What we learned from Landon Cassill’s amazing Sonoma notes

Forget the analysis of the NASCAR TV broadcast teams, because Landon Cassill can tell you everything you need to know about Sonoma and make you chuckle while learning.

In case you ever wonder why the back markers of the NASCAR Cup Series fields sometimes have healthy fan followings even though they have no chance to actually win races, it’s because they tend to be super cool people. Just off the top of the head, Matt DiBenedetto is amazingly nice, and Jeffrey Earnhardt is one of the most humble, approachable people you’d find in any major sport. Landon Cassill, driver of the No. 00 StarCom Racing Chevrolet, belongs in that group as well, and this story passed along by USA Today‘s For The Win blog shows why.

Cassill recently tweeted out his notes for Sonoma Raceway, the site for this week’s NASCAR Cup Series race, the Toyota/Save Mart 350. The first road course race of the year always provides unique challenges for stock car drivers, with 12 turns and changes in elevation among them.

Here’s a look at Cassill’s tweet, which is awesome in and of itself:

But FTW went a step further and turned the map sideways to make it easier to read. Doing so yielded the following gems:

Cassill is realistic about his qualifying prospects

He has the start/finish line marked as “Where the pole car starts the race” but has “Where I will start the race” way back between turns 10 and 11. That’s a little gallows humor but apt since the 00 is generally found in P30 or worse when the green flag drops.

Visibility is a problem at Sonoma

Along with notes about not being able to see between turns 1 and 2, Cassill makes several mentions of how dusty the track can get in various places. One imagines it’s not fun with limited sight distance on a course where you need to slow down and speed up so often.

Bumping is cool, as long as you’re the bumper and not the bumpee

Right after turn 10, Cassill has “no bumping please (scary),” indicating how easy it is to get turned around there. Yet he also humorously says that before turn 7a, you can “use the guy in front of us to stop,” so this appears to be one of those “do as I say, not as I do” deals.

Bonus: The numbering of the turns is confusing

Aren’t there really more than 12 turns on the Sonoma Raceway course? Cassill suggests that there are, noting that turn 3a should probably be turn 4. Part of the reason for the unusual numbering is that the track can be configured different ways for different racing series, so some of the turns aren’t used for NASCAR.

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Still, there really is no good explanation for why there’s a turn 3 and a turn 3a in the Toyota/Save Mart 350, so Cassill is on the mark here. We’ll find out on Sunday afternoon whether all this humorous preparation actually helps him out.