Tempers could be tested in Sprint Cup race at Sonoma

It used to be that short tracks were the guaranteed place for the bumping, banging and blown tempers. It’s now shifted to road courses, specifically Sonoma, where more than a few drivers will likely be raging mad by the end of today’s race in Sonoma, Calif.

“I think this has turned into the most no-holds-barred, crazy, people-running-into-each-other race, more so than any of the short tracks we go to now,” said Sprint Cup Series points leader Matt Kenseth.

NASCAR’s last two visits to the winding road course in Northern California wine country have been demolition derbies. Jeff Gordon was the bad guy in 2010, when he tangled on track with at least four drivers in a race he deemed a “disaster – just one of those terrible days where I made a lot of mistakes, no doubt made a lot of people unhappy.”

Hunter-Reay wins in Iowa

Ryan Hunter-Reay passed Scott Dixon with 12 laps to go Saturday and held on to win for the second straight week in a wild IndyCar Series race that ended under caution in Newton, Iowa.

Hunter-Reay, the winner last week at the Milwaukee Mile, moved to second in the season standings with his seventh career IndyCar victory.

Teammate Marco Andretti was second, followed by Tony Kanaan and Dixon.

Points leader Will Power’s lead dwindled to three after he was bounced on the 68th lap.

IndyCar gets starter camera

The IndyCar Series is hoping a new video camera can eliminate mistakes after the embarrassing penalty wrongly given to Scott Dixon last week in Milwaukee.

Series race director Beaux Barfield announced this week that a camera will be fixed on the starter to capture the green flag on starts and restarts.

IndyCar penalized Dixon for jumping a restart, but Barfield later acknowledged that a failure in the system caused officials to look at the wrong replay.

IndyCar race a ‘long shot’

Road America president George Bruggenthies calls it a “long shot” but said it’s still possible that the track will host an IndyCar race in August.

Bruggenthies said the track in Elkhart Lake, Wis., has made a proposal to IndyCar to host a race Aug. 19, but the two sides are six figures apart on the sanctioning fee the track would pay to the series.

Piquet takes Road America

Nelson Piquet Jr. held the lead on a late restart, then pulled away from the rest of the field to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis.

The Brazilian became a winner in his third career Nationwide start after starting the race from pole position.

Michael McDowell finished second and Ron Fellers was third.