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NASCAR: 2022 "Toyota/Save-Mart 350" at Sonoma preview

tyler auffhammer, the mountaineer, waynesville, n.c.
·3 min read

Jun. 10—If you are one of the many NASCAR Fans that like road course racing, then you are in for a treat this weekend as the NASCAR Cup and Camping World Truck Series team up once again for a weekend in "wine country."

Sonoma Raceway in Sears Point, California, is one of the two road courses the Cup Series (the other being Watkins Glenn) will be the scene of this week's racing action.

Kicking things off for the weekend will be the Camping World Truck Series (CWTS) on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET.

Then, the CWTS will qualify Saturday at 1 p.m. ET followed by the NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) practice and qualifying at 4:30 p.m. ET.

Once fans find out who will be starting where in both series, the CWTS will line up and race their 75-lap "Door Dash 250" at 7:30 p.m. ET. Coverage for all this will be on FS1 for TV and PRN/SiriusXM Ch 90. for radio.

On Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET, the NCS drivers will line up, pray, sing and fire their engines to see which driver can make it to the checkered flag first in their 110-lap "Toyota/Save-Mart 350."

Will Chase Elliott (9) continue to add to his road course ace stats? Will Martin Truex Jr. (19) get his first win of the 2022 season at a track where he has won on before? Or will fans see yet another first-time winner in the 2022 season?

Coverage will be on FS1 and PRN/Sirius Ch 90.

The FOX Sports crew will turn on their cameras and microphones Sunday for the last time in the 2022 NCS schedule because after Father's Day weekend (which is the only weekend off for the NCS all season), NBC and USA Networks will take over for their half of the racing season starting at Nashville Super Speedway on June 24-26.

Sonoma Raceway

Sonoma Raceway was originally named Sears Point Raceway until 2002.

In 2002, Sears Point Raceway was renamed after a corporate sponsor, Infineon Technologies, much like Lowe's did with Charlotte Motor Speedway in the 2000s.

In March 2012, it was announced that Infineon would not renew their contract for naming rights when the deal expired in May 2012, at which point it was renamed Sonoma Raceway.

The multi-use facility is a road course and dragstrip owned and operated by Speedway Motorsports Inc.

It is located in the southern Sonoma Mountains of Sonoma County, California. It sits on the northwest edge of the San Francisco Bay, northeast of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Also, Sonoma Raceway always seems to be the racetrack/course that all the NASCAR wives and girlfriends seem to want to attend with their significant others, lord can only guess as to why.

It could be because the racecourse sits just east of the world-famous Napa Valley (hint: wine). It's a real head scratcher. Then again, just some questions may never be answered.

The road course features 12 turns on a hilly course with 160 feet (49 m) of total elevation change.

Sonoma is often referred to as "the short track of road courses" due to its short acceleration areas, multiple heavy braking zones, and hair pin turn as drivers return to the start/finish line.

The 2.520 mile road racing course was constructed on 720 acres by Marin County owners Jim Coleman and Robert Marshall Jr.

While on a hunting trip the pair conceived of the idea of a racetrack.

In August 1968, ground was broken and paving of the race surface was completed in November.

The first official event at Sears Point was an SCCA Enduro, held on December 1, 1968. T

The NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now the NASCAR Cup Series) did not debut at the raceway until 1989. Then, in 1995, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series (now Camping World Truck Series) was added to the major-events schedule.

Owner "Skip" Berg sold the track to O. Bruton Smith, chairman of Speedway Motorsports, Inc. in November 1996.