Join in here and discuss all the weekends activities at Infineon for RGM. There will be 2 team cars for RGM this weekend, PJ Jones in the #04 and of course Robby Gordon in the #7. First practice is on Friday, June 19, 3:00 - 4:30 pm/et, live on SPEED.Qualifying is also on Friday, June 19 at 6:35pm/et,live on SPEED. There are 2 practices on Saturday, June 20,12:30 - 1:15 pm/et and from 1:50 - 2:50 pm/et,both live on SPEED. Race Coverage of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon Raceway is scheduled for Sunday, June 21, 2009 TNT at 5:00 pm/et; pre-race show at 3:30 pm/et; green flag approx 5:16pm/et.Post here or follow the race on raceday chat.
I think it is pretty cool of the Wood Brothers to let Boris use their pit crew this weekend.
IS YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGE ON SUNDAY PIT ROAD? “This weekend we have Bill Elliott’s guys, the Wood Brothers 21 crew pitting our car, so I’m really happy about that. The Wood Brothers have been really nice about helping us out.”
EDDIE WOOD, Co-Owner – No. 21 Motorcraft Ford Fusion – HOW DID THIS ARRANGEMENT COME ABOUT? “We spoke a few weeks ago and Boris mentioned he was going to run Sonoma and didn’t have a pit crew, so since that race wasn’t on our schedule and we had no intentions of going, we offered up our guys. Boris Said helped us out at Watkins Glen a couple of years ago and has done a lot to help our road racing program overall,l and he’s just a friend. In fact, we’re trying to find some money to take Boris to Watkins Glen in one of our cars. We haven’t been successful so far, but we’re trying because there aren’t many better on a road course than him. Really, it’s just a case of friends take care of friends. He needs something and I’m glad we’re the ones who can be able to help him out. I’m sure he would do the same for us.”
Looked like what Marcos did to Robby at Montreal, yellow was flying in the last turn and he ran over JJ. JJ did nothing wrong, yellow was out so he didnt punch it.
the initial bump whihc wasnt a biggie happened right at the flagman spot..I think it pissed JJ off and he brake checked him coming out of turn 11 which led to the bigger damage
If SC can post the video from the TV camera angle from the S/F line area looking at the hairpin, it will show corner worker in the hairpin waving the Yellow. The Red and black was waving at the S/F line. Seeing a yellow waving at the entrance to a hairpin, you gotta go slow because obviously you cannot see completely around that corner.
Just texted my friend who the top 3 cars are based on both practices for tomorrow and I said Robby, Fellows and JPM....and Newman looked decent too....someone agrees...lol
After both practices were run Saturday at Infineon Raceway in preparation for Sunday’s Toyota / Save Mart 350, there are several drivers heading the list that don’t get a lot of print time for being considered a contender to win.
In a normal week, the discussions are all about Kyle Busch, Jimmie Johnson, and Carl Edwards and how fast they are in practice.
This week we get to analyze the times of Robby Gordon, Marcos Ambrose, Ron Fellows, and A.J. Allmendinger because despite having lesser cars without the financial backing of the mega teams, they themselves are the equalizer. The 10 turn 1.99 mile road course is a welcome site for a few, while some of the traditional NASCAR oval drivers hope to just finish and leave.
For the two sessions, many teams were attempting differing strategies during different segments. Some teams were using older tires in an attempt to simulate longer runs, which made their times lower on the leader board.
Others were attempting fuel conservation strategies by not running so hard to see the difference in times and fuel used.
Theoretically, the cars should have to pit every 33 laps, but some of the crews are talking like they can get close to 40 laps on one run which, if were true, would mean that a team could get by with only two pit stops in the 110 lap race. It always looks good on paper early on before the race as a game plan, but never seems to happen.
The ratings below are based on both of Saturday’s practice sessions with an emphasis on average times, mixed in with some of their past road racing history, along with a small pinch of where they start on the track because being up front is so critical.
1) Robby Gordon had the fifth fastest lap in the early session and then the third fastest in the final session. In the final session, Gordon had the fastest average times with 13 laps run which shows that he ’s maintaining high speeds for a longer duration than most and will help him mow down the 21 drivers ahead of him to begin the race.
I loved his confidence before the race regarding his brand new chassis. He’s been talking about it for two weeks since his Road Atlanta test session. The only fault with Gordon has been his parts, which seem to fail him just about every year on the roads since leaving RCR.
2) Ron Fellows has to start from the 29th position, but after some major changes in their set up Friday, they came out strong in both sessions. He laid down the second quickest lap during happy hour, but was also second fastest in average times for both sessions combined. He’s got NASCAR wins in the Nationwide and Truck Series, but hasn’t been able claim a Cup win yet.
3) Juan Pablo Montoya will start from the 17th position and looks to have the best car among all the well funded teams running this week. He was second quickest in the early session and fourth in happy hour with good average times in all. His only Cup win is at Sonoma during his first season and is sitting pretty good to end the drought this week.
4) A.J. Allmendinger has got things figured out after two great practice sessions Saturday. He had a strong upward progression in both practices beginning with seventh fastest early and then reeling out the fastest lap just as happy hour ended. He likely came in to get tires just as the session ended, but after running a total of 17 laps in that session, Allmendinger should be very good Sunday.
5) Ryan Newman may be one of the drivers that can get to the front quickly and maintain a solid position throughout the race. He’ll only have two rows of cars in front of him when the green flag drops and his final practice session was very encouraging for a driver that has good success on the road courses. He had the sixth fastest lap and average time in that session.