by Larry McReynolds

Comment

A road-course race is hard on everything. It's also a very physically challenging race for the driver. He's a very busy man in that race car for 110 laps. He is down-shifting, up-shifting about a dozen times a lap. He's working the brakes five or six times lap. Add into all that, it is a very narrow race track.

In addition to being physically challenging for the driver, it's also mentally challenging. Same can be said for the crew chief. I always considered road-course races like chess matches. You run the race backwards.

It's a 110-lap race on a two-mile road course. So let's say your car runs 40 laps. That means no matter what, you are going to pit on lap 70. Green flag lap or caution lap, it doesn't matter, because you are calling your driver in. Then, again, working backwards, your first stop is at lap 30. Most people are going to try and do this race in two four-tire stops.

But in a perfect world, you might stop a little earlier than that, then a caution comes out, you stay out on the track while everyone else pits under caution and you get the track position. This type of chess match goes on at both road courses.

Again, a road course is hard on equipment. There isn't a piece of that race car that isn't challenged mechanically. It's hard on engines. It's hard on brakes. It's hard on the drive train. From the pit crew side of things, they may only make two pit stops the entire day, but believe me, they better be A-game pit stops. If you have a loose wheel or lug nut issue, your day is pretty much over there.

Sonoma is also a very unpredictable race. In the last eight races there, we have had seven different winners. That's really something that has changed about road-course racing. For that matter, most of the new fans to our sport don't even know that we would run the road course in Riverside, Calif. in late January before we even ran the Daytona 500 and then we would end the season at Riverside in November.

Well, it used to be that teams would simply try to survive the road-course races. The team mentality was to go out to Sonoma, get a good finish and move on. There only used to be a very small number of drivers in NASCAR that were capable of winning a road-course event.

What we have seen in over probably the last 8-10 years is that teams are putting a tremendous amount of time, effort and focus into road-course racing. They know you can't give up any race and more importantly, any points anywhere. They are building specific cars for just the road courses and testing them. You probably won't find a single team that hasn't taken their Sonoma car in the last few weeks somewhere to test it. Some went to Road Atlanta. Some went to Kershaw and VIR. So my point is there's a lot of effort being put into this by the teams.

In addition to that, a lot of the drivers have stepped up their road-course game. I think that is a clear reason why we have had so many different winners lately. If you would have told me a year ago that Kyle Busch would have swept both road-course events, I don't think I would have believed you. He's an awesome driver, but his name doesn't automatically pop in my head to the top of the list when I think of road racers.

In addition to Kyle, look for Jeff Gordon to be a player this weekend. Tony Stewart is an excellent road racer. So is Kurt Busch. Jamie McMurray is another that always seems to run well on the road courses. Keep your eye on Elliott Sadler. In the last five years, he has scored the second-most points at road courses. Tony is first in that category.

Some drivers you need to watch this weekend aren't ones we normally mention. Robby Gordon is one to look for Sunday. He is an awesome road racer. Marcos Ambrose is another. Don't take your eye off David Gilliland either. He ran second there last year to Kyle Busch.

Some folks might wonder why I haven't included Scott Speed into that mix. I just think he is still getting acclimated to Sprint Cup racing. From the new tracks, to the size and weight of these race cars, those are all factors he is learning and adapting to. Sonoma is going to be a pretty vertical mountain for not only Scott but our other rookie, Joey Logano, to climb.

I know for a fact that the folks at Joe Gibbs Racing have tested Joey a ton at other road course venues. The problem is there isn't really a road course out there that mimics Sonoma. It's just a very unique road course. It's a very driver-savvy road course. It's a very challenging road course — up hill, down hill plus it has a lot of blind spots. Turn 2 and Turn 11 are the ones Sunday where you will see a lot of action, I promise.