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NASCAR America: Sonoma Raceway a challenge for young drivers

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The Cup Series heads to Sonoma this weekend for the first of two road courses on the schedule, which could pose additional challenges for young drivers like Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott.

There will be a lot of inexperience this weekend at Sonoma Raceway.

While there will be five “road course ringers” in Sunday’s Cup race, four of them will be making their first starts in the Cup series.

Then you have drivers like rookie Daniel Suarez, who will make his first start on the road course.

He and Ryan Blaney will be starting in Saturday’s K&N Pro Series West race in order to get more track time.

NASCAR America analysts Greg Biffle and Jeff Burton explain why the track that hosts NASCAR’s first road course of the year is such a challenge for young drivers.

“To go there and to have to mount your seat different, shift the gears and use the brake, stay on the track and not make mistakes, it’s a complicated thing,” Biffle said. “It’s a difficult thing for drivers to race for half a season and go do this. The good thing is we road race again not too far after this (at Watkins Glen) which I think is a good thing for the sport and drivers.”

Said Burton, “It wasn’t that I didn’t think I could drive the car. It’s that I didn’t know what the car needed. ... When you don’t have a feel for road racing, what is a car supposed to do? Why aren’t I as fast as I need to be? Am I slow in the right (turns)? Am I not getting into the corner deep enough? It’s so difficult to identify what’s not right.”

Watch the rest of the video for the full discussion.