SONOMA, Calif. (June 15, 2017) - The NASCAR K&N Pro Series West returns to Sonoma Raceway for its 37th consecutive visit at the Carneros 200 on Saturday, June 24, and will feature a full field of up-and-coming stars, as well as Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regulars Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney and Daniel Suárez .
The 2014 NASCAR Cup Series champion Harvick, who will fittingly pilot the No. 4 ride for Jefferson Pitts Racing, last raced in the series in 2007 at Iowa, where he celebrated his seventh series win. Harvick hasn't raced a fulltime season in the K&N Pro Series West since 1997. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver said he wants to shine some light on a series where young drivers have to go through many ranks to eventually be successful in racing.
"(I'm) going to be the old guy that shows up," said Harvick. "I have fun when I go do those events. You'd love to win and you want to go out and do that obviously to be competitive; it's just a series that gave me several breaks and several opportunities to showcase what I did as a kid."
Ryan Blaney, coming off his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in Pocono, will race for CGR and 2016 XFINITY Series Champion Daniel Suárez will race with MDM Motorsports in the team's first West Series starts of the year. The West Series main event will give the drivers some extra track time before Sunday's Toyota/Save Mart 350 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series main event. Blaney raced in Sonoma in his first Cup event in Sonoma in 2016, while this marks the first Cup series road-course race for rookie Suárez.
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series continues to be the proving ground for the future stars of the sport. The invasion of talented young drivers in both the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East the last few years has been noteworthy with drivers like Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and Daniel Suarez moving up the NASCAR ladder.
The 2017 K&N Pro Series West roster for the Carneros 200 also highlights rising talents such as Todd Gilliland, Derek Kraus, Julia Landauer, Will Rodgers and Michael Self. In addition, several Northern California drivers will compete in Saturday's race including Jim Inglebright (Fairfield), Rodd Kneeland (Sonoma), Todd Souza (Watsonville), Tim Spurgeon (Danville) and Carlos Viera (Atwater).
Race weekend will feature a Carneros 200 practice session on Friday, with qualifying on Saturday morning before the green flags falls on the 64-lap feature at 1:30 p.m. Kids 12 and under are admitted free to the raceway on Friday and Saturday with a ticketed adult.
For more information on the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West and all of NASCAR's touring and weekly series, visit NASCARHomeTracks.com. To purchase tickets for the Carneros 200, call 800-870-RACE or visit www.SonomaRaceway.com/NASCAR.
