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Eagle1
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By Mike Mulhern
JOURNAL REPORTER
SONOMA, Calif.
Not every driver on the stock-car tour loves road racing. But NASCAR is focused on one thing right now - big television markets. That's why it has just added a second Nextel Cup tour stop in Los Angeles and a second stop in Phoenix. And San Francisco - about 45 miles from here - is the fourth-largest market in the U.S. If track owner Bruton Smith had a nice big oval here, or even something like Bristol Motor Speedway, this would certainly be a two-stop town on the Nextel Cup circuit. What he does have is one of the sport's most technically demanding tracks, a road course that makes rookies gulp when they first see it.
NASCAR's top tour has been racing here for 16 years, so Ricky Rudd said, "if the numbers support it, I wouldn't be surprised to see a second date." That would suit Robby Gordon just fine.
Gordon, who has been quite busy this year with his new Busch team and his Indy team, was the king of the road courses last season, winning here and at Watkins Glen. So car owner Richard Childress may be counting on him to help his three-car team snap out of its maddening funk.
Ryan Newman likes it here, too. Newman, last week's winner at Michigan, flipped at Watkins Glen the last time out in a road-course car, but he said, "I guess I'm one of the minority because I really like road-course racing. I honestly wish there were more of them on the schedule. We have scored a top 10 in every road-course race we've been in. "I look forward to this time in the season because this is typically when the team's performance picks up. From Michigan to Chicago, I'm looking for good things to happen the next couple of weeks."
Can Gordon - Robby, not Jeff - continue his hot streak here? "The one thing I remember most about winning last year is we cruised all day long and, it sounds crazy, but we didn't have to run hard," Gordon said. "It was because the car handled good, and we just paced ourselves and took care of the tires.
"With road courses, you can't drive into the corner really deep. It is better to slow down early and be on the gas all the way through the corner accelerating and try not to skid the car very much.
"We are pretty confident we have the road-course game dialed in, but there is always room for improvement. Some people asked me why we were going out there to test, but it just made sense. Practice makes perfect. Plus, we work all year long turning left, and to get one of the 3,400-pound stock cars to turn right is completely different, and it also just helped me get back into the shifting groove.
"We were about two- to three-tenths faster in the race trim than I qualified last year. Toward the end, we got out our qualifying trim and ran a 15.90, pretty impressive and a good way to wrap up.
"This weekend is going to be important because it could help us move up in the standings; some of the drivers higher tend to struggle on road courses. So if everything plays in our favor, we could make up 40 to 50 points."
If Ford's new D-3 engine makes a difference, as Dale Jarrett showed last weekend at Michigan, and if Rudd runs one here, he might be back in the game, too. Rudd, once one of the tour's best road racers, is famous for the race he "won" here only to get the black from NASCAR instead of the checkered flag, in one of the sport's more hotly debated finishes. This time, he said, Infineon Raceway's smooth new asphalt - the entire two-mile course has been repaved - should make Sunday a wide-open affair.
"A year or so ago you could halfway predict your potential winners, but I'll be honest, the track has been resurfaced and it's a different race track, and I would be afraid to pick a car to be dominant," Rudd said. "The Ganassi cars tested pretty well .They had some new experimental stuff that they were working on, and their stuff was pretty fast. Jamie McMurray and Scott Pruett were pretty fast. "But there are a whole host of guys that can get the job done, with the new pavement. That's made it an easier track to drive, which generally translates into more opportunities for guys that maybe typically don't run well.
"It's going to be awfully fast. Usually cars would run pretty good for a couple of laps when the tires were fresh, then there would be a two-second falloff when the tires went away. What we saw with the new asphalt is it gave the tires so much grip and bite, or forward traction off the corners, that wheel spin is not an issue any more. "So at the end of a gas-stop run, you're running about as fast as you were on laps one or two.
One thing should remain the same, though, Rudd said - late-race madness. Drivers work so hard most of the race not to make mistakes, to stay on the asphalt and off the dirt. Then in the final 10 laps they all go crazy. "As the race gets near the end, you'll see passing just about anywhere, and most likely where you don't expect to see it," Rudd said. "You just crowd your car into places that really aren't typically a passing zone. A good example is the exit of turn 11, and as you round the corner in turn one to climb the hill. Usually you'll see cars that are lapped getting passed; but late in the race it's a game of who is going to give first.
During his 15 years racing here, Rudd has seen the many changes Smith has made in the layout. The elimination of the carousel, the Kulwicki Korner, is one. That boot made it "night and day difference" with Watkins Glen, the tour's other road course, and much easier.
JOURNAL REPORTER
SONOMA, Calif.
Not every driver on the stock-car tour loves road racing. But NASCAR is focused on one thing right now - big television markets. That's why it has just added a second Nextel Cup tour stop in Los Angeles and a second stop in Phoenix. And San Francisco - about 45 miles from here - is the fourth-largest market in the U.S. If track owner Bruton Smith had a nice big oval here, or even something like Bristol Motor Speedway, this would certainly be a two-stop town on the Nextel Cup circuit. What he does have is one of the sport's most technically demanding tracks, a road course that makes rookies gulp when they first see it.
NASCAR's top tour has been racing here for 16 years, so Ricky Rudd said, "if the numbers support it, I wouldn't be surprised to see a second date." That would suit Robby Gordon just fine.
Gordon, who has been quite busy this year with his new Busch team and his Indy team, was the king of the road courses last season, winning here and at Watkins Glen. So car owner Richard Childress may be counting on him to help his three-car team snap out of its maddening funk.
Ryan Newman likes it here, too. Newman, last week's winner at Michigan, flipped at Watkins Glen the last time out in a road-course car, but he said, "I guess I'm one of the minority because I really like road-course racing. I honestly wish there were more of them on the schedule. We have scored a top 10 in every road-course race we've been in. "I look forward to this time in the season because this is typically when the team's performance picks up. From Michigan to Chicago, I'm looking for good things to happen the next couple of weeks."
Can Gordon - Robby, not Jeff - continue his hot streak here? "The one thing I remember most about winning last year is we cruised all day long and, it sounds crazy, but we didn't have to run hard," Gordon said. "It was because the car handled good, and we just paced ourselves and took care of the tires.
"With road courses, you can't drive into the corner really deep. It is better to slow down early and be on the gas all the way through the corner accelerating and try not to skid the car very much.
"We are pretty confident we have the road-course game dialed in, but there is always room for improvement. Some people asked me why we were going out there to test, but it just made sense. Practice makes perfect. Plus, we work all year long turning left, and to get one of the 3,400-pound stock cars to turn right is completely different, and it also just helped me get back into the shifting groove.
"We were about two- to three-tenths faster in the race trim than I qualified last year. Toward the end, we got out our qualifying trim and ran a 15.90, pretty impressive and a good way to wrap up.
"This weekend is going to be important because it could help us move up in the standings; some of the drivers higher tend to struggle on road courses. So if everything plays in our favor, we could make up 40 to 50 points."
If Ford's new D-3 engine makes a difference, as Dale Jarrett showed last weekend at Michigan, and if Rudd runs one here, he might be back in the game, too. Rudd, once one of the tour's best road racers, is famous for the race he "won" here only to get the black from NASCAR instead of the checkered flag, in one of the sport's more hotly debated finishes. This time, he said, Infineon Raceway's smooth new asphalt - the entire two-mile course has been repaved - should make Sunday a wide-open affair.
"A year or so ago you could halfway predict your potential winners, but I'll be honest, the track has been resurfaced and it's a different race track, and I would be afraid to pick a car to be dominant," Rudd said. "The Ganassi cars tested pretty well .They had some new experimental stuff that they were working on, and their stuff was pretty fast. Jamie McMurray and Scott Pruett were pretty fast. "But there are a whole host of guys that can get the job done, with the new pavement. That's made it an easier track to drive, which generally translates into more opportunities for guys that maybe typically don't run well.
"It's going to be awfully fast. Usually cars would run pretty good for a couple of laps when the tires were fresh, then there would be a two-second falloff when the tires went away. What we saw with the new asphalt is it gave the tires so much grip and bite, or forward traction off the corners, that wheel spin is not an issue any more. "So at the end of a gas-stop run, you're running about as fast as you were on laps one or two.
One thing should remain the same, though, Rudd said - late-race madness. Drivers work so hard most of the race not to make mistakes, to stay on the asphalt and off the dirt. Then in the final 10 laps they all go crazy. "As the race gets near the end, you'll see passing just about anywhere, and most likely where you don't expect to see it," Rudd said. "You just crowd your car into places that really aren't typically a passing zone. A good example is the exit of turn 11, and as you round the corner in turn one to climb the hill. Usually you'll see cars that are lapped getting passed; but late in the race it's a game of who is going to give first.
During his 15 years racing here, Rudd has seen the many changes Smith has made in the layout. The elimination of the carousel, the Kulwicki Korner, is one. That boot made it "night and day difference" with Watkins Glen, the tour's other road course, and much easier.
