Big weekend ahead as NASCAR returns to Sonoma Raceway for Toyota/Save Mart 350

Two NASCAR legends will be memorialized today in a Wall of Fame ceremony as part of the fan-friendly weekend-long race festivities at Sonoma Raceway.

The thousands of fans attending the three days of events can expect lots of face time with drivers, some possible celebrity sightings, trendy food offerings (think waffle-wiches), more shaded seats and improved scoreboards to help keep up with the race action.

With 10 different winners in the past 11 years, it’s anyone’s bet who will take the checkered flag in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350.

So far during this Sprint Cup season, 10 drivers have notched victories, with Kyle Busch claiming three and Brad Keselowski, Carl Edwards and Jimmie Johnson each with two. In the standings, Kevin Harvick leads by 30 points over Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch.

Fans will be able to follow the action better with a new 85-foot-tall, four-sided LED scoring pylon that will provide real-time running order for the top 20 positions, race-related graphics and other information. The track has also installed an 84-by-12 LED video board on the front of its three-story Drag Tower.

Actor Luke Wilson is scheduled to drive the pace car before the race and whoever takes the checkered flag will celebrate in victory lane with a goblet full of - what else? - wine.

As practice and qualifying kick off today, retired driver Ernie Irvan and perennial fan favorite Tony Stewart will become the newest members of the raceway’s wall of honor.

The pair, among only five two-time winners at the curvy road course, join other recent inductees Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Jeff Gordon, Ricky Rudd and Rick Hendrick.

Stewart has competed 17 times at Sonoma, winning twice and finishing in the top 10 nine times. This year’s race will mark his final year as a driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

“I have a long history at Sonoma and a lot of memories there, and to be inducted into the Wall of Fame is a real honor,” said Stewart, who made his first Sonoma start in 1999.

“I’ve always loved the challenge of road-course racing and I’m proud of all that we’ve accomplished at Sonoma,” he said. “Hopefully we can put a third win on the board this weekend.”

Irvan became the first two-time NASCAR winner at Sonoma in 1994, winning by the largest margin of victory in raceway history - 9.56 seconds - over Geoffrey Bodine.

That win came just two years after his first, in 1992, in a victory many remember as one of the most exciting at the Sonoma course.

At the start of the Save Mart Supermarkets 300, Irvan was black-flagged for crossing the starting line ahead of pole winner Ricky Rudd. He rallied, however, to pass 41 cars and claim the checkered flag.

Irvan said Sonoma feels like his home track.

“I always loved going home to race there,” said the Salinas native, who retired in 1999.

Irvan posted six top 10 finishes and one pole position in 10 Sonoma starts.

The induction ceremony will be at 2:10 p.m. today in Victory Lane. Afterward, marble plaques engraved with Stewart and Irvan’s likenesses will be displayed on the Wall of Fame behind the main grandstand.

Racing takes center stage on Saturday and Sunday, with the 64-lap Chevys Fresh Mex 200 NASCAR Pro Series West Race starting at 1 p.m. Saturday and the 100-lap Toyota/Save Mart 350 at noon Sunday.

Some of the biggest names in the sport will be competing.

The 28th consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Sonoma is the first of two road-course events in the series.

The 10-turn, 1.99-mile road course runs 110 laps for a total of 218.9 miles. Kyle Busch won last year in 2 hours, 55 minutes and 39 seconds, averaging 74.774 mph.

He nipped his older brother, Kurt, by 0.532 seconds at the finish line to win in Sonoma for the second time. Kyle Busch also won in 2008, breaking the raceway’s streak of 10 different winners in 10 years.

Last year’s crowd was the biggest at Sonoma Raceway in a decade, as tens of thousands of fans came to show respect to legendary driver Jeff Gordon, who grew up in nearby Vallejo and had recently announced he would soon retirement.

Gordon returns this year, although not to race. He will appear at a short Q&A in Club 7 from 10-10:15 a.m. Saturday (Separate tickets are required for the Q&As).

Saturday’s Chevys Fresh Mex 200 kicks off the competition with the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race, the sixth of 14 races in the series and the first road course.

A maximum of 40 cars will race, the first 36 starting positions set by group qualifying earlier in the day and the final four by the provisional process.

The 64-lap race will have a five-minute break at or near the conclusion of lap 40.

Twenty-year-old driver Chase Elliott, son of 1988 NASCAR champion Bill Elliott, returns to the NASCAR K&N Pro Series after competing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, the ARCA Racing Series and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East.

The Chevys Fresh Mex 200 is his Sonoma Raceway debut.

Defending champ David Mayhew will be making his second K&N Pro Series West start of the year. He won at Sonoma last season after leading only four laps.

Mayhew is comfortable in Sonoma, having earned one win, three top fives and four top tens in his eight starts there.

You can reach Lori A. Carter at 521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.