This Week in Auto Racing June 18 - 20

This Week in Auto Racing June 18 - 20

Sonoma, CA (Sports Network) - NASCAR goes road racing this weekend, as the Sprint Cup Series runs at Infineon Raceway and the Nationwide Series competes at Road America for the first time. The IZOD IndyCar Series will be at Iowa Speedway.

Sprint Cup Series

Toyota/Save Mart 350 - Infineon Raceway - Sonoma, CA

The Sprint Cup Series heads to the 1.99-mile, 12-turn Infineon Raceway in Northern California for the first of two road course races this season. The other road course event is slated for August 9 at Watkins Glen, NY.

Denny Hamlin has been the hottest driver in NASCAR's top-tier series lately. Since NASCAR replaced the rear wing with the spoiler on the current Sprint Cup cars in late March, Hamlin has won five of the last 10 races.

Will Hamlin continue his winning momentum this weekend at Sonoma?

"People don't necessarily look at us as a road course team," Hamlin said. "We were competitive last year at Sonoma. We led quite a bit of the race and had pretty good fuel mileage."

Hamlin has yet to win a road course race in his Cup career, but he did score the victory in the 2006 Nationwide Series event at Mexico City. His best finish in four starts at Sonoma is fifth, which came last year.

Right now, Hamlin is on the same winning pace as his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch was two years ago. Busch picked up his then series-leading fifth win of the 2008 season at Sonoma. He became the '08 road course king after taking the checkered flag at Watkins Glen later in the summer.

Busch won eight races during the Sprint Cup regular season that year, but faltered during the 10-race Chase for the championship.

After finishing a season-best second at Michigan, Kasey Kahne returns to Sonoma as the defending race winner.

Last year, Kahne gave Richard Petty his first win as a team owner in a decade, dating back to when John Andretti drove the legendary No.43 STP car to victory in the 1999 spring race at Martinsville. Kahne, who had never finished better than 23rd at Sonoma, held off Tony Stewart on several late-race restarts for the win.

"That was definitely a surprise last year," Kahne said. "We felt really strong the whole race, practice day and evening. Hopefully, we can unload similar this year, and be a little different with the Ford engine, how it runs, things like that. But I look forward to it. I always liked Sonoma. I liked it when I didn't run well there. I enjoyed learning that type of racing."

Kahne, currently 21st in points, is in the last year of his contract with Richard Petty Motorsports. His plans for next season remain uncertain before he replaces Mark Martin in the No.5 Chevrolet at Hendrick Motorsports in 2012.

Stewart won at Watkins Glen last August. The two-time Cup champion has seven road course victories, including two wins at Sonoma (2001 and '05).

"I just like the road courses," Stewart said. "I've always liked Sonoma. It's really a driver's track. It's tough to make your car drive perfect all day. You can have a really good car, but it's going to slide around, and you're going to struggle for grip, and that's what makes it so fun. You have to do the work behind the steering wheel."

Jeff Gordon holds the record for most road course victories with nine. Gordon is a five-time winner at Sonoma, including three in a row there from 1998-2000. He also has posted a track-record five poles at Sonoma.

But Gordon has not performed as well at Sonoma and Watkins Glen as he did since NASCAR started running the current Sprint Cup car (Car of Tomorrow) on those tracks in 2007.

Four-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson has yet to win on a NASCAR road course. Like Hamlin, Johnson recorded his best finish at Sonoma last year with a fourth-place run.

"Since the start of the No.48 team, we've tested more for road courses than any other specific race track," Johnson said. "I continue to run the Grand Am Series when I can to help. I feel like last year, we were close. We tend to qualify well, but fade in the race some, and last year was kind of the reverse of that. We qualified decent and had some troubles early in the race, but rebounded and came through and ended up fourth."

Forty-six teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Toyota/Save Mart 350. Among the entrants are a couple of road course experts looking to make their first Sprint Cup starts.

Swedish driver Mattias Ekstrom will make his NASCAR debut in the No.83 Toyota for Red Bull Racing at Sonoma. Casey Mears has been driving the No.83 car in place of Brian Vickers, who continues to be treated for blood clots.

Former Formula One competitor and General Motors factory driver Jan Magnussen from Denmark will attempt to make his first Cup start, driving the No.09 Chevrolet for Phoenix Racing. Magnussen will have to qualify on time since the No.09 team currently is outside of the top-35 in owner points.

Nationwide Series

Bucyrus 200 - Road America - Elkhart Lake, WI

The Nationwide Series will compete at the Road America road course in Elkhart, WI for the first time this weekend. At a distance of 4.048 miles, Road America becomes the longest track on any of NASCAR's three national touring series.

Saturday's race at Road America replaces The Milwaukee Mile on the Nationwide schedule. After the conclusion of the 2009 season, the owners of the one-mile Milwaukee track -- the Wisconsin State Fair Park Board -- announced it could not secure a promoter for the 2010 Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series races.

Darlington replaced Milwaukee on this year's truck schedule, with the The Too Tough to Tame 200 slated for August 14.

Road America is the first of three road courses on this year's Nationwide schedule. The series will compete in Watkins Glen, NY the first weekend in August and then will run in Montreal the last weekend of that month.

There will be a full day of testing for Nationwide teams on Thursday at Road America before the first official practice at the track takes place on Friday.

"By the second practice, I'm sure everyone will be up to speed, because the drivers are so good in the Nationwide Series," Wisconsin-native Paul Menard said.

The series will utilize the same road-course qualifying procedure used at Montreal and Watkins Glen. Drivers will make their qualifying attempts in groups instead of individually. Weather will not be an issue at Road America, since the series will bring Goodyear rain tires. The tires were used when it rained during the Montreal race in 2008 and '09.

Menard, who is one of three drivers attempting the Road America-Sonoma, CA combo this weekend, has previous experience at the Wisconsin road course. He won a NASCAR Re/Max Challenge Series race there in 2001.

Carl Edwards and series points leader Brad Keselowski also will attempt double-duty.

NASCAR made its debut at Road America in 1956 when Tim Flock won a race in what is now the Sprint Cup Series.

Forty-three teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Bucyrus 200. Among the entrants are several road-course ringers, including Ron Fellows, Jacques Villeneuve and Carlos Contreras.

IZOD INDYCAR SERIES

Iowa Corn Indy 250 - Iowa Speedway - Newton, IA

The IZOD IndyCar Series returns to action this weekend at the 7/8-mile Iowa Speedway. Iowa is the last oval race before IndyCar runs its next four events on road courses -- Watkins Glen, NY, Toronto, Edmonton and Sonoma, CA.

After winning the Indianapolis 500 last month and then finishing fifth at Texas earlier this month, defending series champion Dario Franchitti has claimed the points lead for the first time in 2010. Franchitti from Target Chip Ganassi Racing holds just a slim three-point advantage over Team Penske's Will Power, who sat atop the standings for the first six races this season.

Franchitti has won two of the three races at Iowa. He missed Iowa in 2008 when he was competing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series.

"All races are tough, and the one at Iowa is no different," Franchitti said. "There's such a thin line to walk between getting it right and sticking the thing into the fence. You want to run up front, so we'll go there and do our best."

Last year at Iowa, Franchitti took the lead following the last round of pit stops and then never looked back during final 50 laps for the win. Ryan Briscoe led a race-high 85 laps, but lost the lead to Franchitti after his lengthy pit time late in the race. Franchitti beat Briscoe to the finish line by just over five seconds for his second win of the season.

In 2008, Dan Wheldon won at Iowa on the same day he turned 30 years old. Wheldon drove the final 90 laps without refueling and held off a hard-charging Hideki Mutoh in the final laps for his 15th career IndyCar victory. He has not won a race since Iowa two years ago.

Wheldon drove for Target Chip Ganassi Racing at the time, but moved over to Panther Racing for the start of the 2009 season.

Twenty-five teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Iowa Corn Indy 250.