Nope, this ain't Darlington.

This week, NASCAR tucks in its shirt, brushes up its lingo and heads into the heart of California's famed Wine Country. Sonoma Raceway, in Sonoma County, sits about 30 miles north of San Francisco and is considered the most productive wine-making area of the region.

The track sits within a busy tourist area known for its wineries, of course, but also its cuisine, luxury resorts, and unique architecture. One weekend a year, the scenery and overall tranquility gives way to horsepower and its accompanying thunder.

∎ Sonoma measures just a tick over 2.5 miles and includes 12 turns. Its chief characteristic is the elevation changes. It would take a 16-story building to measure the various ups and downs along the route.

∎ The track opened in late 1968 and along with SCCA races, it was host to IMSA, Trans Am and ARCA throughout its first two decades. In 1989, NASCAR moved its West Coast road-course race to Sonoma, which replaced Riverside Raceway.

∎ “This has been a Filmways presentation.” You may remember that line at the end of several sitcoms of yesteryear — including Green Acres, Beverly Hillbillies and the Addams Family. Filmways Corp. owned the track from 1969-74. Since 1996, it’s been owned and operated by the Charlotte-based Speedway Motorsports Inc.

∎ Newly minted NASCAR Hall of Famer Ricky Rudd, who was always the man to beat at Riverside, won the inaugural Cup race at Sonoma in ’89. He finished no worse than third in his first five Sonoma starts.

∎ Here’s the chronology of name changes for Sonoma Raceway over the years: Sears Point International Raceway (1968-79), Golden State International Raceway (1980-81), Sears Point International Raceway, again (1982-92), Sears Point Raceway (1993-2001), Infineon Raceway (2002-2011), Sonoma Raceway (2012 to present).

∎ When NASCAR started racing at Sonoma, the track only had 34 pit stalls while the starting field included 42 cars. Some teams were forced to share pit boxes. Before the ’94 race, a makeshift pit lane was set up inside the Turn 11 hairpin. It quickly earned the label “Gilligan’s Island.” This was remedied during track renovations prior to the 2002 race.

∎ Jeff Gordon, who once won three straight at Sonoma, is NASCAR’s all-time wins leader there with five. He also has the most top fives, top 10s and poles. Martin Truex Jr. is the active wins leader with four Sonoma victories.

∎ Sears Point got its name from the original 1851 settler, Franklin Sears, who was born in Indiana, grew up in Missouri and apparently developed a lust for adventure.

∎ This, from a 2016 article about Sears in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat: “At the age of 27, he set out for Oregon with a rifle, a mule, a dollar fifty in cash, and his cousin, Granville Swift. Along the way, Swift veered south to California. Sears kept going to Oregon, but didn’t stay long. One Oregon winter was enough for him. Sears got so sick of the rain that one morning he announced, ‘I’m going to California,’ saddled up his mule, and left in a downpour.”

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR at Sonoma | Raceway's connection to Addams Family; Did You know?