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Kelsey Plum delivers electric command at Sonoma NASCAR Xfinity Series race

IMG_0985by:Griffin McVeigh•06/08/24•

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Kelsey Plum
© Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

Sonoma Raceway is hosting the 14th race of the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday. Shane van Gisbergen was the quickest driver during qualifying, getting to lead the way with Ty Gibbs not too far behind. But before getting things started, one of the WNBA’s biggest stars had to give the command.

Kelsey Plum of the Las Vegas Aces was there in California to kick things off. She wound up delivering an electric command and brought a lot of energy to the moment.

Plum has spent the majority of her basketball career on the West Coast. Not just growing up in California but playing college ball for the Washington Huskies. Now in Las Vegas, the Aces having an off day gave her the opportunity to do something you have to imagine was a bucket list item.

She wound up killing the moment, something you can watch in full here.

Las Vegas last played on Friday, losing at home to the Seattle Storm. There is a road game occurring on Sunday but it’s not too far of a commute for Plum. The Los Angeles Sparks will host the Aces for an early season matchup.

A quick pit stop for Plum as she gives the command in Sonoma, hopefully starting what should be an incredible NASCAR Xfinity Series race.

Daniel Suárez hoping to bounce back from tough NASCAR Cup Series start

The NASCAR Cup Series season has not unfolded the way Daniel Suárez hoped that it would. Now he has to get back in his rhythm. The good news is that the 99 team already has a win on the year from that unreal Atlanta finish.

Since that win at Atlanta, Daniel Suárez has just one other top-10 or top-5 finish to his record. P5 at Texas. Since that race, he has finishes of P27, P18, P27, P24, P24, and P23. Take away the win and this season is just as poor if not worse than his 2021 season.

Of course, Sonoma Raceway is where Suárez won his first career race and changed his entire career around. Speaking with media at Sonoma today, I asked Suárez about the summer stretch and how important it is to get things going again for the 99 team.

“I think it’s extremely important. You know the 99 team the last two months we’ve been trying a lot of different things, a lot of different stuff,” Suárez explained. “Some of that has worked, some of it isn’t. Right now we’re in a position where the next two months we have to have the mentality that we’re already in the playoffs and just trying to execute you know? Because it’s impossible to jump into the playoffs and flip the switch and be executing so we just have to get into that rhythm.”

On3’s Jonathan Howard contributed to this report