Joey Logano (22) chases Denny Hamlin (11) during Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Sonoma Raceway. Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 wasn’t the knock-down, drag-out free-for-all fans have come to expect at Sonoma Raceway in recent years, although it did peg the drama meter with race winner Tony Stewart’s last-lap duel with runner-up Denny Hamlin.
Third-place finisher Joey Logano has an explanation why drivers didn’t rough each other up on Sunday. Quite simply, they’re getting the hang of road course racing.
“In all honesty I think it’s because everyone is getting better,” Logano said after the race. “A lot of the crashes in the past have been because the cars are wheel-hopping into the corner and they can’t stop and they hit somebody. Most of the time that’s what it is. There’s still plenty of contact, but everybody has gotten better at this road course racing – not just drivers, but race teams and getting their cars better and their brakes better and the setups better.
“Not that the cars have become easier to drive. They’re still very challenging to drive here, but it seems like we’ve all gotten better and know how to handle a lot of the situations on the race track and all have learned how to race a little bit better out here. Like I said, there’s still plenty of contact and bumping and banging. My car is hit on each corner, but it definitely was a fun race and it’s always been a fun race here at Sonoma.”
In particular, Logano had fun over the final 14 laps when he charged from sixth to third after a restart and enjoyed a front-row seat for the decisive battle between Stewart and Hamlin on the final lap.
Another Frustrating Day For A.J. Allmendinger
The same old song has become painfully familiar to AJ Allmendinger.
In 2014, the driver of the No. 47 JTG/Daugherty Racing Chevrolet started second at Sonoma Raceway, led 35 laps – and finished 37th, two laps down.
Last year, Allmendinger started on the pole and came home 37th again.
Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 brought another second-place start, and again the race fell apart for the Californian driver.
After pit stops on lap 88 of 110, Allmendinger was poised to restart sixth, hoping to claim victory and gain entry into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. During the stop, however, his team incurred a penalty for an uncontrolled tire, and Allmendinger took the green flag on lap 91 at the tail end of the field.
“I thought, whatever it was, 25 to go, we were coming,” said Allmendinger, who led 20 laps early and ultimately worked his way up to 14th at the finish. “So in the end, just a bad pit stop and let the tire get away and penalty.
“That took away our chance to win the race. Overall, I thought the car was pretty good. It was for sure a top-three, top-four car. We just needed to be up there at the end, and we weren’t.”
The road course ace tried his best to adopt a philosophical attitude after losing what may have been his best chance to qualify for the Chase.
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“We have to get our stuff straight if we actually want to be a Chase team and consider ourselves a Chase team.”
France Gives High Marks To Racing Product
In a Sunday interview with FOX Sports, NASCAR Chairman & CEO Brian France described the current racing product as “markedly better.”
“I never give it a ‘10’ because we’re always a work in progress, but I think the racing (is) markedly better,” France said. “It’s our biggest challenge to balance the rules packages that offer the best style of racing for us, but we’re on our way.
“(There’s) a lot of cooperation with the teams like never before, putting a lot of emphasis on it, and we’re getting better results. We’re really happy with things.”
France expressed satisfaction with the way the new charter system for team ownership and the input from drivers is working to improve the sport.
“A lot of structural changes that allow us to build for the future in a smarter way, and I think that’s the main thing, so it allows the owners to look at their expenses differently and build some enterprise value, gives them some assets that they didn’t have before,” France said. “And then it aligns our interests, too, which is very important.
“And then with the Drivers’ Council and all that, that gives us the input that we need. That gives us the cooperation. This is an industry that, the better we’re cooperating together, the better we deliver for our fans, which is the best, closest racing in the world.”
When asked if he was concerned about the marketability of the sport with some of the top drivers getting older, France discussed the abundance of young talent matriculating to NASCAR’s highest levels.
“Well, I would be (concerned) if we didn’t have such a talented group of young drivers, and that’s one of the things when we started the Drive for Diversity, we were out looking for different talented drivers maybe of a diverse background, so you see Daniel Suarez being an exemplary proof of that program. So we have a lot of talent coming, with some big names in Chase Elliott and others. And they’re talented … that’s what drives this sport is talent, and we’ve got a lot coming.”
France also has been pleased with the recent fundamental structural change to an elimination format for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and doesn’t expect any major modifications in the near future.
“We made a lot of structural changes, and they’re important, but I think we have – now we can build on those,” he said. “I’ve always said if we got the Chase right, which it took a little while for us to get it just right, that’s something that’s very unique in auto racing.
“Takes time to understand that even if, as simple as it is, because it’s so unique in auto racing, we can build around that. No structural… no big changes in the future.”
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