Rick Hendrick’s Road Course King Shrugs Aside Sonoma’s Tough Ask in One Sentence
Don’t you think Chase Elliott is due a win? The once-undisputed-road-course-king of NASCAR will look to reclaim his throne at Sonoma Raceway. Despite winning seven road course races in his career, Elliott hasn’t won at Wine Country yet. However, he is one of just four drivers to finish in the top 10 in both Sonoma races in the Next Gen era. With how he has been performing this year in the NASCAR Cup Series, Elliott will be the driver to beat at the Toyota Race Mart 350.
Featuring 12 turns on a hilly course and 160 feet of total elevation change, the Sonoma Raceway can be notoriously tricky for inexperienced drivers. Not for Chase Elliott, though, who has brushed aside Sonoma’s elevation challenges ahead of the race.
Will Chase Elliott be back to his vintage best?
Chase Elliott has momentum on his side, having finished 10 times in the top 7 and 5 times in the top 5 this season with an average finish of 9.87, a career-best across 15 races. Chase Elliott has shown great consistency in his No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, despite lacking outright pace, and his team has performed well on the pit road. All evidence points towards Elliott being at his vintage best at Sonoma and being in the hunt to secure his second win of the season after putting up a great show in Texas earlier this season.
Now that NASCAR is headed into its 16th race of the regular season, Elliott, just like his teammates, has his own concerns. Sonoma Raceway is looking brand new. After spending $1 million and laying down 10,000 tons of paving material, the track is ready for the 2024 Cup Series race. While the fresh repave is mostly a hit, it does bring a few new challenges for the drivers.
In an Instagram post uploaded by Team Hendrick, while Bowman talked about the change in grips post-pavement, Chase Elliott talked about another important factor, “A lot of times when you have elevation, if you do it the right way, you want to use it to your advantage. If you are going uphill, that would mean the car will naturally slow down more than it would on a flat surface. You might think about using less brakes and using gravity to help you. And also same for going downhill, you’re going to be going faster than you typically would, so just keeping those things in mind, I actually find them to be helpful rather than make things worse.”
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Hendrick Motorsports (@teamhendrick)
The one thing Chase Elliott has lacked this Cup series season is more than one podium finish. Denny Hamlin has three wins and sits comfortably at 534 points, and Elliott’s teammate Kyle Larson has two wins at 513 points. Elliott currently sits at number 3 with 507 points.
The 28-year-old will want that to change at Sonoma, especially since he hasn’t won on a road course since 2021 at Road America. Only this time around, he will be competing in a next-gen car. Chase Elliott will also face stiffer competition, especially from RFK Racing driver Cam Waters. Just like Shane van Ginsbergen, who won the Chicago Street race in 2023, Supercars drivers tend to ace road races, and Waters will pose a formidable threat to Elliott.
Other drivers also react to the Sonoma Raceway Repave
It took 61 days, but Sonoma Raceway’s repave project has finally been completed. The project began on December 28, 2023, with crews removing the old surface off the track. In two months, the track was ground down, cracks were repaired, and brand-new, long-lasting asphalt was placed at the Sonoma Raceway. It’s the second Speedway Motorsports track to get fresh asphalt in recent months, with the other being North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Last year’s Sonoma winner, Martin Truex Jr said that he was pleased with the results of the repave, noting an excess of speed and grip compared to what he’s used to. He said, “I know the track is obviously new pavement, so it’s been getting better and better all day long. It was pretty dirty to start; pretty slick. And as we just ran laps and put rubber down, it feels pretty good. … When we come back, it’ll be a lot hotter, so it’s gonna be different. But always fun to get a little jump on the competition on a repave.”
Meanwhile, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain mentioned that the track is “super gripped up”, with the 31-year-old routinely putting down laps that were 2.5 seconds faster than the track record. He went on to say that drivers were “going faster throughout the day as we got rubber into the track” and that gear shifting had changed quite a bit.
Stewart-Haas Racing rookie Josh Berry, without having much experience with the track or with road courses in general, had a different but equally valuable insight. He said, “I think the track is gonna continue to get better and get more grip; it’s gonna be a lot faster. It’s been fun to come here and actually test.”
Do you think Chase Elliott will reclaim the title of road course king at Sonoma? Let us know in the comments!
The post Rick Hendrick’s Road Course King Shrugs Aside Sonoma’s Tough Ask in One Sentence appeared first on EssentiallySports.
Welcome to Billionaire Club Co LLC, your gateway to a brand-new social media experience! Sign up today and dive into over 10,000 fresh daily articles and videos curated just for your enjoyment. Enjoy the ad free experience, unlimited content interactions, and get that coveted blue check verification—all for just $1 a month!
Account Frozen
Your account is frozen. You can still view content but cannot interact with it.
Please go to your settings to update your account status.
Open Profile Settings