Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing and Jeff Gordon , driver of the No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet of Hendrick Motorsports, are installed co-favorites at 4-1 odds [Sportsbook.com] for Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint-Cup race Toyota/Save Mart 350k at the 10-turn, 1.99-mile road course in Sonoma, Calif. Juan Pablo Montoya and Kevin Harvick at 8/1 odds are expected to be strong challengers in the race.
With six career road coarse wins, Stewart feels he has a better opportunity to win on a road course than at some of the other oval tracks.
“It’s definitely a place I feel like we’ve got the potential to win,” said Stewart. “Even before we make a single lap. I love the two road courses. It’s nice because it kind of breaks up the monotony of the season. We do the same thing every week and it’s nice to have two road course races thrown in the mix that give us a chance to do something a little bit off-center for all of us. It’s kind of like the ‘Prelude’ with no dirt added, unless you drive off, which a lot of us do. We still get a dirt aspect in it, I guess.”
Gordon, who grew up in nearby Vallejo, has many fond memories of this race weekend. Along with his record number of victories at the Sonoma road course, Gordon has collected nine top-fives and 11 top-10 finishes in 15 starts.
"It’s a special weekend for us," Gordon said. "We’ve had a lot of success at Sonoma. So, from the team’s perspective, this is a race we are really looking forward to.”
This will be the second time the new Car-of-Tomorrow will be used on the road course.
"You can’t carry the corner speed with this car like you could with the older version," said Gordon. "We’re on bump stops in the front, so the front suspension reacts quite differently.
Pre-qualifying odds at Sportsbook.com to win the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma
A.J. Almendinger 35-1
Bobby Labonte 100-1
Boris Said 20-1
Brian Simo 100-1
Brian Vickers 100-1
Carl Edwards 40-1
Casey Mears 100-1
Clint Bowyer 50-1
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 40-1
David Ragan 100-1
Denny Hamlin 20-1
Elliott Sadler 40-1
Greg Biffle 40-1
Jamie McMurray 20-1
Jeff Burton 40-1
Jeff Gordon 4-1
Jimmie Johnson 30-1
Juan Pablo Montoya 8-1
Kasey Kahne 75-1
Kurt Busch 20-1
Kyle Busch 20-1
Marcos Ambrose 30-1
Martin Truex Jr. 60-1
Matt Kenseth 100-1
Max Papis 100-1
Patrick Carpenter 30-1
Robby Gordon 10-1
Ron Fellows 20-1
Ryan Newman 30-1
Sam Hornish Jr. 100-1
Tony Stewart 4-1
Field (any other driver) 15-1
