Chase Elliott has limited road course experience. The next NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race is at the Sonoma Raceway next weekend. What to do? Put the rookie driver in a lower-series stock-car race to give him a feel for the track. The folks at Sonoma Raceway sent out this release about the NASCAR K&N; Pro Series West race scheduled on June 25, which is a day before the Cup race. The release (in part): The NASCAR K&N; Pro Series West returns to Sonoma Raceway for its 36th consecutive visit at the Chevys Fresh Mex 200 on Saturday, June 25, with a full field of up-and-coming stars, as well as NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular Chase Elliott. Elliott will put some extra track time under his belt before Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series main event. This will mark Elliott’s first NASCAR West Series start of the season, as well as his first Cup series road-course race. In addition, several Northern California drivers will compete in Saturday’s race including Jim Inglebright (Fairfield), Scott Ivie (San Ramon), Rodd Kneeland (Sonoma), Alex Schutte (Redding), Jack Sellers (Sacramento), Tim Spurgeon (Danville) and Carlos Viera (Atwater). The NASCAR West Series continues to be the place where future stars are made. The influx of young talent over the past few years has been significant and continues to filter its way through NASCAR’s three national series with the likes of Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez and Elliott. The 2016 NASCAR K&N; Pro Series West season is no different with rising talents Todd Gilliland, Noah Gragson, Riley Herbst, Julia Landauer, Gracin Raz and Cole Rouse.(Daytona Beach News Journal)(6-22-2016)
UPDATE: Elliott will make his Sprint Cup road course debut this weekend at Sonoma Raceway, but before the road course rookie gets behind the wheel on Sunday he will have a race in the books at the Sonoma track. He is entered to compete in Saturday’s NASCAR West Series race, marking his first start of the season in NASCAR’s western home track series. The 20-year-old driver has competed in six road course races in NASCAR’s XFINITY Series, earning four top-five finishes. He has also competed in one Camping World Truck Series road course event and three ARCA Racing road course races, earning one victory and three top-five finishes, respectively. While most drivers spent last weekend with their dads, Elliott and his father Bill Elliott will get plenty of time together this weekend as the elder Elliott takes on the role of second spotter for his son. A NASCAR Hall of Famer and 1998 NASCAR premier series championship driver, Bill Elliott owns one victory and 10 top-five finishes on road courses in his career and is looking to help his son excel at the 10-turn track this weekend.(HMS)
