We're at Sonoma already?

Last year I took one of my favourite road trips of all time down to San Franfreako and back. Well equipped with a track scanner, I was able to follow along in detail as Juan Pablo gambled his way to a first place and the front running Ford Fusions started dropping like flies. NOTE: scanners are already indispensible at sprawling road course where a lot of the race is out of view, but even more so when it comes down to fuel mileage battle - plenty of Apollo 13-like dialogue going on between crew chief and drivers and you can make yourself a pretty popular guy by passing on helpful soundbites to the crowd around you.

The really cool thing about road courses is that you get an entirely novel group of drivers up at the top of the charts for once. Guys like Said, Ambrose, Gord...wait, what's this...Kasey's on the pole? Cripes. Ah, we'll see how he looks in race trim.

My bets are squarely on the California Gordons. Jeff needs a win badly (or is another crew chief shake up in store?) and the scrappy Robby is again looking in fine form, this time in a hopefully more fuel efficient Dodge Charger. Don't count out the Once Mighty 'Stache, though. I enthusiastically followed Ron Fellow's race last year as he swapped paint with Gordon ("does this guy know who I am?!" came the response from 24's radio) and he ran up front in the DLP Chevy until fading back and getting scrambled on pit strategy. This year he's in a (look out!) black DEI offering. Does he know yet that a well groomed lip shrubbery makes an ironic fashion statement these days? Does Jeff Gordon?