
Start your engines! Photo via: Wiki Commons
The Cup Series makes its annual trip out west this weekend to the world-famous Sonoma Raceway in the Napa Valley in California. This 2.5-mile road course is a favorite among drivers and teams because of the beautiful scenery and how much fun it is to drive on. The corner that is the most challenging is the carousel. With this corner being as tight as it is, we see many drivers try and make a pass there, and it does not usually work out. It also doesn’t help that the track is highly elevated, so you aren’t sure what is going on in front of you. This will be a hot spot come race day. The key to this race is to manage your brakes, which will become difficult considering how much they will use them in this race.
Last week at Gateway, Joey Logano out dueled his arch rival Kyle Busch in a fantastic battle in the closing laps to capture his second win of 2022. In the final three laps, it appeared that Busch was going to be able to hang on for the win but after a caution from Kevin Harvick, Busch would not get a good enough restart and Logano would make the race winning pass.
When the race was over, Logano’s victory was the second-biggest headline of the day, as Ross Chastain and Denny Hamlin’s dust-up was the biggest talking point. Early in the race, Chastain and Hamlin were racing around each other and no matter how hard he tried, Chastain just couldn’t get around him. Finally, in stage 2, Ross decided to just punt him out of the way, which effectively ended Hamlin's day. With a good result out of the question, Denny’s sole objective was to annoy Chastain. Any time the #1 would get to Hamlin, he would jump out of the throttle and hold him up and make it next to impossible to pass him. Chastain would then get into the back of Chase Elliott and spin him out as well. Elliott would also retaliate by pushing Chastain into turn one. Needless to say, Chastain pretty much made all of St. Louis mad at him, but despite all of that he was able to rebound for a decent 8th place finish. When the race was over, Ross was extremely apologetic, he would take full responsibility for his driving. He would also say that he would talk to Hamlin and that he “owed half the field an apology.” While Hamlin would respond by saying he appreciated his apology, payback was still coming. This will be must-see TV going forward as a new rivalry has emerged.
Chastain wasn’t the only one who ruffled some feathers as Ricky Stenhouse Jr would run into the back of Bubba Wallace and spin him out. We would also see Todd Gilland and Cole Custer get together as well. When the checkered flag flew, everyone hated everyone, a massive success for everyone who watched it. This track will be one all fans have circled on their calendar.
The driver I have winning this weekend is Kurt Busch. Last week at Gateway, he was one of the fastest cars on the track, he backed it up with a victory in stage 2 and an impressive third place finish. Overall, 23XI has shown lots of speed over the course of this season from both of their drivers, and now Kurt gets a chance to showcase his road course racing talents at a track that he knows how to get around better than anyone. While he only has one win here, his experience has earned him an impressive 9.5 average finish here. He also has a habit of rebounding and coming from the back and reeling off great results. We saw it last season when he started 30th and climbed his way all the way to 6th. Kurt is one of the most talented drivers out there, and he continues to prove it week and week out. I look for him to take the checkered flag this Sunday and continue his career resurgence.
Fernando Tatís Jr. hit a tiebreaking solo home run and scored all of San Diego’s runs as the Padres avoided being swept with a 3-2 win over the Houston Astros on Sunday night.
Tatís sent the first pitch he saw from Tayler Scott (1-2) 427 feet to straightaway center to give the Padres a 3-2 lead in the seventh.
Tatís scored from second on a Mauricio Dubón error in the first, and he led off the third with a triple before scoring on an RBI single by Gavin Sheets.
The Astros tied it with two runs in the fifth on an RBI single by Dubón and a Yordan Alvarez sacrifice fly.
Luis Arraez was carted off and taken to a hospital for evaluation after a first inning collision with Dubón on a play at first base. Arraez’s face appeared to collide with Dubón’s arm or elbow, and the Padres designated hitter lay motionless in foul territory next to first base for several minutes.
After being tended to by trainers from both teams, Arraez was placed on a backboard and carted out of the stadium.
Dylan Cease yielded two runs on six hits with six strikeouts in five innings for the Padres. Alek Jacob (1-0) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for the win, and Robert Suarez pitched the ninth for his second save.
Starting pitcher Framber Valdez surrendered two runs on seven hits in six innings for the Astros.
Key moment
With two outs and the tying run on second in the eighth, Jason Adam struck out Victor Caratini to end the inning.
Key stat
The Padres have scored 20 runs in the seventh inning this season, the most runs they have scored in any inning.
Up next
Houston RHP Hunter Brown (2-1, 1.50 ERA) starts the opener of a three-game series against the Blue Jays on Monday night, while San Diego RHP Randy Vásquez (1-1, 1.74) starts Monday in the opener of a three-game series in Detroit.