NASCAR drivers ready for racing as practice day wraps up for Sonoma Raceway's Toyota/Save Mart 350

In what is likely his final Cup race at Sonoma, Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran the third-fastest lap in the Friday afternoon session.|

SONOMA - The stories at Sonoma Raceway Friday included fast tire wear, the unknown of the new NASCAR stages on a road course, Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s gift from Sonoma Raceway and a Northern Californian's fast laps in Happy Hour, the final practice before Saturday's qualifying events.

Elk Grove native and current Monster Energy Cup points leader Kyle Larson recorded the fastest time and best 10-consecutive lap average in Happy Hour, recording a fast lap of 94.389 mph and an average speed of 91.817 mph over 10 laps, completing 28 laps in the session. Larson, who comes from a sprint car racing background and still races them in his spare time, says he has confidence when he races at road courses on the Cup circuit.

“I feel like these places feel most-similar to a sprint car than our typical ovals do,” Larson said. “I feel like I can feel the car better at these places. I don't have a bunch of great finishes, but I typically run up front at this place.”

Larson won last week's race in Michigan and looks to keep the momentum. He's aware that the pit strategy at Sonoma this week will be a little different than at previous tracks but isn't worrying about it too much at this point.

“I haven't thought about the way stage racing will affect the race ... I don't think it'll turn into a four-stop race but maybe a three-stop race instead of a two-stop race.” Larson said.

In what is likely his final Cup race at Sonoma, Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran the third-fastest lap in Happy Hour and the fifth-fastest lap in the first practice.

Earnhardt said the track isn't as fast as it was last year, but that the team was still looking through things and looks to compare notes from Saturday from last year's notes from the race, when he finished 11th despite fast speeds during practice.

“You look at what your comments are today, you look at what your comments are from Sunday from last year, and you try to get ahead of that,” Earnhardt said.

Track president Steve Page presented Earnhardt with a few gifts from the racetrack. The racetrack will sponsor three Labrador retriever puppies in honor of Junior.

They will be trained as assistance dogs by Paws as Loving Support in Forestville.

The dogs will be named Dale, Junior and Amy (Earnhardt's wife's name). In addition, Page presented Earnhardt Jr. with a custom engraved six-liter wine bottle.

“Dale has such a huge following among our fans and we wanted to find a way for his legacy to carry forward locally, well beyond his days as a driver,” Page said.

Martin Truex Jr. said speeds were falling off by more than one second after just five to six laps on the track with a new set of tires in his Friday news conference.

Truex ran the fastest lap in the first practice at 75.740 seconds at 94.587 mph, almost a half-second faster than the next fastest lap, recorded by Denny Hamlin.

Truex, the 2013 race winner, followed it up with the showing in the Happy Hour session.

With tire wear already an issue, and the stages being raced for the first time at Sonoma Raceway, it'll be interesting to see when crew chiefs will call for pit stops.

For the most part, drivers won't lose a lap at Sonoma when they pit, unlike at other smaller or faster racetracks.

“The difficulty here is when you pit,” Truex said. “I feel like if you win the first stage you're probably not going to have a chance to win the race at the end. I just don't know how it's going to play out. I think you'll see a lot of guys will pit before the first stage is over. Typically, at a road course, you try to pit under green.”

Truex finished with the fastest lap in a session that was led, by the most part, by Earnhardt.

Clint Bowyer, who won the 2012 Toyota/Save Mart 350, mentioned that stages throw an entire kink into how this year's race is expected to be run, compared to past races.

He said strategy will go by the wayside and drivers will be forced to push as hard as they can.

“It's certainly going to change a lot about this track. Who's knows?” he said. “It's been such a good thing for our sport. If there ever was an exception to that rule I hope it's not here because you make those rules to try to vamp up the competition everywhere across the board. Sometimes, there are race tracks that probably didn't need it. This is one of those places that you didn't need anything. Obviously, you got to make the rules good for everywhere.”

The Busch brothers were 1-and-2 among 10-lap averages in the first practice, with Kyle recording an average speed of 91.852 mph over 10 laps and Kurt notching a speed of 91.609 mph.

Matt Kenseth drove a little too hard into turn 4 around 90 minutes into the first practice, hopping the curb and landing hard enough to suffer a mechanical failure. The team was forced to change his engine and he will start at the back of the field for Sunday's race.

Chase Elliot crashed hard exiting Turn 10 with about 15 minutes remaining in the Happy Hour final practice.

Elliot will likely go to a backup car and will need to start the race at the back of the pack.

COAST GUARDSMEN WILL BE HONORED

NASCAR will honor a group of coast guardsmen from the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center Petaluma near Two Rock at this Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 with a customized VIP experience. The honor is a part of the Troops to the Track program, a seasonlong initiative that honors members of the military.

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