in fifteenth (15) position.

 

No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet crew chief Cliff Daniels and crew members Donnie Tasser and Brandon Johnson have been suspended from the next four events, through New Hampshire Motor Speedway’s race weekend on July 17 due to Larson’s No. 5 machine losing a tire on the California road course, a violation of Section 10.5.2.6: Loss or separation of an improperly installed tire/wheel from the vehicle.

 

It’s off week. 🤫 pic.twitter.com/65xRWnpVIF

— Hendrick Motorsports (@TeamHendrick) June 14, 2022

Hendrick will not appeal the penalty.

 

On the pole at home. @RaceSonoma today at 4 PM EST on @FS1 🍷 pic.twitter.com/XouPyfR8xF

— Kyle Larson (@KyleLarsonRacin) June 12, 2022

 

source: NASCAR Media

Sonoma Raceway - #SonomaStrong

Sonoma Raceway has Opened its 50 Acres Campground to Northern California Fire Evacuees.

On October 10, 2017, Sonoma Raceway offered the following statement: 

All of us at Sonoma Raceway extend our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to those who have been touched by the devastating North Bay fires. Our facilities team and a number of local fire companies have been battling grassland fires on Cougar Mountain and elsewhere around our property, and at this point it does not appear any of the raceway's structures or other facilities are at immediate risk. We appreciate all of the good wishes that have flooded in from friends around the country.

Three days later the following was announced:

Like many local sites that have been housing evacuees from the North Bay fires, Sonoma Raceway has been overwhelmed with generous donations from community members.

We now have more donated items than we have the capacity to use or distribute, and are no longer accepting material donations at the raceway.

In lieu of donating new or used items, we suggest you consider a financial contribution to one of these local non-profits doing incredible work in local communities:

• • North Bay Fire Relief Fund
• • Petaluma People Services
• • Redwood Empire Food Bank
• • Food Bank of Contra Costa & Solano

Our 50 Acres campground is open to evacuees. Our track was spared from #NorthBayFires. Unfortunately, others are not able to say the same. pic.twitter.com/B0AQ7LJprU

— Sonoma Raceway (@RaceSonoma) October 12, 2017

NASCAR Race Mom recently learned that the Sonoma Raceway also opened its 50-acre campground to evacuees seeking temporary refuge from the Northern California fires. The campground is located directly across from the raceway on Highway 121 and has not been affected by the fires.

Those in need of RV camping at Sonoma Raceway should enter the campground at Gate 6 on Highway 121, a quarter-mile north of Highway 37. The raceway will team up with United Site Services to offer basic RV services, including water/sewage service, to campers during their stay. The campground is dry with no hookups.

For more information, visit the Sonoma Raceway main office or front gate at 29355 Arnold Drive in Sonoma or call 800-870-7223 or email sonomaraceway@sonomaraceway.com.

This is just another example of how the racing family give back to the community. 

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K&N Pro Series West - 2013 Top Races

The 2013 season featured the inaugural visit by the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West
to the beautiful new Kern County Raceway Park and the much-anticipated
return of the series to Bakersfield, Calif. (Getty Images for NASCAR)

NAPA Auto Parts 150, Kern County Raceway Park
Oct. 26: 

The inaugural series visit to Kern County Raceway Park marked the much-anticipated return of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West to Bakersfield, Calif. The first series victory on the new high-banked, half-mile track went to Greg Pursley – who early in his stock car career was a regular competitor in the late model division at Bakersfield’s Mesa Marin Raceway before its closure in 2005.

Casey’s General Stores 150, Iowa Speedway
June 7: 

Michael Self went to Victory Lane at Iowa Speedway in June, becoming the first K&N West driver to take the overall win in the East-West combination race. Self held off K&N East drivers Dylan Kwasniewski and Brett Moffitt in a green-white-checkered finish. It was one of three consecutive wins for Self early in the season.

Carneros 200, Sonoma Raceway
June 22: 

In one of the most dramatic series races at Sonoma Raceway, Thorn moved past Hayley and Self late in the event to capture his first career road course win. Hayley and Self, who had staged a classic battle for the lead, had to settle for second and third, respectively.

Casino Arizona 50, Phoenix Inter. Raceway
Nov. 9: 

A season finale that included a four-way battle to decide the series championship also featured a scuffle between two 15-year-old drivers for the win. Cole Custer won the pole and led 49 of the 50 laps. 

But Gray Gaulding, who started sixth, caught Custer going into Turn 3 on the final lap and contact between the two resulted in Custer spinning and Gaulding becoming the youngest race winner in series history.

Zero to Hero and BackA Favorite NASCAR Story Line

It's easy to go from “hero to zero” in NASCAR Racing. The reverse is usually much harder.

A general view of cars racing during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at
Sonoma Raceway on June 23, 2013 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

This weekend is a case in point. Yesterday Jamie McMurray, not known as one of NASCAR's top road racers, took advantage of a new qualifying format at Sonoma Raceway to take the pole position for Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350.

Jamie McMurray, driver of the #1 CESSNA Chevrolet, drives during qualifying for the
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 22, 2013
in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

By the end of the grueling 110 lapper, he drove his Cessna Chevrolet over the finish line in 25th place. McMurray had trouble with a broken shock late in the race.

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota, gets out of his car after spinning
during qualifying for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway
on June 22, 2013 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

Race Winner Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota, on the other hand started the road course from fourteenth on the starting grid. He spun during the qualifying session.

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota, celebrates in victory lane
after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway
on June 23, 2013 in Sonoma, California. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)

His win breaks a 218 race winless streak. His first win was at Dover in June of 2007. Truex, Jr. also led the most laps on the day - 51 of 110.

NASCAR K&N Pro Series West At Sonoma

Fast Facts

• Sonoma has hosted 23 series races since 1978. In addition, the series participated in nine combination events with the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at the Northern California road course between 1989 and 1997.
• The Sonoma track, located near the intersection of Highways 37 & 121, opened as Sears Point Raceway in 1968, with its inaugural event on Dec. 1, 1968. The road course was initially a 2.52-mile layout, but reconfigurations in 1998 and 2001 resulted in the current 1.99-mile design for NASCAR events.
• The Sonoma road course features more than 160 feet of elevation change from its highest to lowest points. The highest point at Turn 3a reaches 174 feet, while the lowest point at Turn 10 is just 14 feet.
• Fourteen different drivers have visited Victory Lane in series action at Sonoma. Three drivers – Hershel McGriff (1983, 1985, 1987), Jim Insolo (1978, 1979, 1980) and Bill Schmitt (1981, 1988, 1989) – lead the list of winners, with three wins each.
• Other multiple winners at Sonoma include Butch Gilliland, who scored back-to-back wins on the historic road course in 1996 and 1997, and his son, David Gilliland, who notched wins in 2007 and 2012. Jason Bowles had consecutive wins in 2008 and 2009. 
• Of the 14 drivers who won series races at Sonoma, 12 won NASCAR championships. Ten of those were NASCAR K&N Pro Series titles.
• NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers won the past two K&N West events at Sonoma – Joey Logano in 2011 and David Gilliland in 2012.
• No previous winners are entered in this year's event.
• Seventeen drivers have qualified on the pole. While Hershel McGriff leads with three poles at Sonoma – Butch Gilliland, Jim Bown, Roy Smith and Tim Williamson each had won two poles there.
• Bill Schmitt leads in terms of top-five finishes, with eight, and top-10 finishes, with nine.
• Hershel McGriff has led the most laps, meanwhile, running out front for 142 laps.
• McGriff and Jack Sellers have the most series starts at Sonoma, with 14 each. In addition, Sellers also competed in six combination events.
• The event in 2008 was the only series race at Sonoma that was extended for a green-white-checkered finish since the format was introduced.
• Five of the 23 series races were won from the pole position. Seven were won by the driver who started second on the grid. Jim Insolo came from the furthest back, charging from 19th to win in 1978.
• 265 different drivers have raced in series competition at the Sonoma track.

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A New Height Awaits Racer Harraka

De-boarding a plane in Houston and racing to catch a tram to board another jet might wear out some travelers and leave others grumpy — but not Paulie Harraka.

The Duke University graduate had a tank full of high-octane adrenaline Monday afternoon as he discussed what could and should be one of the biggest weekends of his young racing life.

For starters, Harraka and team owner Bill McAnally of Roseville are doing their version of getting the band back together. Harraka will race a McAnally car in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West Carneros 200 on Saturday at Sonoma Raceway. For seconds, Harraka hopes to take the green flag in his first NASCAR Sprint Cup start Sunday in the Toyota/Save Mart 350.

“It’s a huge step forward,” Harraka said. “It really is a cool mix.”

Harraka won 11 Late Model races and the 2008 championship driving for BMR at All American Speedway in Roseville in NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program. He took three checkered flags for BMR in two years of Pro Series West action. Harraka placed second in Sonoma in 2010 and “led some laps” in 2011 before an issue took the car out of contention.

“We have different objectives on each side, and I believe it will go well,” Harraka said energetically, adding that for Pro Series West, “We have one goal and one goal only, and that’s to win the damn race. All the times I ran at Sonoma for Bill, I always loved that racetrack.”

Harraka will drive the No. 20 Crackle Toyota Camry, which he described as “a bad-ass looking black car with flames,” in the Pro Series West race, and his pit crew will include several former team members from his days with BMR.

His Sprint Cup car will be the No. 52 HASA Pool Products Ford Fusion. Go Green Racing owner Archie St. Hilaire called Harraka with an offer to run the Roush Fenway Racing ride at Sonoma.

“I said, ‘Hell yeah,’ ” Harraka said. “That would be a fun thing to do. We were able to get it together, and here we are.”

Harraka spent the first half of the 2012 season in NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series and the second half in the Nationwide Series.

His one Nationwide start this season began with a good run and ended with a fuel line coming loose — “I went into turn 1 at 185 (mph) and smelled smoke, and by the time I got to the exit of turn 2, there was fire,” said Harraka, who will turn to five-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and 22-time race winner Denny Hamlin for advice leading up to his Cup debut.

“I have a tremendous amount to learn. That’s a big challenge,” Harraka said. “Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson are good friends of mine. I’m going to lean on them a lot.”

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