Ready to hit the track
NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson, sitting eighth in Cup standings, gets into his car Friday during practice for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Speedway (noon, FS1). Qualifying is Saturday.
NASCAR is back at Sonoma Raceway, but the defending race winner won’t be part of the field Sunday.
Tony Stewart, who scored the last of his 49 career victories in Sonoma, is retired now and watches the Cup races as a team owner. He still plans to race this weekend.
Stewart will run at Calistoga Speedway in an event that is being largely promoted by Rico Abreu and his father, local businessman David Abreu.
The race used to be called the Wine Country Classic, but has been renamed the Boys and Girls Club Dirt Track Classic. David Abreu designed the event as a fundraiser for a facility to house after-school programs for children in Calistoga.
“My dad and I have always wanted to promote a race to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club,” Rico Abreu said. “There is a need for it with our demographics, and it accommodates hundreds of kids in our valley. It provides them a safe place to learn and grow.”
Rico Abreu, one of the nation’s top dirt-track drivers, benefited from the program along with his two siblings in St. Helena.
Stewart, Abreu and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. are among those entered in the Saturday dirt-track event to help draw attendance.
It will be Stewart’s first Winged Sprint Car start at the Calistoga half-mile. He did win a USAC Western Midget Series race in 1994. He also set the midget track record that same weekend and held it until USAC made its return to the venue in 2008.
“I’m really looking forward to running the Calistoga Speedway since I haven’t raced there since 1994,” Stewart said. “I’m also excited to see all the improvements that have taken place at the track since the last time I’ve been there.”