With the intention of trying to gain more experience before this weekend’s Sprint Cup Series event at Sonoma Raceway, four Sprint Cup Series drivers will be running the Saturday K&N Pro Series West event at the winding road course before the main event on Sunday.
Sprint Cup Series Rookie Of The Year contenders Justin Allgaier, Austin Dillon, Kyle Larson and Michael Annett are all running the event, as well as 2013 Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Allgaier will be running the No. 83 Grigg Brothers/BRANDT Chevrolet for Menno Admiraal, which normally fields a car for Kelly Admiraal. This will mark Allgaier’s K&N Pro Series debut, though he does have 14 road course starts in the Nationwide Series with a win at Montreal in 2012.
Dillon will be running the No. 21 Golden Gate/RCR Chevrolet for Steve Portenga. Dillon finished 15th in his only K&N West start in April of 2009,but has one win, one pole, seven top fives and 12 top 10s in 15 career NASCAR K&N Pro Series East starts. He also ran four road course races in the Nationwide Series with only one finish in the top 10.
Larson will be running the No. 34 Clorox Chevrolet for Turner-Scott Motorsports while attempting to make his NASCAR K&N Pro Series West debut. The 18-year-old does have previous K&N Pro Series experience, as he was the 2012 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Champion and Rookie of the Year. He also has three career road-course starts in NASCAR Nationwide Series with one top 10.
Stenhouse will be running the No. 99 Roush Performance Parts Toyota for Bill McAnally Racing in his NASCAR K&N Pro Series West debut. Stenhouse finished 27th in last year’s Sprint Cup Series event at Sonoma, though he performed better later in the season at Watkins Glen with an 18th place finish. In the Nationwide Series, he has eight road course starts with one top five and two top 10s.
Lastly, Annett is scheduled to run the No. 31 for Windi Potenga with the sponsor yet to be announced. Annett has run some Nationwide Series road course events over the past four seasons, with a career best seventh place finish coming at Road America in 2010.
The K&N Pro Series West will run June 21st while the Toyota / Save Mart 350 will air June 22nd live on TNT at 3:15PM ET.
Residing in Canada, she freelances for a number of racing publications, from SpeedwayMedia.com to On Pit Road while covering local short tracks up in Ontario.