NASCAR Valley weekend arrives

The popular NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, the Valley’s most attended major motorsports event, roars into Sonoma Raceway for the 27th year this weekend. The action on the 1.99-mile road course begins Friday, June 26, continues on Saturday, June 27, and peaks with the featured Toyota/Save Mart 350 on Sunday, June 28.

While Carl Edwards defends his Toyota/Save Mart 350 title after becoming the 10th different race winner in as many years, Vallejo native and legendary driver Jeff Gordon, who is retiring after the season as a full-time driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, will be competing for the final time at Sonoma.

Gordon is the most successful NASCAR driver ever at Sonoma Raceway, having won five Toyota/Save Mart 350 titles, claiming a best-ever five pole positions, and 14 top-five finishes.

Currently leading the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series point standings is Kevin Harvick, who has 15 more points than second-place Martin Truex Jr., who with his recent third-place finish in Michigan became the first driver to score 14 top-10 finishes in the first 15 races since Richard Petty accomplished the feat in 1969.

So far, 10 different drivers have posted victories this season, with Jimmie Johnson claiming four wins, and Harvick and Kurt Busch each claiming two.

This year’s NASCAR qualifying consists of two elimination rounds to determine the starting grid, with the first elimination round lasting 25 minutes and including all cars.

The 12 cars that post the fastest single lap will advance to the final round, and the remaining cars will be sorted based on their times posted in the first round of qualifying in descending order, with the final qualifying round lasting 10 minutes. The fastest single lap time will determine positions one through 12 in descending order.

The fastest driver in the final round will earn the pole position for the race.

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Sonoma Raceway’s longtime communication, marketing and community relations vice president, the late John Cardinale, will be posthumously inducted into the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame during a gala event at the Meritage Resort in Napa on Thursday, June 25.

For details about table sponsorship for the 2015 awards dinner, contact Jenniffer Wentzel at 623-463-5400, and for more information about the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame, visit WestCoastStockCarHallofFame.com.

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This year’s NASCAR grand marshal is Santa Rosa resident and climber extraordinaire Kevin Jorgeson, who will be honored on Friday, June 26, at the Children’s Champions Grand Marshal’s Banquet at Cline Cellars in Sonoma, a fundraiser for the Sonoma Chapter of Speedway Children’s Charities.

For more information or to purchase a seat or table for the Grand Marshal’s Banquet – the event is nearly sold out – contact Cheri Plattner at 933-3950 or cplattner@racesonoma.com.

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On Friday, June 26, the first Great Clips Fast Friday NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice takes place from noon to 1:55 p.m.; NASCAR Pro Series West final practice is from 2 to 3 p.m.; and Great Clips Fast Friday NASCAR Sprint Cup Series final practice is from 3:30 to 4:55 p.m. with TV coverage by Fox Sports 1.       

Saturday, June 27, the NASCAR Pro Series West qualifying starts at 9:45 a.m.; Drive for Safety Pole Day NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying begins at 11:15 a.m.with TV coverage by Fox Sports 1; and the Carneros 200 NASCAR Pro Series West race (64 Laps) gets under way at 2 p.m.

On Sunday, the featured NASCAR Toyota/Save Mart 350 race, which covers 110 laps and 218.9 miles, begins at noon. TV coverage will be by Fox Sports 1 and Fox Deportes.

The NASCAR weekend will also have local radio coverage (provided by PRN) as KNBR 1050 AM (San Francisco) and KHTK 1140 AM (Sacramento) will broadcast NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying at 11 a.m. on Saturday, and the Toyota/Save Mart 350 on Sunday with pre-race at 11 a.m., and the race at noon.