Toyota/SaveMart 350 Race Review

Infineon Raceway Sonoma -- 06/21/2009

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Monday Jun 22 2009 4:00am

As I said at the start of the week, NASCAR fans tend to either love or hate road course racing, and today’s mixed-up event in Infineon probably did little to change either side’s opinion.

The race ran 218.9 miles at an average speed of just 71.012 mph (last year’s average speed was 76.445 mph), included seven cautions for 20 laps, and took over three hours to complete.

There were ten lead changes involving eight different drivers, but in the end it was Kasey Kahne, the overall lap leader, who pulled into Victory Lane with a 0.748-second lead over second-place Tony Stewart.

It was Kahne’s first win on a road course, his first win in over a year, and the first-ever win for Richard Petty Motorsports.

In leading 37 laps at Sonoma, including the last 33, Kahne eclipsed his previous total of laps led here which was just four laps in five races. His previous best finish at Infineon was 23rd in 2007, and his average finish here prior to Sunday’s race was a rather dreadful 31.8.

Kahne had actually qualified well at Infineon in the past, starting in the top 10 for four straight years and in the top 5 the last two including the pole last year. He started fifth on Sunday, but it was the first time he was able to parlay a strong qualifying run into an equally strong finish.

En route to his surprising victory, Kahne held off hard-charging road course powerhouse Tony Stewart on a series of late-race restarts, four in all during the last 33 laps. It was the first time NASCAR used the double-file restart rule on a road course, but Kahne started cleanly each time, never giving Stewart a chance to capitalize on an unforced error.

“Kasey just never made a mistake at the end. He did an awesome job those last 20 laps and just never slipped a wheel, never missed a corner and made a mistake,” said Tony Stewart after the race. “He made one mistake the whole time in the closing laps there and we were able to get a run on him, but couldn't do anything when we got there. He was just better than we were.”

Following Kahne and Stewart across the finish line was Marcos Ambrose in third, who qualified third but started at the rear of the field after losing an engine in practice Saturday. Jimmie Johnson finished fourth after a bit of controversy involving his contact with Kurt Busch earlier in the race (Busch finished 15th), and Denny Hamlin, who led 33 laps overall (second-highest) and finished fifth.

Rounding out the top 10 were Juan Pablo Montoya, AJ Allmendinger, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Gordon, and Elliott Sadler.

Very few drivers left the track completely unscathed. Numerous cars had spins, ran off the track, or had varying degrees of contact along the way. Polesitter Brian Vickers led the first 16 laps but did not lead again and also sustained damage after getting run into by Kyle Busch, who finished the race in 22nd-place.

Overall, 36 cars finished on the lead lap with Robby Gordon the last car completing every lap and Scott Speed the first car one lap down. There were four DNFs.

Patrick Carpentier, substituting for Michael Waltrip in the No. 55 car, was the highest-finishing road course ‘ringer’ at 11th.

With regard to points, the top four drivers all maintained their standings, with Tony Stewart in the lead, Jeff Gordon in second, Jimmie Johnson in third, and Kurt Busch in fourth. Carl Edwards, who finished 13th, moved up one spot to fifth, while Ryan Newman, who had a strong run going before going off the track, finished 17th and slipped to sixth.

The biggest mover up in points was Denny Hamlin, who climbed three spots to seventh. Mark Martin, who struggled with various problems throughout the day and finished 20th, slipped three spots to 11th.

Juan Pablo Montoya climbed two spots to 12th, placing him in Chase contention, while Jeff Burton, who finished 34th, fell out of the top 12, dropping three spots to 15th in points.

Other notable finishes included Max Papis, 12th, Joey Logano, 19th, Dale Earnhardt Jr., 26th, Greg Biffle, 28th, Kevin Harvick, 29th, and Robby Gordon, 39th.

Now it’s on to Loudon, New Hampshire, where Kurt Busch won a rain-shortened race last June.

Please check back later in the week for our race preview.

Comment on this article.

(255 chars max)

Username:
(No HTML)

Captcha: