FanHouse Infineon Raceway

Notes & Quotes comes flying at you this week from the sandy shores of the Gulf of Mexico. I hope you'll pardon my tardniness.

Infineon Win a Baby Step for Kasey Kahne at RPM

If you got a chance to read Holly Cain's piece on Kasey Kahne this week, you saw how excited the Washington driver was to be finally finding good equipment at Richard Petty Motorsports. According to Kahne, everything from bodies to engines are coming together at the right time for the team.

That's good news for Kahne fans, but it's even better for the folks running the show at RPM.

Where: Infineon Raceway, Sonoma, Calif.
Time: Sunday 5:00pm/EDT
TV/Radio: TNT, MRN Radio
Twitter: At-track updates at FanHouseRacing
Forecast: 78 degrees, Mostly Sunny
Distance: 110 laps (218.9 miles)
Pole Winner: Brian Vickers
2008 Winner: Kyle Busch
NASCAR's annual trip to wine country is a highlight of the Sprint Cup season because its one of two trips the series takes to a track that turns right. And as FH's Holly Cain argued earlier in the week, they 'oughta be doing this more.

WEST ALLIS, Wis. (AP) -- Carl Edwards made the most of his one-day Wisconsin getaway, winning Saturday's Nationwide series race at the Milwaukee Mile after taking a brief break from his Sprint Cup duties in California.

It's a repeat victory at Milwaukee and the first Nationwide win of this season for Edwards, who took the lead from fellow Cup commuter Kyle Busch with 44 laps left in the race and wasn't significantly challenged the rest of the way.

Perhaps, you could say, Saturday's practice sessions had more twists and turns than the 10-turn road course they happened on.

An favorite, an underdog and a three-time champion were all involved in incidents that should have a good bit of effect on Sunday's 110-lapper at Infineon Raceway, and a rookie even got punted in the support race to accentuate a wild day.

All in a day's work, one would suppose.

Juan Pablo Montoya made a scary analysis about the condition of his Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing's team cars Friday at Infineon Raceway.

It was scary for the rest of the field, of course, because the Colombian is returning to the twisty road course in Northern California where he saw his first career Sprint Cup Series win two years ago with a race car that he thinks is better prepared.

"I think our cars have come a long way -- even when we won here, our cars are a little more competitive now," said Montoya on Friday afternoon prior to qualifying.

Sunday's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Infineon Raceway could very well make or break the season of two underrated drivers who are teammates by virtually all definitions of the word.

Marcos Ambrose, who drives for JTG-Daugherty Racing, essentially a satellite of Michael Waltrip Racing (MWR), and David Reutimann, who won his first Cup race for MWR last month at Lowe's Motor Speedway, are two humble and subdued drivers making a lot of noise on the track this year. But the road course in Sonoma, Calif., could mean totally different things to the duo.

No race winner at Infineon Raceway has ever started deeper than 13th in the field, but Juan Pablo Montoya changed that today.

After a disappointing qualifying run, Montoya climbed his way from 32nd and got to the front when it mattered. He called his first Nextel Cup win the "biggest thing he's ever done," but he's still not satisfied:

"To get our first win in our first year is huge. We know we're a little behind at some of the ovals, and we still need to work hard, but I think this is a big boost for everybody working in the shop."

At least he's got some bragging rights, now. Montoya joins Mario Andretti and Dan Gurney as the only drivers to win in Formula One, IndyCar and NASCAR Nextel Cup.

And he did it without wrecking anyone despite making a driver or two nervous along the way, like Dale Earnhardt Jr. who said as much on his in-car radio when the Comobian was on his tail. I suspect Montoya's Busch road course win was fresh on his mind.

Montoya's win was the first of the season for his owner, Chip Ganassi Racing, and his manufacturer. The Dodge win is also the first COT win by a non-Chevrolet.

The Chevys of Richard Childress Racing all stretched fuel mileage and Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer claim 2nd through fourth respectively.

Toyota/Save Mart 350 Results | Standings

Jamie McMurray starts on the pole today. That's only happened twice before in his five-year Nextel Cup career, the last time at the 2005 Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway on July 24, 2005. He finished 11th. His first Bud Pole Award came at Homestead in 2004 where he finished 9th.

Robby Gordon will start 2nd in the Toyota/SaveMart 350. Last time he started that high in the field was here in 2003. He won. He owes TGOM a thank you. Because he was excluded from the power rankings, he has a shot at repeating.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. starts 3rd. Previously, his best start at Infineon Raceway came in 2005, which didn't work out too well for him. He started 10th, finished 42nd.

Is Jimmie Johnson's crew chief a cheater? Or an innovator that got busted bending the rules too far?

I consider him the latter ... and I'm not alone. In fact, I'm in good company. Last season after Chad Knaus got caught with his rear window up, he was lauded for his innovation by his peers.

This weekend, the defending Nextel Cup champion's chief says they were just doing what everyone else is trying to do:

"What you try to do with any racecar is to make the car as efficient as possible. There was an area there that we thought we might be able to find some more front downforce, like what everybody wants to do, and we went into that area. It's what NASCAR seems ... is not the area they want us to go. We thought we could. Obviously we can't."

Some see a cheater ... I see a crew chief taking advantage of every gray area available to him to put his driver out front on a consistent basis ... What say you?