Vallejo native Jeff Gordon returns to Infineon Raceway on Sunday looking for his sixth victory on the road course. Gordon has had a lot of success in Sonoma as he has 14 top ten finishes in 18 career starts at the track. He ran into a mess of trouble in 2010 as he cost numerous drivers a shot at strong finishes. However, he is otherwise on a bit of a hot streak at Infineon as he finshed in the top ten five straight races.
Infineon is basically Gordon's home track as he grew up less than 15 miles from the Sonoma raceway. In fact, Gordon holds his daughter's birthday at Infineon each year and the return gives him a chance to catch up with a variety of old friends.
Gordon is currently 12th in the Sprint Cup Series standings 94 points back of first place Carl Edwards. More importantly, Gordon is 17 points back of Clint Bowyer and Denny Hamlin for the cut-off in the "Chase For The Sprint Cup." There is still time for him to climb into the top ten and he's been performing well lately. He finished 17th in the recent Helluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400, but before that he won the 5-Hour Energy 500 and finished fourth in the STP 400. A strong finish on Sunday could vault him back into the top ten in the standings.
We'll be here all weekend providing news updates and results on the 2011 Toyota/Save Mart 350. For more NASCAR coverage, check out NASCAR Ranting and Raving as well as SB Nation's NASCAR hub.