Sonoma Raceway

The hometown hero Kyle Larson executed as he needed to, making a pass for the lead with eight laps remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 to claim his second win at the Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway road course and third trophy of the season.

It was a frantic start to the day on the newly-repaved 1.99-mile course through the rolling Northern Californian hills with seven caution flags falling before the 110-lap race’s halfway point – more yellow flags than the previous two Sonoma races had combined.

But the final 51 laps ran caution-free with varying pit stop strategies playing a vital role in track position. The Hendrick Motorsports driver Larson was among the last to make his final stop – coming out on track in eighth position with 20 laps remaining and then moving forward by picking off one car, sometimes two cars at a time. 

Larson, who is from Elk Grove, Calif. about an hour from the track, ultimately put his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet out front for good after a dramatic three-way battle with four-time Sonoma winner Martin Truex Jr. and Chris Buescher with eight to go.

After Larson passed them both, Truex kept Larson honest for much of the closing laps only to run out of gas on the final lap. His No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota came to a stop in front of the front-stretch grandstands about 40-yards shy of the checkered flag. And with the other cars zooming by, Truex ultimately inched his car forward to a cheering crowd limping across the finish line in a heartbreaking 27th place.

“I didn’t know what we were doing as far as strategy,” said the 31-year old Larson. “I was just out there banging laps away. … so I was like, these guys have to pit another time maybe but then when they said I had to go race and then pass those guys, I got a bit nervous. I knew I’d be quick from the get-go but thought once the tires came up to temp it would even off too much.

“Thankful we had enough grip. Thankful too, those guys got racing and Martin never got clear really to where I’d be stuck in third.

“Just an awesome, awesome race.”

After making a last lap pass of Buescher and then benefitting from Truex’s situation, Front Row Motorsports driver Michael McDowell came across the line in second place – 4.258-seconds behind Larson.

Buescher’s RFK Racing Ford was third followed by Hendrick’s Chase Elliott and Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, who had a collision with Richard Childress Racing driver Kyle Busch on the last lap that sent Busch’s No. 8 Chevrolet off-track and dropped him from a top-10 finish to 12th place.

“Proud of everybody,” Buescher said of his 32 laps led and Stage 2 win despite starting the race 26th. “That was a good one to be close and in the hunt. … kind of a tough weekend until today if you had told us we’d gather some playoff and stage points, we’d be happy. Just needed a bit more coming to the finish line.”

Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger was sixth followed by Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney and 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, who won the opening stage and led a race best 35 laps. Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell finished ninth and Front Row Motorsports’ Todd Gilliland claimed 10th-place – the 23-year old driver’s second top-10 finish of the season.

Polesitter Joey Logano finished 21st and the two Australian SuperCar Series drivers making their NASCAR debuts – Will Brown and Cam Waters – finished 31st and 35th, respectively.

It was a significant win for the 2021 series champion Larson, giving him the championship lead by 14 points over his Hendrick teammate Elliott. It comes on the heels of last week’s news that Larson would be granted a Playoff waiver from NASCAR despite missing the Charlotte 600-mile race two weeks ago.

The multi-talented Larson had competed in a rain-delayed Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day weekend with plans to run racing’s celebrated “Double” – the Indy 500 and Charlotte’s Coca-Cola 600. Bad weather, however, ruined those plans. There was a rain-delay in Indianapolis, where Larson finished 18th and by the time he arrived in Charlotte to assume driving duties in that NASCAR race, rain had forced officials to call it early and he never was able to turn a lap.

Larson’s victory Sunday – his 26th career win – was significant for him in the championship standings, but the race was also a big deal for the opposite reasons for Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who had held the points lead entering the race. Hamlin’s No. 20 Toyota suffered an engine problem on the second lap of the race and he finished 38th – last – in the field and now drops to third in the championship standings, 26 points behind Larson.

“No [warning], it’s just the gearing is a little weird for the track,” said Hamlin, who snapped a five-race streak of top-five finishes that included a win at Dover, Del. and a runner-up at St. Louis last week.

“It’s a lot of high-end RPM stuff, but the same as everyone else and I’m just not really sure. They’ll look at it and figure it out, but certainly not ideal.”

What a difference a year makes.

After struggling mightily last year at Sonoma Raceway in the debut season for NASCAR’s Next Gen car, Martin Truex Jr. pulled off a dominating 180-degree turnaround in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350.

Overcoming an inopportune caution and leading a race-high 51 of 110 laps, Truex scored his second victory of the season and his fourth at the 1.99-mile road course, most among active drivers and second only to Jeff Gordon’s five in track history.

Truex’s 33^rd career victory, by a 2.979-second margin over runner-up Kyle Busch, was a far cry from last season’s lackluster performance, when Truex started 28^th and finished 26^th.

“Hats off to my team,” said Truex, who was winless in the 2022 campaign. “To be so bad here last year and to come back and do that with the same car basically, it’s really unbelievable. Just proud of them. We’re having a great year. I feel really good about our team…

“Man, it just feels incredible to have a day like that and a run like that and a team like I have. They’re doing everything right, and it’s a lot of fun to drive these cars… This is why you go through years like we had last year. You just keep fighting. You never give up on it. You always believe in each other.

“We haven’t changed anything on our team other than parts and pieces. It’s just through a lot of hard work of a lot of people.”

On Lap 33, Truex passed Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and pole winner Denny Hamlin for the top spot, after Hamlin led the first 32 laps and won the race’s first stage. For the next 18 laps, it appeared that Truex and Hamlin would deliver a 1-2 punch to the rest of the field.

That was before a tire from Zane Smith’s Ford bounced off the inside pit wall into the middle of pit road on Lap 50. The resulting caution turned the race upside down and handed the lead to Busch, who had pitted seven laps before the yellow.

Busch won the second stage—his second stage victory of the season—but Truex caught the No. 8 Chevrolet on Lap 69, outbraking Busch into Turn 7 and regaining the lead. Truex pitted on Lap 75 but reclaimed the top spot five laps later and held it until Hamlin hit the wall in Turn 12 on Lap 92, ping-ponged between the two frontstretch barriers and broke the right rear toe link on his Toyota.

Chase Elliott, Tyler Reddick and Ryan Blaney stayed out on older tires during the ensuing caution, but Truex made short work of those drivers, retaking the lead off Turn 4 on Lap 97, with Busch following him into the second spot.

Busch chased Truex over the final 14 laps—to no avail.

“I wish we had a little bit more,” said Busch, who won last Sunday at World Wide Technology Raceway. “I tried really hard at the end to at least try to keep Martin honest. Felt like I could beat him a little bit on a lap, then I would mess up. He would beat me by a little bit more on the next lap. We were just kind of trading a little bit there. He was able to pull away there late…

“We gave it everything that we had. We made a lot of changes. We got a lucky break there with a yellow with only three laps on tires, so we were able to kind of cycle to the front. Once we got up there, we could maintain pace with some of the good cars and have a good top-three speed race car. Just kind of flip-flopped the race a little bit.

“Good fortunes for us. Nice to come out here with a P2 after a win last week.”

Joey Logano finished third, followed by Chris Buescher and Elliott. AJ Allmendinger, Michael McDowell, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and Ross Chastain completed the top 10.

Truex leads the series standings by 13 points over William Byron, who finished 14^th. Grant Enfinger came home 26^th in relief of Noah Gragson, who missed the race because of concussion symptoms deriving from a hard wreck last Sunday at WWT Raceway.

“Win Numero Uno.” Those were the words on the flag Mexican driver Daniel Suárez held out the window of his No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet as he turned celebratory “donuts” on the frontstretch of Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway Sunday afternoon in the ecstatic first moments of his first ever NASCAR Cup Series victory.

Suárez’s No. 99 Chevrolet pulled away from runner-up Chris Buescher’s RFK Racing Ford in the closing laps to take an impressive 3.849-second maiden NASCAR Cup Series win on the 1.99-mile Northern Californian road course – the third victory of the season for the second-year Trackhouse Racing team whose members rushed over the pit road wall to embrace their driver and celebrate the historic achievement.

With the win, in his 195th NASCAR Cup Series start, Suárez becomes the fifth different driver not born in the United States to win in the NASCAR Cup Series; joining Marcos Ambrose (Australia), Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia), Earl Ross (Canada) and Mario Andretti (Italy). And he did so convincingly. He led a race best 47 of the 110 laps and ultimately took one of the largest margins of victory on the season.

Suárez, the 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series champion, screamed in joy on his team radio on the cool-down lap and after exiting his car, smashed a pinata.

Congratulations soon came in from across the racing world on social media – including former seven-time NASCAR champion Jimmie Johnson – all before Suárez had even hoisted his trophy.

“I have so many thoughts in my head right now," an emotional Suárez said, thanking his team owner Justin Marks, his family, and “all the people who helped me get to this point."

“So very happy we were able to make it work," Suárez added, saying of his team, “They believed in me from day one."

He then offered a message of thanks in Spanish to the large crowd of his “Amigos” - the name of his fan club cheering trackside – and ended it in English by promising, “this is one of many.”

The 30-year-old Suárez, from Monterrey, Mexico, is now the 12th different winner of the 2022 season – and fourth first-time winner.

The top-four finishing drivers Sunday were all looking for their first win of the season. Front Row Motorsports driver Michael McDowell finished third, followed by Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick in fourth.

This year’s Daytona 500 winner, Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate Austin Cindric was fifth, followed by his Team Penske Racing teammate Ryan Blaney. Suárez’s Trackhouse Racing teammate Ross Chastain was seventh, followed by Hendrick Motorsports drivers Chase Elliott and William Byron.

Buescher’s RFK Racing teammate and team co-owner Brad Keselowski was 10th – his best finish since a ninth-place showing in the season-opening Daytona 500.

For much of the early-going, it looked like Elliott and his Hendrick teammate – defending race winner Kyle Larson – may well decide the win. But both had to overcome uncharacteristic pit stop miscues that allowed Suárez to essentially dominate the closing laps.

Elliot, who led 26 laps, pitted outside his box and had to serve a penalty that put him 34th - last in the field among those still running. His rally to an eighth-place finish was impressive considering the adventurous day.

Larson, the polesitter who also led 26 laps and won Stage 1, had a right front wheel come off his Chevrolet heading into Turn 2 right after a pit stop. His team now faces a mandatory penalty for that infraction that includes a four-race suspension for the team’s crew chief (Cliff Daniels) and both the tire changer and jackman. The defending series champion finished 15th.

On an upside, however, the combined 52 laps led by Elliott and Larson topped the 100,000 all-time miles led mark for Hendrick Motorsports – most in NASCAR history.

With his eighth-place finish, Elliott still holds a 16-point advantage on Chastain in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings.

Score another sweep for Kyle Larson, who dominated an action-filled Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday at Sonoma Raceway.

Through a spate of late accidents and restarts, Larson held off Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott and three-time Sonoma winner Martin Truex Jr. to claim a second-straight race in which he also swept both the first and second stages.

The victory was Larson's first at the 2.52-mile road course, his third of the season and the ninth of his career. It was the fourth straight 1-2 finish for Hendrick Motorsports and the first time since 2014 that HMS has posted four-straight wins.

The victory was the 270th for Hendrick, extending the record the organization broke last Sunday.

Coming off last week's win in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, Larson made the overtime win look easy. But looks can be deceiving, said the driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet.

"It was not easy," said Larson, who grew up in nearby Elk Grove, Calif. "Just keeping it on the track is tough, especially when you've got two of the best behind you on the last restart."

Elliott was able to stay on Larson's bumper after the race went to an overtime restart—the result of a four-car accident in Turn 4 on Lap 88 of a scheduled 90. But Larson inched away over the final two laps.

"I felt like I did a good job on the (restart) before and was able to stretch it out a little bit," Larson said. "I didn't want to give it another try at it, but (Chase) kept the pressure on. Martin was strong, too.

"What a car! I thought I would be okay today, but I really didn't know how I would race—I don't think any of us really knew with no practice, but our car was really good there, and I can't say enough about it."

The closeness of his hometown—east of Sacramento—made the victory that much more satisfying.

"It means a lot," said Larson, who crossed the finish line .614 seconds ahead of Elliott. "Northern California will always be home to me, even if I live way on the East Coast now … To get back-to-back wins in the Cup Series is something I've always dreamed of doing, and to get it done feels great."

Elliott, the reigning series champion, achieved his best finish at Sonoma, but couldn't find a way past his teammate.

"I wish I knew (where Larson was stronger)," said Elliott, who has six road course wins to his credit. "I would have tried to give him a little better run. But congrats to Kyle and (crew chief) Cliff (Daniels) and everybody on the 5 team. They've been doing an amazing job.

"I'm really proud of our NAPA group, though. I felt like we were a lot better there at the end than we were at the beginning. That's definitely the best I've ever been here at Sonoma."

Truex came home third, followed by Joey Logano and Kyle Busch, who summed up Larson's dominance in one sentience.

"The 5 was just out of this world," Busch said.

Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Kurt Busch and Ross Chastain were sixth and seventh, respectively. Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman and Ryan Blaney completed the top 10.

Hamlin and Kevin Harvick, who combined for 16 victories in 2020, left Sonoma still winless this season. Harvick was the victim of a seven-car chain reaction crash in Turn 11 on Lap 77 during a rash of four cautions within an 18-lap stretch near the end of the race.

Without a hood or right front fender on his car, Harvick salvaged a 22nd-place result.