SONOMA — Martin Truex Jr. renewed his love affair with the Northern California wine country by driving his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to a convincing NASCAR Cup Series victory in Sunday’s 34th Annual Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
Along with wins in 2013, 2018 and 2019, Sunday’s victory was the fourth in 17 career starts at Sonoma for the 42-year-old Truex. Only Vallejo native Jeff Gordon has more wins (five) on the winding 1.99-mile road course.
"Hats off to my team," said Truex, who finished 26th at Sonoma last year as his team struggled to get a handle on the new NASCAR Next Gen car that was introduced for the 2022 season. "To be so bad last year, and to come back and do that with basically the same car is incredible. My team is doing everything right."
Truex settled in behind his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate and pole sitter Denny Hamlin in the early going of the 110-lap race before finally passing him to take over the top spot on lap 32. He looked to be in total control of the race for the next 18 laps until a bizarre caution on lap 50 due to a loose tire on pit road scrambled the running order.
With some drivers electing to pit while others stayed out, Kyle Busch suddenly emerged from mid-pack to take over the race lead. Truex would eventually work his way back to the front, overtaking Busch to retake the lead on lap 69, only to lose the lead once again on lap 92 when Hamlin broke a rear toe link and smacked the wall on the front straight.
After pitting for the final time, Truex found himself trailing Chase Elliot and a handful of other drivers, who elected to stay out as the race resumed. However, with fresh tires and a superior handling car, Truex was able to make short work of them and retake the lead for good on lap 97. Busch also followed Truex to the front, but slowly faded over the final laps to finish in second 2.98 seconds behind Truex.
"Not too bad. We got a lucky break there with a yellow with only three laps on our tires, so we were able to kind of cycle to the front" said Busch pragmatically. "Just wish we had a little bit more. I was just trying to keep him honest there at the end."
The victory was Truex’s second of the season and 33rd of his career. He now holds the lead in the 2023 Cup standings through 16 races by 13 points over William Byron.
“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.”
Joey Logano finished third, while Chris Buescher and Elliott rounded out the top five. Elk Grove native Kyle Larson was a tick off the leader’s pace all race and finished eighth while 2022 race winner Daniel Suarez ended up well back in 22nd place.
After a one-week break, the Cup Series begins its 10-race sprint to the playoffs June 25 at Nashville Superspeedway and the highly anticipated inaugural Chicago Street Race on July 2.
SONOMA Raceway Xfinity and ARCA races
NASCAR Cup regular Aric Almirola won Saturday’s DoorDash 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series' inaugural race at Sonoma Raceway thanks to a rare late-race blunder by Kyle Larson.
"It's been a really tough year on the Cup side, and to come out here and get to celebrate with my kids, that is so special," Almirola said after driving his Ford to the first-ever victory for RSS Racing. "So excited to share this in Victory Lane here."
After dominating practice, qualifying on the pole and leading for most of the first 61 laps of the race, Larson held a 13.5-second lead when a caution came out with 18 laps to go. Larson pitted and returned to the track in third place behind, Gilroy’s AJ Allmendinger and Almirola who inherited the lead after he elected not to pit for new tires.
When the race restarted, Larson easily disposed of Allmendinger and had Almirola squarely in his sights when he clipped the inside tire barrier entering the Turn 11 hairpin causing damage to his front end and allowing Allmendinger to retake second.
With Larson no longer a threat, Almirola cruised to the win almost two seconds ahead of Allmendinger while Larson was able to nurse his car home in third ahead of Ty Gibbs and Parker Kligerman, the only Xfinity regular to crack the top five. .
"I just got too greedy," said Larson, who led 53 of the 79 laps overall. "[RSS Racing] really deserves a win, but we all found a way to lose. Just bummed and mad at myself .’
The victory was Almirola’s first career road course victory, his fourth career Xfinity victory and his first in the series since 2017.
Cup regular Ryan Preece opened the weekend at Sonoma by turning in a dominating performance in Friday’s General Tire 200, ARCA Menards Series West race. Preece started from the pole and held the lead for 56 of 64 laps, finishing over 9 seconds ahead of Sammy Smith.
Ethan Nascimento, of Manteca, finished on the lead lap in tenth place and his older brother Eric Nascimento ended up in 23rd after suffering a mishap on Lap 45.
A replay of the race will broadcast on CNBC on Sunday, June 18, starting at 8:30 a.m.
