The stars of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series hit the track out in Sonoma, California for the first practice of the weekend at the Infineon Raceway. The tricky road course tested the abilities of every driver behind the wheel. Australian-native Marcos Ambrose proved he will be a threat for the win this weekend by putting his No. 47 JTG-Daugherty Racing Toyota atop the leaderboard at the end of the hour and a half session with a lap of 76.70 seconds at a speed of 93.404 mph.

Five time Sonoma winner and home town favorite Jeff Gordon was second-quick in the day’s first session. Gordon ran only seven laps in the lengthy session, putting his No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet second on the board with a lap of 76.73 seconds at 93.368 mph.

Road course ringer Boris Said recorded the third-fastest time, while Jimmie Johnson and Brian Vickers rounded out the top-5.

Despite being the three-time defending series champion, Johnson has yet to visit Victory Lane at a road course.

"My biggest motivation is that I've always sucked here in Sonoma,” Johnson said with a laugh. “We qualify well, but when the race starts, we have our reverse lights on and we're going backwards. That is enough motivation to me alone."

A few drivers that may need a bit more motivation to move up the speed chart include Carl Edwards, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Charlotte-winner David Reutimann. Edwards posted the 34th-fastest time of the session after running fifteen laps, while Junior was 40th-quick after thirteen laps and Reutimann could only muster the 43rd-fastest time out of 47 cars.

Qualifying for Sunday’s Toyota/SaveMart 350 is scheduled for 6:30pm E.T. later this evening. There are two practice sessions scheduled for Saturday, with the main event coming Sunday at 4:30pm E.T. on TNT.

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