A 6.0-magnitude earthquake shook the Napa Valley region of northern California at about 3:20 AM Pacific time Sunday morning. While no deaths were reported, there were several injuries, and a number of buildings in the town of Napa were damaged. Since the area is home to a large wine industry, the earthquake also left many wineries with broken wine bottles, resulting in much of their product being lost.
The nearby town of Sonoma was scheduled to host a race in the IndyCar series (the same cars that race in the Indianapolis 500) at the Sonoma Raceway road couse on Sunday. Many of the drivers competing in the race were jolted awake by the quake, and were unable to get back to sleep. But the damage in Sonoma was not as bad as in Napa, so IndyCar officials announced that the race would go on as planned. The biggest effect of the earthquake in Sonoma was probably a power outage that struck much of the town, but not the racetrack. So the drivers, despite being shaken (no pun intended) by the earthquake, raced as if nothing had happened just a few hours earlier, and it turned out to be a pretty normal race. It was the penultimate round of the 2014 IndyCar season, with the finale scheduled to be held in Fontana, California, east of Los Angeles on August 30.
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