Stage points have gone out the window for the winners of the past two Sonoma races in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Both Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. chose to forgo stage points in order to get track position on the way to their wine-soaked wins in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
According to Racing Insights, Harvick made four pit stops during his 2017 win, with two of them coming two laps before the end of a stage. Meanwhile, Truex took a similar approach last season, pitting a total of three times with two of those stops coming two laps before the end of a stage.
RELATED: Full Sonoma schedule
On the other hand, the stage winners the past two seasons haven’t fared as well. Truex and Jimmie Johnson won the stages in 2017 but finished the race 37th and 13th, respectively. AJ Allmendinger and Denny Hamlin won the stages in 2018 and finished 38th and 10th in the race.
Something to keep in mind as you watch the race on FS1 and when you set your lineups in the Fantasy Live game or place your Props Challenge picks this week.
Now for the rest of the rundown for this Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM).
IT’S BACK!
After more than 20 years without it, Sonoma Raceway is bringing back the carousel section to help celebrate the track’s 50th anniversary. This means drivers will drop down coming out of Turn 4 and make a big, sweeping left turn through Turns 6 and 6A before popping back up onto what has been the normal layout of late in Turn 7.
Read what some drivers are saying about the carousel’s return.
TIRES
It’s the first chance to break out the Goodyear Eagle Road Course Radials this season. Each team will get three sets for practice, one set for qualifying and seven sets for the race (six race sets, plus one set transferred from qualifying or practice).
Adding the carousel lengthens the track from 1.99 miles to 2.52 miles and will make the technical road course even more tight. As a result, Goodyear is bringing one of its most tractive tread compounds in the entire 2019 tire lineup.
Goodyear will also bring its wet weather radials for Sonoma should NASCAR decide that conditions warrant. But they tell us it never rains in Northern California.
RULES PACKAGE
Sonoma will feature the 2019 rules package for road courses, and that means no aero ducts and a tapered-spacer engine expected to reach 750 horsepower.
TUNE-IN INFORMATION
TV: FS1 (3 p.m. ET)
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
NASCAR.com: Live leaderboard, Drive, RaceView
Trackside Live: 11:30 a.m. ET on Sunday
Of note: The FOX part of the 2019 Cup schedule wraps up this weekend, and it will be Darrell Waltrip’s last broadcast, i.e. the last time to hear him utter the famous “Boogity, boogity, boogity” line. He is sure to have something special up his sleeve worth tuning in for, and several drivers will be driving cars paying homage to Waltrip’s former paint schemes. | See the schemes