As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Infineon Raceway, Dodge is hoping to improve on the manufacturer's less than stellar performance in last year's Toyota/Save Mart 350.

In 2008, Dodge did manage to hoard two top-10 finishes, with a sixth place result by Juan Pablo Montoya and a seventh place effort by Ryan Newman. However, those drivers have since moved to Chevrolet. Terry Labonte, who is not listed to participate in this year's event, was the next Dodge driver to cross the finish line, he did so in 17th.

Since NASCAR began racing at Infineon Dodge has only amassed one win at the track which was attained by Montoya in 2007, his rookie season. The manufacturer has also stockpiled four other top-5 finishes which came in the years 2003-2006 by Bill Elliott, Jamie McMurray, Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman.

This year, Dodge's line-up includes Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, Sam Hornish Jr., Reed Sorenson, Elliott Sadler, AJ Allmendinger and David Stremme.

Driving the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge Charger for Penske Racing, Busch journeys to Sonoma with one win, four top-5 and eight top-10 finishes in 2009, locating him in the fourth spot in the Sprint Cup Series point standings. The oldest of the two Busch brothers has visited Infineon a total of eight times in his career. In those appearances he has assembled a best finish of third, which came in 2005, earned the pole the following year in 2006, and is the highest qualifier of the current Dodge stable with an average starting position of 9.4.

"The demands at Infineon (Raceway) are all-encompassing; pretty much across-the-board," stated Busch. "Most insiders agree that this weekend's race could come down to a fuel mileage battle. A super call on pit road could send a team to Victory Lane. A really tight battle could see a guy with the best-handling car."

Kahne, who is resting in the 15th spot in the series point standings, started from the pole in last season's competition at the road course but failed to hold his lead and fell back to 33rd. Looking to redeem himself from last year's malfunction, the driver of the No. 9 Budweiser Dodge looks to earn his first win of the season. Noting that he lacks the performance needed at road courses to make his way up the standings and hopefully earn a spot in this year's Chase.

"Road course racing has been tough for me," the Richard Petty Motorsports driver admitted. "We've qualified well and run some good laps at times. We just don't finish the races where we want to finish the races.  That's a big part of the whole year and being in the Chase is running well at those tracks. I need to step it up on the road courses for sure and do more than just qualify well, we need to race up-front."

Suprising many sport insiders and Hardcore Race Fans with his improvement from his rookie season in 2008, Hornish Jr. has ran consistantly and collected three top-10s in the process to place in 24th in the series point standings. The driver of the No. 77 Penske Racing Dodge intends on utilizing his road course experience attained during his career in the open wheel ranks to recover from his 31st place outing last year, and earn a strong finish to add to his resume.

In his first year as the driver of the renouned No. 43 Dodge, Sorenson has visited Infineon Raceway two times in his career. With the pressure to succeed in "The King's" old ride, Sorenson is eager to improve on his best finish of 29th which came in 2006.

With an average finish of 15.8 in ten trips at Infineon, Sadler has established himself as the most successful active Dodge driver at the speedway. With a best finish of sixth coming in 2002 and 2005, the
seasoned veteran looks to improve that statistic with a win this weekend. To prepare himself for the Toyota/Save Mart 350, Sadler paid a visit to Virginia International Raceway (VIR) last week to test for the upcoming race in Sonoma. With a strong session at VIR, Sadler is confident that the No. 19 Richard Petty Motorsports team can visit Victory Lane.

"In preparation for Infineon we went to VIR last week to test and it went great," Sadler noted. "Infineon has always been a good track for me. There's a lot of uphill and downhill parts of the track that make it
exciting and the esses are very fast. The double file restarts should make for a very crazy race. Our plan will be to qualify well, keep it on the black top all day, pass as many cars as we can and hope our fuel window plays in our favor."

With the affair at Infineon happening on Father's Day weekend, Allmendinger states that his father is the reason that he has made it as far as he has in his racing career. Picked to drive the No. 44 due to strong finishes late in the 2008 season last year after losing his ride with Red Bull Racing, the third year driver intends on turning his less than successful season around for his dad on this special weekend. Making his only start at the track in 2008, Allmendinger qualified 36th and finished 37th. In his first season as the driver of the No. 44 Dodge Charger for Richard Petty Motorsports, AJ Allmendinger has his crosshairs lined up on Victory Lane in honor of his father.

"He is everything in my career," Allmendinger shared. "Between him and my Mom, my Dad was racing before I was ever born so I feel like I was born at a race track. Growing up I watched him race at the local dirt tracks in California.  He gave up racing so we could afford me racing. He is my biggest fan. He even has an AJ tattoo. He's one of those Dads that is always a part of my career. I'm racing because of him."

Wrapping up the Dodge club, Stremme has run into several speed bumps preventing him from running to his potential this season. With a best finish of 13th in 2009, Stremme has gained some pointers from his
teammate and Dodge's most productive driver at Infineon. Preparing for his second start at the road course in the bay area, Stremme recorded a 32nd place finish in his initial performance at the facility in 2007.

"I am eager to get out to Infineon Raceway," stated Stremme. "We have worked really hard on our road course package over the last several months and have made some real gains. Kurt [Busch] is really strong at the road courses and I have used him as a resource. The goal is to keep our Dodge Charger on the course all day and I am confident we will have a strong run in the Penske Dodge."

This weekend the Dodge drivers intend to turn around the manufacturer's achievement at Sonoma and each collect a strong finish. Be sure to stay tuned to HardcoreRaceFans.com to see how the Chargers fare at Infineon Raceway.

MORE NASCAR NEWS