Mark Needham headline-69905 2012-06-22T22:03:16Z 2012-06-22T22:03:16Z <p> They were loud. They were big. There were many.</p> <p> Over 40 of the massive beasts in all.</p> <p> Rumbling through the blocked off streets around the Capitol on Thursday afternoon were the haulers that carry the cars and supplies of the men of NASCAR’s top division, the Sprint Cup drivers.</p> <p> The Save Mart 350 is on Sunday at Race Sonoma (formerly Infineon Raceway) located between Sonoma and Vallejo off of Highway 37 and the big wigs at the racetrack were happy to let the drivers of those big rigs take a short detour before heading to the racetrack.</p> <p> The haulers drove down Capitol Mall, turned right on 9th Street, left on N Street, left on 16th Street and then left on L Street - all with police escort - before heading back onto Interstate 80 and finishing their trip to the track.</p> <p> Most of these haulers are located in North Carolina and the tandem driving teams that move these rigs across the country each week put a lot of miles on their trucks each week. Sonoma is the longest trip of the year for them so it was cool of them to make a run through town before finishing up their long road trip.</p> <p> The race starts at noon on Sunday and tickets are still available for the race.</p> <p> For more information on the race or the track, check out <a href="http://www.racesonoma.com/" target="_blank">Race Sonoma's website</a>.<br /> &nbsp;</p> Mark Needham 2012-06-22T22:03:16Z