2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350

The 2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350 was the sixteenth race of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, and the first of two scheduled road course races on the 2008 schedule. The event was held on Sunday, June 22, 2008, at Infineon Raceway at Sears Point in Sonoma, California, televised on TNT starting at 3:30 PM US EDT, and broadcast on radio via Sirius Satellite Radio and Performance Racing Network starting at 4 PM US EDT.

Pre-Race News

It was announced by Joe Gibbs Racing that 18-year-old Joey Logano, who won the Nationwide Series Meijer 300 at Kentucky Motor Speedway one week earlier will attempt to drive in several late-season Sprint Cup races. At of age, Logano became the youngest NASCAR-sanctioned major series race winner surpassing Casey Atwood's age of.
The biannual rite of road course ringers replacing regular drivers happened as per custom this week at Infineon Raceway. Among this week's changes among those already locked into the Top 35, Scott Pruett replaced Reed Sorenson in the #41 Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge starting 28th and Dale Earnhardt, Inc. employed Canadian Ron Fellows in the #01 Chevrolet for Regan Smith, starting 22nd. Four drivers - Italian Max Papis, who drove the #66 Haas CNC Racing Chevrolet in the 28th slot for Scott Riggs, who transferred to the #70 ride this week, and failed to make the race; Brian Simo drove Front Row Motorsports' #34 car, which switched from Chevrolet to Ford for No Fear Racing, and started 43rd ; Aussie Marcos Ambrose in the #21 Wood Brothers Ford, who started seventh and Boris Said in the No Fear Racing #60 Ford who will started 14th - made the race in the knockout phase of the qualifying.
Kyle Busch will solely concentrate on trying to win the 2008 Sprint Cup championship, abandoning racing separate events in the Nationwide Series and the Craftsman Truck Series unless they are in conjunction with Sprint Cup events.

Race notes

The Australian rookie Marcos Ambrose had his first NASCAR Cup race/start in this race. He started 7th and the NASCAR Cup world noticed him. When Marcos Ambrose came to Sonoma to race, the fans and drivers remembered him for him being crashed by Robby Gordon in 2007 at Montreal with 2 laps left. Marcos Ambrose because of his road course talent & good finishes in the Busch series in his past, qualified seventh; and was contending to win in his Wood Bros. #21 Chevy. However, with 25 laps left, NASCAR veteran Elliott Sadler tapped Marcos Ambrose who crashed and was damaged enough that he could not race anymore that day. Marcos Ambrose was really unhappy about the end of his good run and in post-race ceremonies he argued with Elliott Sadler in the garages. Ambrose said to reporters that he felt like beating Elliott Sadler for the tap but he got over it the next week after a call/apology from Sadler. Marcos finished in 42nd spot as a heartbreak for his first NASCAR Cup run.
Italian driver Max Papis also had one of his first NASCAR Cup races at Sonoma. He drove for Gene Haas' #66 Automation chevy and ended up in 35th spot.
The 2008 Toyota/Save Mart 350 also had one of NASCAR's largest numbers of road course drivers competing in the races with 8 drivers.

Qualifying

Kasey Kahne, who went out third in qualifying won the session, his second this season. Kahne, driver of the #9 Gillett Evernham Motorsports Budweiser Dodge had bettered Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s time, and then sweated out 44 other attempts to sit on P-1. Jimmie Johnson started next to Kahne on the front row, with Kurt Busch and Bobby Labonte in the second row, followed by Jeff Gordon and Elliott Sadler in the third row.

RANK	DRIVER	NBR	CAR	TIME	SPEED
1	Kasey Kahne	9	Dodge	1:17.740	92.153
2	Jimmie Johnson	48	Chevrolet	1:17.836	92.040
3	Kurt Busch	2	Dodge	1:17.865	92.005
4	Bobby Labonte	43	Dodge	1:17.918	91.943
5	Jeff Gordon	24	Chevrolet	1:17.935	91.923
6	Elliott Sadler	19	Dodge	1:18.003	91.843
7	Marcos Ambrose	21	Ford	1:18.023	91.819	*
8	Robby Gordon	7	Dodge	1:18.097	91.732
9	Ryan Newman	12	Dodge	1:18.279	91.519
10	Greg Biffle	16	Ford	1:18.340	91.448
11	Terry Labonte	45	Dodge	1:18.340	91.448	*
12	Carl Edwards	99	Ford	1:18.487	91.276
13	Denny Hamlin	11	Toyota	1:18.547	91.207
14	Boris Said	60	Ford	1:18.568	91.182	*
15	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	88	Chevrolet	1:18.585	91.162
16	Dave Blaney	22	Toyota	1:18.589	91.158
17	Sam Hornish Jr.	77	Dodge	1:18.598	91.147
18	Jamie McMurray	26	Ford	1:18.604	91.140
19	Clint Bowyer	07	Chevrolet	1:18.606	91.138
20	Jeff Burton	31	Chevrolet	1:18.676	91.057
21	Juan Pablo Montoya	42	Dodge	1:18.704	91.025
22	Ron Fellows	01	Chevrolet	1:18.715	91.012
23	Casey Mears	5	Chevrolet	1:18.739	90.984
24	Joe Nemechek	78	Chevrolet	1:18.764	90.955	*
25	Martin Truex Jr.	1	Chevrolet	1:18.768	90.951
26	Brian Vickers	83	Toyota	1:18.784	90.932
27	Scott Pruett	41	Dodge	1:18.808	90.904
28	Max Papis	66	Chevrolet	1:18.838	90.870	*
29	Paul Menard	15	Chevrolet	1:18.895	90.804
30	Kyle Busch	18	Toyota	1:18.904	90.794
31	David Gilliland	38	Ford	1:18.906	90.792
32	Kevin Harvick	29	Chevrolet	1:18.922	90.773
33	Matt Kenseth	17	Ford	1:18.931	90.763
34	Michael McDowell	00	Toyota	1:18.991	90.694
35	Michael Waltrip	55	Toyota	1:19.032	90.647
36	A.J. Allmendinger	84	Toyota	1:19.152	90.509	*
37	Patrick Carpentier	10	Dodge	1:19.270	90.375	*
38	David Ragan	6	Ford	1:19.286	90.356
39	Tony Stewart	20	Toyota	1:19.337	90.298
40	Aric Almirola	8	Chevrolet	1:19.399	90.228
41	Brian Simo	34	Ford	1:19.481	90.135	*
42	J. J. Yeley	96	Toyota	1:19.535	90.074	*
43	Travis Kvapil	28	Ford	1:19.688	89.901	OP
44	Scott Riggs	70	Chevrolet	1:19.740	89.842	*
45	Dario Franchitti	40	Dodge	1:19.822	89.750	*
46	David Reutimann	44	Toyota	1:20.660	88.817	OP
47	Brandon Ash	02	Dodge	1:21.295	88.124	*

OP: qualified via owners points
PC: qualified as past champion
PR: provisional
QR: via qualifying race
* - had to qualify on time
Failed to Qualify: J. J. Yeley, Scott Riggs, Dario Franchitti, Brandon Ash

Race recap

Kyle Busch came from the 30th starting position to win the race under a green-white-checker finish, the second furthest back in this race to win, bettering Juan Pablo Montoya's position one year earlier.

Results

''NOTE: Race extended two laps due to green-white checker finish.''