Infineon Raceway

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Facility statistics
Infineon Raceway
Sears Point Raceway

Location	29355 Arnold Drive, Sonoma, California, 95476
Broke ground	1967
Opened	1968
Owner	Speedway Motorsports, Inc.
Operator	Speedway Motorsports, Inc.
Construction cost	$70 million USD
Architect
Former names
Sears Point Raceway
Major events
AMA Superbike Supercuts Superbike Challenge Indy Racing League Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma County NASCAR Nextel Cup Dodge/Save Mart 350 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series FRAM Autolite Nationals
Seating capacity
102,000
Current dimensions
Track shape	Road course
Track length	2.52 miles (1.95 miles for the NASCAR course)
Track banking	none

Infineon Raceway, formerly Sears Point Raceway, is a road course and drag strip located on the landform known as Sears Point in the southern Sonoma Mountains near Sonoma, California, USA. The course is a complex series of twists and turns that go up and down the hills. It is host to one of only five NASCAR races each year that are run on road courses (including two races at Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York and the Busch-only races at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, Mexico and at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada). It is also host to several other auto races and motorcycle races such as the American Federation of Motorcyclists series.

With the closure of Riverside International Raceway in Riverside, California after the 1988 season, NASCAR, wanting a west coast road course event to replace it, chose the Sears Point facility. Riverside International was razed for a shopping center development.

In 2002, Sears Point Raceway was renamed after a corporation, Infineon. However, as with many renamings of sports complexes, many people still call it by its original name. Despite its name, it was in no ways affiliated with Sears, having been named for the nearby geographical feature.

The standard road course at Infineon Raceway is a 2.52 mile (4.05 km), 12 turn course, however the track was modified in 1998, adding the Chute, which bypasses turns 5 and 6, shortening course to 1.95 miles (3.14 km). The Chute is only used for NASCAR events such as the Dodge/Save Mart 350, and is criticised by many drivers, who prefer the full layout; most races, including the Grand American Road Racing Association's Grand Prix of Sonoma, use the full course, while American Motorcyclist Association and Indy Racing League events use a modified 2.22 mile (3.57 km), 12 turn course. This layout, opened in 2003, skips much of the Esses and run from Turn 10 to Turn 11 (the hairpin) for additional safety for motorcyclists, including runoff available in the motorcycle Turn 11 (the main Turn 11 has no runoff, and is a very slow turn, similar to the Mirabeau hairpin at Monaco). The raceway also has a quarter mile (400 m) drag strip used for NHRA drag racing events, and is located on part of the front straightaway on the course.

See Also: List of NASCAR race tracks

1 Records
2 Major Events
3 Current Races
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Records

	Driver	Car	Date	Speed	Time
Fastest Lap	Marco Werner	Audi R8	July 17, 2004	110.641mph	1:21.688
NASCAR Qualifying	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS Stock Car	June 24, 2005	94.325mph	1:15.950
NASCAR Race	Ricky Rudd		June 23, 2002	81.007mph
IRL Qualifying	Ryan Briscoe		August 27, 2005	108.248mph
IRL Race	Tony Kanaan		August 28, 2005	91.040mph
Highest Speed	John Force	Funny Car	2004	322.42mph

Most Wins (Nextel Cup): Jeff Gordon, 5 ('98,'99,'00,'04,'06)

[edit] Major Events

Toyota/Save Mart 350 - considered one of NASCAR's top ten annual races^[1]
Infineon Grand Prix of Sonoma
FRAM Autolite Nationals
Indy Racing League
Jaguar Wine Country Classic

[edit] Current Races

AMA Superbike - Supercuts Superbike Challenge
NASCAR NEXTEL Cup - Dodge/Save Mart 350
NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series - FRAM Autolite Nationals
Indy Racing League IndyCar Series - Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Infineon Raceway Official Site
Infineon Raceway Page on NASCAR.com
Trackpedia guide to driving this track
High Resolution image from Google Maps
Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 38.16006° -122.45940°
- Street map from Google Maps or MapQuest
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Microsoft Virtual Earth, or WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA

NASCAR's Best Races

Current NASCAR Nextel Cup Series racetracks
Atlanta - Bristol - Brooklyn, Michigan - Charlotte - Darlington - Daytona - Dover - Fontana, California - Fort Worth - Indianapolis - Joliet, Illinois - Kansas City - Las Vegas - Loudon - Martinsville - Miami - Pocono - Phoenix - Richmond - Sonoma, California - Talladega - Watkins Glen