Kyle Larson drinks wine in victory lane to celebrate winning the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 9. Meg Oliphant/Getty Images
By Tom Zulewski
SONOMA, Calif. – With a new track surface in full effect, the NASCAR Cup drivers had more than enough challenges on their plates as the Toyota/SaveMart 350 began at Sonoma Raceway. When winning time came, Kyle Larson found a way to get the job done and grab another road-course race win.
Driving his No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, Larson took the lead with nine laps to go and cruised to the victory at Sonoma on June 9, his second in the last four seasons.
The win was made possible when crew chief Cliff Daniels got the creative wheels turning as the laps clicked down. “We were completely off-script with the way we called the race, but that was fun,” Daniels said.
After the waiver to remain eligible to compete for his second Cup championship was granted by NASCAR less than 24 hours earlier, Larson had a pun for the gathered media. “My focus didn’t waiver. I’m trying to win races now.”
Call it superstition, call it fate, call it karma, but Larson gave a small chunk of credit to the sponsor on the hood of his No. 5 Chevy. “Every time we have Valvoline on the car, I feel like we’re really fast,” said Larson, who led twice for 19 laps on the day and had to pass a hard-charging Martin Truex Jr., who was searching for a record-tying fifth win at Sonoma. “When we said we had to go race and pass these guys, I got a bit nervous. …
Thankfully, we had enough grip and that Martin never got clear to where I could get stuck in third, and that really saved the race.” Truex ended up running out of gas less than 500 feet from the finish line, but managed to crawl the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota across and finish 27th, the last car on the lead lap, as the crowd chanted “go, go, go!”
Through Stage 2, there were eight cautions, tied for second-most all time (2005, 2021), one short of the record of nine set in 1990. When the final stage of 55 laps was run caution-free, it set the stage in motion for the chaos of the finish.
Michael McDowell didn’t lead a lap on the day, but had a car good enough to comfortably finish second, 4.258 seconds behind Larson. “Our race came unraveled when we had the accident (at lap 41) and had to come Chris Buescher had the best shot to hold on and grab his first road-course win, but couldn’t hold off Larson, who had 13 more laps on fresher tires, allowing him to take the lead for good with nine laps to go.
“We weren’t too nervous about the fuel,” said Buescher, who finished third. “It was a great strategy (to take tires when we did), and there were a lot of positives that came from it. Just didn’t have enough left to fight for the win. Buescher led 32 laps, all coming within Stage 3.
Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain completed the top five in the running order. Larson reclaimed the points lead by 14 over Elliott, and Denny Hamlin – who finished in last place (38th) at Sonoma for the second year in a row – fell two spots to third.
Tom Zuelweski covers Sonoma Raceway annually for http://www.sportsradioservice.com
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