NASCAR At Sonoma 2012: Clint Bowyer Picks Up Surprising Win

Marcos Ambrose and Jeff Gordon started Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Sonoma in first and second, and in some order many expected the duo to finish that way.

However, for much of the afternoon neither was a factor. When the checkered flag flew, Gordon was sixth in the final rundown and Ambrose was eighth.

Clint Bowyer held off charging Tony Stewart to win Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race in a green-white-checkered-flag finish that took the event two laps past its scheduled distance of 110 laps.

The victory was Bowyer’s first of the year and the sixth of his career. Stewart passed Kurt Busch for the second position after the final restart and finished .829 seconds behind Bowyer’s No. 15 Toyota. Busch held the third spot, followed by Brian Vickers and Jimmie Johnson.

It’s NASCAR race day at Sonoma, and we’ve got the actual race start time, the starting lineup and some other facts about today’s race for you below.

What time does the race start today? Former St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa will give the command to fire engines at 12:07 p.m. local time, which is 3:07 p.m. Eastern. After a couple pace laps, the race will take the green flag at 12:19 p.m. local (3:19 p.m. ET). So if you want to skip the pre-race show and just tune in for the race itself, turn on your TV sets at 3:19 p.m.

Perhaps more than any other track in NASCAR, the drivers themselves matter the most at Sonoma.

Curiously, though, the so-called “road course ringers” like Boris Said, Tomy Drissi and Chris Cook don’t seem to make much of an impact during NASCAR’s two annual road racing events.

When you take a look at the Sonoma record book, Jeff Gordon’s name stands out more than any other. The four-time series champion is the track record-holder for wins, top-fives, top-10s, poles and laps led.

Yet, perhaps more than ever before, Gordon needs a victory on the 1.95-mile road course located in the wine country of Northern California.

When Juan Pablo Montoya came to NASCAR from Formula One, he had a three-year plan to succeed in the Sprint Cup Series.

In the third year, Montoya made the Chase. The following season, Earnhardt Ganassi Racing won four races.

After a dreary day on Friday at Sonoma, the weather will improve for NASCAR Sprint Cup practice today.

There could be some lingering low clouds, fog and even some drizzle through the morning. Expect during the practices the skies will clear and give sunshine. Temperatures will remain chilly as they remain in the 60s most of the time today.

When you hear about “blocking” at a road course, you might think of Tony Stewart.

Not because Stewart blocks, but because he freaking hates it when other people do – and he’s likely to take action if it happens (remember Brian Vickers here last year?).

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series qualifying at Sonoma will be shown on a tape delay tonight (at 11 p.m. Eastern, SPEED) because the Barrett-Jackson car auction is taking place during the actual qualifying time (6:40 p.m. Eastern).

This will undoubtedly expose me for not being a “car guy,” but I don’t get it. People seem to love the Barrett-Jackson shows and go nuts over seeing various old vehicles get fought over by a bunch of rich car collectors.

As you might expect, Dale Earnhardt Jr. wondered what the response from his family, friends and fans would be once he snapped his NASCAR victory drought. But as he re-discovered last week after winning at Michigan, “the real reaction is always bigger than what you imagined.”

Earnhardt Jr. rattled off several feel-good moments about the days following his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory in four years when he met with reporters on Friday at Sonoma.