With only five races remaining before the championship finale at Phoenix and just two races before the Round of 8 cutoff, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to perhaps its most unpredictable racetrack for Monday’s YellaWood 500 (1 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Talladega Superspeedway.
Superspeedways are notorious for pack racing and drafting, therefore resulting in cars constantly maneuvering within inches of each other.
One mistake, even a small one, can take a large portion of the field including drivers who simply find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. The racing here is undoubtedly unpredictable, but some drivers seem to have a knack for pack racing, and that shows in the past data.
Topping the list of NASCAR’s best superspeedway racers are Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski, who are also facing off in Barstool Sportsbook’s Masters of Superspeedway Racing Matchup.
Let’s take a deeper look at this matchup, including the smartest possible way for bettors to approach it on Sunday.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter (@PJWalsh24) for any additional bets I make for this weekend’s NASCAR action at Talladega Superspeedway.
NASCAR YellaWood 500 at Talladega Betting Pick
*Odds as of Friday morning
When it comes to betting NASCAR driver matchups at superspeedways like Talladega, I’m biased toward underdogs simply based on years of watching wild racing at these tracks.
While we can do our best to project speed week in and week out, the sheer randomness of pack racing at Talladega pulls every driver matchup closer to a coin-flip, therefore making dogs more appetizing than being forced to lay a bigger moneyline price with the favorites.
So when it comes to Sunday’s intriguing Denny Hamlin (-132) vs. Brad Keselowski (+102) driver matchup, that’s exactly my plan.
Over the last two seasons, Hamlin has been the top superspeedway racer in the series, highlighted by the top average finish (8.4), the most laps led and the best driver rating over seven total races at Daytona and Talladega.
However, when we isolate just recent performances at Talladega, Hamlin vs. Keselowski appears much closer.
Since 2019, Kez owns the best driver rating and the best average running position at Talladega while Hamlin sits way down in 17th and 23rd, respectively.
Sure, there is plenty of randomness involved and will be again on Sunday, but based on Keselowski’s history at this track and the aforementioned unpredictability, give me the plus-money in this matchup.
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (October 1, 2021) – NASCAR and Built Brands announced today a multiyear partnership, designating Built Bar as “The Official Protein Bar of NASCAR.” Already a sponsor of Corey LaJoie and his No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE, Built expands its presence in the sport as an official partner of NASCAR.
To celebrate the announcement, LaJoie and Built CEO Nick Greer recreated a scene from popular NASCAR movie Talladega Nights – a fitting tribute as NASCAR travels to famed Talladega Superspeedway this weekend for high stakes Playoffs races in all three of its national series.
“At Built, we are about high performance and bringing everything you have to each and every day. We understand that the journey is just as important as the finish line,” Greer said. “Every journey will have its ups, downs, spin outs, scratches and dings, and everything in between. This is why we are delighted to be partnering with NASCAR, a sport where the joy of the experience – for driver, crew, sponsor and fan – is a shared pursuit for greatness. We are thrilled to take this journey together.”
Built Bar is part of the Built ™ portfolio of nutritional products. Built is a leading manufacturer and distributor of healthy, great-tasting protein and energy products – combining natural, clean ingredients in a unique way. Built Bar’s proprietary manufacturing process produces a great-tasting, healthy bar that is high in protein, high in fiber and low in sugar.
“Quality nutrition is an essential component to drive athletic performance and especially important to endure the rigors of the most intense competition in motorsports,” said Jeff Wohlschlaeger, chief sales officer, NASCAR. “We are excited to see Built Bar enhance its presence in NASCAR to broaden brand awareness and better engage the most brand loyal fans in sports.”
Tune-in to the YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, Oct. 3 at 2 p.m. ET on NBC, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and MRN.
For all the randomness superspeedway racing is known for, the Fords, particularly Team Penske, seem to have Talladega Superspeedway figured out.
Of the last 14 NASCAR Cup races at this 2.66-mile Alabama track, Fords have won 11. Penske drivers account for nine of those victories, including four by Brad Keselowski, three by Joey Logano and two by Ryan Blaney.
Blaney’s win at Michigan should also be considered when handicapping Monday’s YellaWood 500 (1 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Races at the two-mile track in Brooklyn tend to resemble those at restrictor-plate tracks, Las Vegas oddsmaker Ed Salmons told NASCAR.com.
“Michigan feels like half of a mile-and-a-half and half of a restrictor plate race the way they race there,” said Salmons, who posts NASCAR lines at SuperBook USA. “It feels like more of a plate race than any two-mile track race.”
Here are the top contenders’ odds to win Sunday’s race from NASCAR’s three official sportsbook partners, plus the SuperBook.
Driver
BetMGM
Barstool
WynnBET
SuperBook
Denny Hamlin
+800
+800
+850
+1000
Joey Logano
+900
+100
+1000
+1000
Ryan Blaney
+1000
+1100
+1000
+1000
Chase Elliott
+1000
+1000
+1000
+1000
Brad Keselowski
+1000
+1400
+1400
+1200
William Byron
+1200
+1200
+1200
+1200
Kevin Harvick
+1400
+1600
+1600
+1400
Kyle Larson
+1400
+1400
+1400
+1400
Kyle Busch
+1400
+1600
+1400
+1600
Alex Bowman
+1800
+2000
+1800
+2000
Kurt Busch
+2000
+2500
+2200
+2500
Aric Almirola
+2000
+2000
+1800
+2500
Austin Dillon
+2500
+2500
+2500
+2000
Matt DiBenedetto
+2500
+2500
+2800
+2000
Bubba Wallace
+2500
+3000
+2800
+2000
Tyler Reddick
+2500
+2500
+2500
+2500
Martin Truex Jr.
+2500
+2500
+2200
+3000
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
+2500
+3000
+2500
+4000
Christopher Bell
+3300
+3000
+2500
+4000
Keselowski being priced longer than his teammates despite an excellent history at Talladega goes back to his lame-duck status with Penske, which we wrote about last week.
For bettors interested in riding the Ford trend at Talladega, Barstool Sports offers a “manufacturer of winning car” prop, pricing Ford at +140, with Chevrolet as the +130 favorite and Toyota the +325 underdog.
The constant superspeedway favorite
Hamlin has been priced as the favorite in all four superspeedway races this season, but he’s so far failed to reward chalk bettors. Including the Duel at Daytona, he has finishes of 13th, fifth, 32nd and 13th at Talladega and Daytona in 2021.
Still, he can’t be dismissed. In the 15 races at superspeedways since 2018, Hamlin has driven the No. 11 Toyota to three wins and nine total top fives. Before his 32nd at ‘Dega in April, in which he led 43 laps, his last three finishes here are first (last October), fourth and third.
While Hamlin tends to keep himself clean during these usually messy races, since he’s through to the Round 8 thanks to his win in Las Vegas last week, he’s bound to be aggressive if he’s near the front Sunday, an enticing scenario at odds ranging from +800 to +1000.
Below the cutline
William Byron, Kevin Harvick, Alex Bowman and Christopher Bell are all outside the bubble looking in on the top eight, with two chances to make up the ground before the next round of the Playoffs – Sunday at Talladega and next week at the Bank of America Roval in Charlotte. With the exception of Bell, none of these drivers have performed well on road courses this season and may have incentive to be aggressive in Alabama.
Hendrick teammates Byron and Bowman both have solid superspeedway records, and the No. 24 has a 2020 win at Daytona to boot.
One never knows what will transpire at Talladega, but Harvick breaking his season-long winless streak Sunday seems unlikely – he has three career wins on superspeedway tracks but none since 2010.
Superspeedways just haven’t been Bell’s bag, and he’s priced accordingly on oddsboards.
The betting market gives reasonable shots Sunday to Kurt Busch and Aric Almirola, each with a Cup win this season and each priced around +2000.
Busch’s 92.3 driver rating at Talladega since 2018, third best among active drivers, stands out but was largely built when he was in Stewart-Haas Racing equipment. He hasn’t been much of a threat at this track since joining Ganassi.
Almirola, meanwhile, holds his own at Talladega in his No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, with a 10.86 average finish in the seven races here since 2018 (best in the series among drivers with more than two starts since 2018) and a win in 2018. He finished 15th at Talladega in the spring and crashed out of last year’s Fall race but tallied eight-straight top-nine finishes (five in the top five) prior to that. If he’s running near the front again Sunday, a bettor would feel pretty good about holding a ticket at 20-1 odds.
Marcus DiNitto is a writer and editor living in Charlotte, North Carolina. He has been covering sports for nearly two-and-a-half decades and sports betting for more than 10 years. His first NASCAR betting experience was in 1995 at North Wilkesboro Speedway, where he went 0-for-3 on his matchup picks. Read his articles and follow him on Twitter; do not bet his picks.
Rick Ware Racing driver Joey Gase has been cleared to run in Monday’s NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway (1 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the team said on Thursday night.
The Iowa native is set to make his 12th start of the Cup Series season on Sunday and is set to roll off the grid 36th in the No. 53 Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet. He is also entered in Saturday’s Xfinity Series Sparks 300 (4:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) in the No. 52 Means Motorsports entry.
Gase was evaluated and released from a local medical facility after a hard crash in last weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Representatives for both the Ware organization and Gase indicated that the 28-year-old driver was taken to a Vegas-area hospital as part of “precautionary measures.”
The driver of the No. 15 Chevrolet at Las Vegas crashed in Turns 1 and 2 on Lap 92 of Sunday’s South Point 400 after his left-rear tire fell off. Gase was checked in the infield care center on site before being transported. He was scored 37th in the 38-car field.
The chaos of superspeedway racing rears its head in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs this weekend.
With hopes of advancing into the next round on the line, title contenders are set for the second race of the Round of 12 with the YellaWood 500 on Monday afternoon (1 p.m. ET, NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Before these drivers go three- and four-wide on the high banks of Talladega, let’s set the stage for 188 laps of high-tension, close-quarters racing at 200 mph.
The Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch will lead the field to the green flag Sunday afternoon in Alabama. Hamlin is the defending winner of this Talladega race as well as the victor last week at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In Row 2 will be Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney while Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. make up Row 3. Check out the entire starting lineup here.
RULES PACKAGE
Teams will utilize the 450-horsepower superspeedway package this weekend, which will be the same package used five races ago at Daytona International Speedway. This setup features taller rear spoilers and longer front splitters to promote drafting in a pack with high downforce.
Joey Logano’s flip on the Alabama Superstretch in April triggered alterations to the previous superspeedway package, including a reduction in horsepower and the removal of a wicker that created drag atop the spoiler.
— Originally named the Alabama International Motor Speedway, Talladega’s 2.66-mile oval layout was a Bill France idea that came to life on the site of a near-abandoned former Navy training airport in 1969.
— The first Cup race at Talladega was held on Sept. 14, 1969 and was won by Richard Brickhouse as most series regulars sat out due to safety concerns, worried that the tires provided wouldn’t withstand the high speeds.
— Talladega is the largest oval on the circuit while also hosting the steepest banking (33 degrees), longest backstretch (4,000 feet), most lead changes in a race (88, Spring 2010 and 2011), and closest margin of victory in Cup Series history (.002 seconds, Spring 2011).
— Talladega also hosted the only race in series history that a winner’s first lap led in the series was the final lap (Brad Keselowski, April 2009).
Source: Racing Insights
GOODYEAR TIRES
Despite being repaved way back in 2006, Talladega Superspeedway’s surface remains smooth and doesn’t regularly tear up tires. And while tires will still wear throughout a run, strategy will be key as Cup teams utilize the same tire they’ve used at Talladega since October 2019.
“Since its repave in 2006, Talladega’s track surface has aged a bit and will wear tires somewhat this weekend,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of racing. “Having said that, teams will still have the opportunity to mix in two-tire and no-tire stops in their pit strategy throughout the race. Being able to do that will help teams gain track position and potentially help them line up with teammates so they can work together in the draft.”
STORYLINES ENTERING TALLADEGA
– Team Penske has won five of the last seven playoff races at Talladega.
– Chase Elliott’s April 2019 victory marks Chevrolet’s only win in the last 12 Talladega races, while Ford has won 10 of the last 12.
– Matt DiBenedetto was passed for the win in each of the last two races at Talladega.
– Each of the last three Talladega contests have been won via a last-lap pass in overtime, and 17 of the last 20 races there have featured a final green-flag run of two laps or less.
– Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Larson and Kevin Harvick are the only Playoff drivers to finish in the top 10 in each of the first four races in the postseason.
– Kevin Harvick remains the only winless driver of those in the Round of 12.
– The October 2020 race featured 12 additional overtime laps, increasing the final race distance by 32 miles.
– Brad Keselowski leads all active drivers with six Talladega wins. The driver with the next-most wins is teammate Joey Logano with three.
– There were at least 10 DNFs in 10 of the 17 Talladega playoff races.
Source: Racing Insights
FAST MONEY
Despite the usually inevitable calamity at Talladega, some drivers are inherently better on superspeedways than others. There’s a reason that four of the last seven Talladega races have been won by the driver who led the most laps.
Denny Hamlin is this week’s favorite at 8-1 odds, according to BetMGM, and the numbers don’t lie. In the last 11 superspeedway races dating back to the 2019 Daytona 500, Hamlin has three wins and seven top fives.
Behind Hamlin in odds are Joey Logano (9-1), Chase Elliott (10-1), Ryan Blaney (10-1) and Brad Keselowski (10-1). Blaney appears to be an excellent play this weekend as he’s won two of the last four Talladega races as well as the regular-season finale at Daytona on Aug. 28.
Martin Truex Jr.’s (25-1) top-10 streak may be in jeopardy this weekend because Talladega has not treated him well. In 33 career Talladega starts, Truex has just two top fives and has finished outside the top 20 in 10 straight races. His 66 starts at the 2.66-mile track are the most among active drivers without a Talladega win.
Want to manage a team and race your way to the top of the leaderboards? Check out the playoff version of NASCAR Fantasy Live, which is open now and offers a fresh start for those of you who played the regular-season contest. The free-to-play game lets you choose your drivers each week and show off your crew-chief instincts, and there is a $10,000 prize for the winner.
The 2021 Fantasy Live points leaders are Denny Hamlin (1,222) Kyle Larson (1,208), and Chase Elliott (998).
This year, NASCAR.com also has the Playoffs Grid Challenge game, presented by Ruoff Mortgage, where you can pick the winners for each round of the playoffs right up through the Championship 4. First prize is $10,000.
Get additional camera views by logging on to NASCAR Drive, where each week a select number of in-car cameras will be available — as well as a battle cam and an overhead look.
New for this season, NASCAR has partnered with LiveLike to add fan engagement in the NASCAR Mobile App. Log in to the mobile app during the race for polls, quizzes, the cheer meter and more — and see instant results from NASCAR fans like you.
And finally, head over to the NASCAR Mobile App for AR Racing presented by Mobil 1, where you can design your own car and race the playoff drivers at the playoff tracks in augmented reality.
Chase Elliott is the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion, and he doesn’t feel any pressure to defend his title.
The driver of the No. 9 Chevrolet instead sees each season as a clean slate and each week as a new opportunity. Besides, even if he did feel pressure, his Hendrick Motorsports team learned how to turn negatives into positives during his championship run last year in the NASCAR Playoffs.
“At some point in the final 10 (races), you’re going to be faced with a tough situation, whether it’s in the first round or if you make it to Phoenix – that’s basically an elimination race, really all it is,” Elliott told NASCAR.com. “So, I think the more you can embrace those moments and enjoy them, the better you’re going to be. And I feel like our team stepped up and really did that last year. We learned a lot about ourselves and just how much we can enjoy and thrive in those situations.”
Those are the memories Elliott reminds his No. 9 crew of on a regular basis, especially now that the postseason battle is underway once again. Elliott is ranked sixth in the standings and 22 points above the elimination line as the Round of 12 continues Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway (2 p.m. ET on NBC/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Elliott did not win the opener last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – Denny Hamlin did – which means he is not locked into the Round of 8.
Elliott is, however, in a very similar spot to where he was last year – and look how that turned out. Entering the second Round of 12 race in 2020, Elliott was seventh and just 10 points safe. He finished fifth at Talladega and then went on to win Charlotte Motor Speedway’s Roval cutoff event to push through to the Round of 8. While there, he won the elimination race at Martinsville Speedway to make the Championship 4. Then, of course, he won the finale at Phoenix Raceway.
Really, up until last season’s Round of 12, Elliott only had two wins – a tally he matches now.
“That’s interesting, I didn’t know that,” Elliott said. “But, honestly, I feel like we’ve run better this year than we did last year up to this point. I don’t know why our results don’t necessarily show that, but I feel like we’ve been stronger at certain tracks that we’ve typically struggled at.”
A simple stat that proves Elliott is running better this year: his average finish. Elliott was averaging a 12.9 finish through 30 races last year. He is currently finishing with an 11.6 average, which ties for fourth best among series regulars.
More proof: Elliott also holds two more top fives and one more top 10 in 2021 compared to 2020.
“If you have a good weekend, you sort of look forward to going back next week,” Elliott said. “But you also know, at the same time, it can go south just as quick as it can go good for you. It’s a humbling, humbling thing.”
Elliott closed out last season with back-to-back victories. He didn’t win this year until the 14th race (Circuit of The Americas) on the schedule. It then took another six races for him to return to Victory Lane (Road America).
All that matters is Elliott made it to the playoffs, and regardless of what happens, the defending champ will embrace whatever tough situations arise rather than fear them.
“It’s a lesson that I think will be relevant as long as you’re racing,” Elliott said. “Yeah, I think it’s something you can carry for always.”
Defending series champion Sheldon Creed is among those who will try to climb back onto the right side of the elimination line when the series visits Talladega Superspeedway for Saturday’s Chevrolet Silverado 250 (1 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Creed was wiped out in a late crash at Vegas that also eliminated playoff driver Chandler Smith. Creed was credited with a 36th-place result and fell five points behind Matt Crafton — part of a 1-2-3-4 ThorSport Racing finish — in the battle for the final position in the Championship 4.
Creed has one top 10 in two Talladega starts in the Truck Series, but he views Saturday’s race with optimism.
“I think we have a good opportunity to overcome last weekend’s mistakes,” Creed said. “Statistically, I’m not that great of a superspeedway racer, but I always enjoy racing on these types of tracks.
“I think that in order to be competitive on Saturday, we need to race aggressive from the start, but we can’t afford to get ourselves in trouble. If we can walk away with some solid stage points and a good finish, I’ll be a pretty happy guy as we look forward to inching our way closer to Phoenix.”
Regular-season champion John Hunter Nemechek also had a rough night in Vegas, finishing 33rd after experiencing electrical issues on his No. 4 Toyota. Thanks to a large playoff point cushion, however, Nemechek remains second in the standings, just six points behind current leader Ben Rhodes, who rose to the top of the grid with a runner-up result last Friday.
In sharp contrast to Ford’s domination of recent NASCAR Cup Series racing at Talladega Superspeedway, Chevrolet drivers have won the last five NASCAR Xfinity Series events at the 2.66-mile track.
Kaulig Racing drivers have taken the checkered flag in the last three Xfinity races at Talladega, and that organization will bring its formidable superspeedway package to Saturday’s Sparks 300, the second race in the series’ Round of 12 (4:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
“Kaulig Racing is always fast at superspeedways, and this is one of my favorite tracks to go to,” said Justin Haley, who swept the two Xfinity races at Talladega in 2020 and has won two of the last three events at Daytona International Speedway.
Headed for full-time Cup racing as Kaulig moves up to NASCAR’s top division next year, Haley will drive the No. 16 Chevrolet in Sunday’s Cup event.
Teammate Jeb Burton is the most recent winner at Talladega, as Kaulig extended its streak at the track in this year’s spring race. Burton could use another victory after falling 27 points below the current Round of 8 elimination line, thanks to a 36th-place finish last Saturday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“Our last trip to Talladega resulted in my first-ever Xfinity Series win, so I’m looking forward to getting back there,” Burton said. “The Kaulig Racing Chevys are always great at the superspeedways, so we know we’ll have some speed this weekend.
“We got ourselves into a little bit of a hole at Las Vegas, so I’m looking forward to getting back on track this week.”
Teammate AJ Allmendinger, the 2021 NASCAR Xfinity Series Regular Season Champion, enters Saturday’s race with a 59-point cushion over ninth-place Myatt Snider, but Allmendinger surrendered the series lead to reigning Xfinity champion Austin Cindric with a seventh-place Las Vegas finish to Cindric’s fourth.
“Ultimately, our goal for this weekend is to try and survive, get good points and make sure we don’t have to fight to make it to the next round the following week in Charlotte,” Allmendinger said.“The Kaulig Racing cars will be hard to beat if we can all get up front and run together.”
Four drivers today joined Division I title winner Peyton Sellers as NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series national champions for 2021.
David Greenslit (Division II), Chad Baxter (Division III), Tom McCarthy III (Division IV) and Chris Vannausdle (Division V) were all officially named national champions for their season-long efforts in their respective divisions.
2021 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division II champion David Greenslit
Greenslit, also the Northeast regional champion for 2021, successfully defended the Division II title he took last year — and he did so in a slightly more convincing fashion.
Greenslit in 2020 won the Division II championship by just two points — or one position on the race track — over second-place Adam Gray. This year, Greenslit cleared second-place Terry Schultz, the Midwest regional champ, by eight points in the Division II national standings.
Greenslit’s 2021 triumph is the result of his 11 wins, 27 top fives and 30 top 10s in 32 starts at Hudson Speedway, Claremont Motorsports Park, Lee USA Speedway and Monadnock Speedway, all in his home state of New Hampshire.
2021 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division III champion Chad Baxter
Baxter, the Division III national champion and the winner of its Northeast region, collected his title on the strength of six wins, 13 top fives and 14 top 10s in 15 starts at Seekonk Speedway in Seekonk, Massachusetts.
Baxter won the Division III title by 20 points over second-place Ian Rotundo of California’s Irwindale Speedway.
2021 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division IV champion Thomas McCarthy III
In Division IV, McCarthy, the Midwest region winner, did all of his damage at Berlin Raceway in Marne, Michigan. With five wins, 19 top fives and 20 top 10s in 21 starts at his home track, McCarthy clinched the Division IV championship by just four points over Gordon Farnum of New Hampshire’s Hudson Speedway, Claremont Motorsports Park and Monadnock Speedway.
Vannausdale took the Division V championship thanks to his 12 wins, 24 top fives and 27 top 10s in 30 starts on the dirt at Adams County Speedway in Corning, Iowa, and I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Nebraska.
2021 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series Division V champion Chris Vannausdle
Also the Midwest region winner in Division V, Vannausdale clinched the national championship by 16 points over second-place Travis Pavlacky of Idaho’s Meridian Speedway.
Including the four national champions for Divisions II-V, below are the top 20 finishers in each region of each division for the 2021 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series.
Some of the greatest names in the history of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series established their career racing out West on tracks like Sonoma Raceway in the California wine country.
And now the current stars of the series will have a chance to test their skills on the famed rolling road course with the addition of Sonoma Raceway to the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series schedule for 2022. The June 11 race date — along with the June 12 NASCAR Cup Series race — marks the return of truck racing to the iconic Californian track after a 24-year absence.
The series, the facility and the fans appear eager to toast Wednesday’s welcomed NASCAR scheduling news.
Jeff Speer | Sonoma Raceway
“We knew just in talking to the fans about what they wanted to see out here, they were like, ‘We want the trucks back out in Sonoma,’ ” said Sonoma Raceway Executive Vice President and General Manager Jill Gregory. “The racing is going to be great. The origins of the series are here and I think you’re going to get a lot of serious, hardcore Truck Series fans out here and I think it’s going to be great racing because all the drivers that you have in that series today, some will have been here before, some not — so the excitement on the track is going to be amazing, too.’’
One of NASCAR’s all-time memorable drivers, Boris Said, was the last to win a Truck Series race at Sonoma back in 1998. NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr. won the series’ inaugural race on the track in 1995. Dave Rezendes (1996) and Joe Ruttman (1997) are past winners, too.
Sonoma and other West Coast tracks, like Mesa Marin Raceway and Phoenix Raceway, were anchors of the series in its earliest days. The popularity of watching racers such as Hornaday, Ruttman, Mike Skinner and Jack Sprague competing on challenging courses like Sonoma helped make the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series popular with fans and establish itself as a national mainstay.
And now the masses of current-day NASCAR and Truck Series fans will have a chance to watch the best of the series compete there again.
“The early days of the Truck Series were out here and fans supported that series really early on,” Gregory said. “The drivers, a lot of them, came from this area and there are just so many NASCAR fans in Northern California that bringing the Truck Series back, we’re already hearing from fans that they couldn’t be more thrilled.”
The addition of a second national race to the NASCAR-Sonoma weekend was something Gregory said she had pursued almost immediately after assuming leadership at the facility. And certainly, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation Ben Kennedy agreed with the vision. It made sense for fans, both Gregory and Kennedy said, but also for the race teams and corporate sponsors to expand the racing marquee at Sonoma.
“I think Sonoma is a great part of our country that we race in,” said Kennedy, who was a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series full-time driver and race winner before moving into his current role with the sanctioning body. “Obviously, a lot of corporate interests and opportunity to host (the trucks) out there. I think we have a ton of fans that come out to that race weekend. We felt like it was important for us to add additional content onto that weekend. … Having more of these experiences on some of these road courses and venues that the Trucks and Xfinity Series go to, really being the breadth of the future generation of NASCAR drivers, I think it gives them the ability to get a lot of experience at these tracks before they go Cup racing.
“A lot of factors certainly went into that final decision, but excited to be going out there with the Trucks. I think it will be a great part of the schedule.’’
