Now Bruton Smith is saying what?

   Jamie McMurray did the Sonoma advance work, after winning the Daytona 500. Now can he back it up during race week here in San Francisco? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   (Updated)

   SONOMA, Calif. 
   Tires or gas, or track position? That's always a question on road courses, particularly Sonoma.
   Drivers always want more grip, especially here, with so many corners. But with just a few good passing spots, track position is important too. And gas is pretty straightforward – a driver can make the distance on just two stops.
   Kevin Harvick, the Sprint Cup tour leader going into Sunday's Toyota/SaveMart 350, says "Tires meant more than fuel last year. You could really make up a lot of ground putting new tires on.
   "So it is just a matter of what tire they brought and how much it falls off, as to where that balancing act is, as far as when you pit and when you don't pit....when you stay out toward the end of the race.
    "Double-file restarts clog everything up. So it just depends on how much time you think you can make up on new tires....as to whether you try to pull fuel strategy.
    "And with the green-white-checkered deal (three possible attempts), you've got to have some cushion, because if you have a caution at the end of the race, you are probably going to go two or three green-white-checkereds.
    "And there is a lot of contact here, so better be ready for multiples."
   Indeed, and this is the first road course of this 'Boys, have at it' season. So will drivers be a little rougher than usual here?
   Carl Edwards, who roughed up Marcos Ambrose to win at Montreal last summer: "You could rough someone up here, but it's hard to rough 'em up enough to put 'em out of the race.
   "I do think you'll see a little different fuel strategy, with the potential for three green-white-checkers. If some guys start running out on the first green-white-checkered, then you could see a really strange finish."
    Edwards, Paul Menard and Brad Keselowski are the three Cup regulars shuttling between this track and Wisconsin's Road America, for Saturday's Nationwide race.
    Tires, gas, or track position? Todd Berrier, crew chief for Jeff Burton, says that track position is always good to have but that it's a toss-up between tires or gas -- make it on two fuel stops, or gamble on an extra stop for tires and use that speed to some advantage.
  "Last year here eight of the top-10 finishers made three stops....but that's because there was a caution on lap 54 (of the 113) that made that possible," Berrier says. "If not for that, the race would have gone two stops. Like it or not, you've still got to have track position...
  "Now Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon pitted (again) with 15 to go and finished in the top-10. But that's because a lot of wrecks allowed them to do that."
  
  

  It never rains in this part of California....Jimmie Johnson, here running through the back-40, won't need rain tires (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

  Jimmie Johnson, facing fatherhood for the first time in a few weeks, concedes the last few weeks haven't been that great for him and his team, but he insists he's not in a 'slump.'
   "The last two weekends have been more about stopping the bleeding," Johnson says, "and not losing more points and slipping further down in the standings.
   "We did a good job the last two weeks about not taking unnecessary risks. And I didn't stick it in the wall.
   "But we didn't have a  race-winning car the last two weeks. We were competitive, but my problem has been that I could see the front and figured I could make up a tenth or two and make it race-winning car. And I've made mistakes. So I've tried to eliminate that.
   "Every team is going to struggle sometime during the season. And as much as I hate to go through it right now, I'm excited that it's now and not September that we're going through it. And we have time to turn our cars from being top-five cars to dominant cars.
    "We're just playing a little catch-up right now.
   On the other side of the picture, Johnson is here this weekend trying to add a road course win to his NASCAR resume. He says "it's aggravating" not to have won yet on a road course. And he has been doing extra work to pick up this part of his game, like running a Grand-Am race in Watkins Glen.
   So Johnson, while insisting he won't be overdriving this weekend, in trying to get that first win here, says he has been analyzing races here.
   "The start of the race here, the first 15 or 20 laps, there is some give-and-take," Johnson says. "But then after a while something happens, and one guy screws over another guy...and the energy changes.
   "And everyone you come in contact with is more irritated.
   "By the end of the race it is just cutthroat. In every braking zone guys are blocking...and the guy who is being blocked says 'The hell with you, I'll just spin you out.'
   "And off they go.
   "There is an energy in the race that kicks in...and I want to avoid that. I don't want to get caught up in that. If you get red-faced and caught up in those little battles, before you know it, you're sitting in the dirt or in the tire barriers, with the fenders torn off the car.
   "I want to stay away from that if I can help it. And one way is to stay up in the top-three on the track. It seems to be a lot safer up there...a little more respect."
   Winning here, or at the Glen, Johnson says isn't so much a 'resume builder' as it would be just eliminating an 'aggravation.'
   "Winning the Brickyard, winning at Bristol, those are resume wins," he says. "Winning here – not winning here is just an irritation, because I know I can do it. I've run fast and good on road courses. I know I can win at this."
    And the fatherhood update: Wife Chandra is due around July 11th. "No more traveling for her...and now it's just wait-and-see," Johnson says.
   
  

  Juan Pablo Montoya won here in 2008, but he hasn't won since. And, despite a lot of speed this spring, he's had some hard luck. But he is probably the sport's best road racer (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   THE NASCAR NOTEBOOK

   The latest twist from NASCAR promoter extraordinaire Bruton Smith:
   He says he may move next summer's Sprint Cup race from Loudon, N.H., to another track if the local police department doesn't cut its bill for track security.
   Last weekend Smith surprised everyone by throwing cold water on a Sprint Cup race for his Kentucky Speedway in 2011, which raised questions in the NASCAR garage about what he might have up his sleeve.
   Speculation has been that Smith might move one of his Atlanta race dates to Kentucky, possibly the second event, which runs Labor Day weekend. However the move last year to Labor Day proved a boon to Atlanta, which drew a nice crowd.
   When Smith first bought the New Hampshire track there were questions about whether he might take one of those two Cup dates and move one to his Las Vegas Speedway. He quashed those questions then. But now?

   Kyle Busch says Sunday's game plan here is easy: "It's a two stop race.  You play it from the checkered flag.  If you can go 30 laps on fuel, you'll go from the checkered flag back 30 laps; that's when you'll stop. Then you'll go back 30 laps from there and that's when you'll stop. You always try to stretch it from the end of the race as much as you can on fuel mileage, so you really have to work fuel mileage."

   NASCAR executives are asking drivers and team owners for suggestions about how to improve the sport.
   -- How to perk up NASCAR's championship chase? Maybe by eliminating teams one by one during the final 10-race run: The last of the chase guys after each Sunday's race gets eliminated.
   -- How to perk up NASCAR crowds?  Michigan's Roger Curtis is adding his name to that of those NASCAR promoters wanting NASCAR to open up testing for Cup teams, not just to help the teams but to help the Cup tour tracks too with a bit more promotion. After all, NASCAR's testing ban hasn't stopped teams from testing, just from testing at NASCAR tracks, which Texas' Eddie Gossage says is not logical.
  

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  Bruton Smith loves a crowd....and he loves to be the center of attention, which he certainly is at the moment with his teasers about Kentucky Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)