Sonoma Raceway has always been one of my personal favorites for the NASCAR Cup Series, all the way back to the early 1990s. You never know what you’re going to get, especially back in the days when this was a conjunction race between the Cup Series and what was then Winston West (now the ARCA Menards Series West). You could have runaways, wreckfests or highly competitive races.
Sunday’s race was fairly competitive, but honestly reminded me of some of the runaway events of the early to mid-1990s on the long course. Think Ernie Irvan stomping the field in 1994, or Mark Martin doing something similar the next year … before the grease was laid down.
Honestly, the biggest TV story of the weekend didn’t really revolve around anything in Sonoma, but who wasn’t there. Clint Bowyer was absent on Sunday from the broadcast. He was off dealing with a personal matter. Whatever it is, he has been radio silent on social media, not posting anything since Gateway. Let’s hope that everything is OK for Bowyer.
In Bowyer’s place, Larry McReynolds made another unexpected return to the broadcast booth alongside guest analyst Tony Stewart. Honestly, this was a relatively calm booth. Stewart’s always been a relatively calm dude unless someone were to rile him up. If that happens, all bets are off.
The mix of McReynolds and Stewart with Mike Joy was an interesting grouping. I felt that they worked really well together. For Stewart, this was his fourth go-around in the booth, and it showed that he’s become comfortable up there. It says a lot that between the three National Series that FOX Sports has had 20 guest analysts this year. Really kind of ridiculous, to be honest.
During the race itself, there was some action to be had, and FOX Sports 1 was OK in bringing that action to the viewers. What they weren’t really showing was what I had an issue with.
For instance, Chase Elliott got penalized for pitting outside of the box on lap 53. That dropped him nearly to the rear of the field. He drove all the way back up to the top 10. Never heard anything about that. Must have been quite the run.
At the same time that Elliott was penalized, Chris Buescher was assessed a penalty due to something having to do with a fuel can. It was later rescinded, but viewers never got any kind of an explanation as to what could have caused the issue. Even though it was rescinded, that could have been a big deal knowing that Buescher ended up second.
Tires at Sonoma Raceway have…
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