Jimmie Johnson driving the Lowe's / Kobalt Tools Chevy #48.
The Toyota/Save Mart 350 was the first Nascar Sprint Cup Series race with the new ruling of double file restarts. The Infineon Raceway is a narrow road course with steep climbing turns and downhill sprints into twisting turns. The prediction was double file restarts would bottle neck in turn 2 resulting in major carnage. This turned out to not be the case. Turn 4 was tense with cars being 4 wide after a downhill speed burst and a short passing opportunity. Few cars received major damage after the turn 4 crunch, but the race to turn 7 was the focus of track action. Entry into turn 7 is downhill and a tight 2 car wide portion of the track. The inside car will have the advantage because of the tight turning radius and use of the rumble strip. The strategy in this nearly 270 corner is crucial. Turn 7 is one of the only few good passing sections of the course and hard braking is required to make the inside groove work.