Bowyer has luck on his side going into Sonoma race
Lightning McQueen went to NASCAR’s Victory Lane last week when Kyle Larson drove the “Cars 3” vehicle to a win.
The McQueen paint scheme has shifted to Clint Bowyer’s car this week, and he’s looking to keep the winning streak going in Sonoma, Calif.
“Hopefully, lightning strikes again,” Bowyer said.
“The kid [Larson] won in the Lightning McQueen scheme last week and it would be cool to take Lightning McQueen to Victory Lane again this week.”
His odds could be decent. Bowyer won at Sonoma in 2012 and is piloting the car that Tony Stewart drove to victory — the last of Stewart’s NASCAR career — in 2016.
So Bowyer smartly removed any additional pressure by not telling 2year-old son Cash about the special “Cars 3” paint scheme.
He estimates he has watched the franchise with Cash “no less than 300 times,” and his son would have been extremely thrilled by the car.
But Cash wasn’t invited to this race weekend in picturesque wine country, so Bowyer didn’t mention Lightning McQueen.
Bowyer is in his first season driving for StewartHaas Racing and has yet to win as Stewart’s replacement.
In fact, Bowyer hasn’t won at all since the 2012 season. The move to SHR has been helpful in getting him closer to the front, and Bowyer is currently 12th in the Cup standings.
Of course, Bowyer will have a ton of competition on the race track, including from Larson, the current Cup points leader.
Xfinity
Matt Tifft will return to Iowa Speedway Saturday after missing the race from a cancer scare in 2016. Doctors discovered Tifft had a low-grade tumor, or glioma, on the right side of his brain — right where all those nasty headaches had started. The tumor turned out to be benign, and after brain surgery those symptoms subsided. Tifft was even healthy enough to return to racing three months later, when he notched top 10s in three consecutive starts. Tifft, working with new crew chief Matt Beckman, has finished in the top 10 just four times in 13 races, though Tifft believes that he and his team have finally started clicking over the past few weeks. That cohesion could help Tifft find the redemption he said he’s seeking at Iowa. The first race Tifft missed because of his tumor was in Iowa — and he watched from home as veteran Sam Hornish Jr. jumped into his car on short notice and won the race.
IndyCar
When he was growing up, Graham Rahal found more than enough to do to stay occupied at Road America while the racers in his family went to work. Now Rahal is the doing the driving, and he feels like a kid again back at the rural road course in Elkhart Lake, Wis. It is Year 2 of IndyCar’s return to Road America. The track went nine years in between stops from a major openwheel circuit before IndyCar roared back in 2016. The 221-mile Kohler Grand Prix is scheduled for Sunday.
“So it means a lot to us. I’ve spent many, many, many days running around, terrorizing this place,” said Rahal, who drives for a team co-owned by his father, 1986 Indy 500 winner Bobby Rahal. “It’s changed a little bit, but just an awesome, awesome race track. A lot of great memories.”
Practice started Friday at Road America, and qualifying is Saturday on the 14-turn course.