Race report
NASCAR Cup Sonoma
Martin Truex Jr. fends off teammate Kyle Busch for Sonoma victory
Martin Truex Jr. continued Joe Gibbs Racing’s dominating run this season and at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.
Jim Utter
Edited: Jun 24, 2019, 3:32 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Truex deftly navigated Sonoma’s turns holding his JGR teammate Kyle Busch at bay to win Sundays’ Toyota Save Mart 350, his fourth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season, all coming in the last eight races.
The win is the 10th by JGR this season and JGR becomes the fourth team in Cup Series history to win at least 10 of the first 16 races joining Hendrick Motorsports (2007), DePaolo (1957) and Kiekhafer (1956).
"I just dug down deep and tried to be smooth and hit my marks," Truex said of his approach to keeping Busch at bay. "Luckily I began with a big enough gap where I could get away and not feel too much pressure.
"It was definitely battle going on as far as the race there at the end for us on tires. It felt terrible the last 20 laps. The last 10 it just felt like it was on ice - just no grip anywhere. I'm really proud on all these guys and everyone on this team and everyone back at JGR.
"What a season we've turned this into. This is great, man, unbelievable. Hopefully, we can keep it going."
Truex also thanked Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip, who retired from his broadcast career at Fox Sports following Sunday's race.
"Big thank you to 'DW' for all you've done for us buddy. It's been an honor to watch replays of you calling races and stuff. I've been a big fan for a long time. I wish you the best going forward," he said.
Ryan Blaney ended up third, Matt DiBenedetto finished a career-best fourth and Denny Hamlin completed the top-five.
Rounding out the top 10 were Kevin Harvick, Ryan Newman, Erik Jones, Aric Almirola and pole-winner Kyle Larson.
Stage 3
Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, those that did not pit in Stage 2 headed down pit road which allowed Truex to inherit the lead.
On the restart on Lap 45, Truex was followed by Chase Elliott, Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Larson.
Kyle Busch got into the back of Blaney and nudged him out of the way to take third on Lap 47 of 90. Busch’s No. 18 Toyota did suffer some significant damage on the nose.
After 50 laps, Truex held about a 1.5-second lead over Elliott as Kyle Busch remained in third. Blaney ran fourth and Daniel Suarez was fifth.
On Lap 51, Kyle Busch got around Elliott in Turn 7 to move into the runner-up position.
Ryan Preece spun around in Turn 11 on Lap 52 after contact from Ricky Stenhouse Jr. but was able to continue on without incident.
After 55 laps, Truex had opened up almost a 2-second lead over Kyle Busch as Elliott ran in third. Blaney was fourth and Suarez continued to run fifth.
With 30 laps remaining in the race, Truex maintained a more than 2.8-second lead over Kyle Busch. On Lap 61, Stenhouse became the first driver to make his final stop in the race and was quickly followed by William Byron.
On Lap 61, Elliott headed down pit road after saying “blew up, blew up” on his radio. Once in his pit stall, Elliott’s crew went under the hood of the No. 9 Chevrolet looking for the problem.
Elliott’s crew eventually pushed his car to the garage.
Suarez was penalized for an uncontrolled tire during his pit stop and had to come back around and to serve a pass-through penalty.
Kyle Busch inherited the lead on Lap 64 as Truex made his pit stop.
Busch finally dropped to pit road to complete his stop which allowed Truex to reclaim the lead on Lap 68.
Once everyone had completed their stops, Truex’s lead over Busch had expanded to more than eight seconds. Blaney ran third, Harvick fourth and Jimmie Johnson was fifth.
With 15 laps remaining in the race, Truex’s lead over Kyle Busch had fallen to 3 seconds as Blaney ran in third. Harvick remained fourth and Johnson in fifth.
Logano was forced to pit on Lap 76 and a battery was changed on his No. 22 Ford. He had been having alternator problems during the race.
With 10 laps to go, Truex maintained a 1.5-second lead over Kyle Busch with Blaney running in third. Harvick was fourth and Johnson fifth.
After 85 laps, Truex’s lead was down to around a second over Kyle Busch. Blaney was third, but nearly 25 seconds behind the leader.
On Lap 87, DiBenedetto got around Harvick to move into the fourth position.
The win is Truex's third at Sonoma (and second consecutive) and 23rd of his Cup Series career.
Read Also:
- Denny Hamlin wins Stage 2 at Sonoma as leaders short-pit
- William Byron dominates in Stage 1 win at Sonoma
Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Laps Led 1 19 
Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 90 59 2 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 90 1.861 3 3 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 90 33.549 4 95 Matt DiBenedetto Toyota 90 37.184 5 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 90 38.308 4 6 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 90 49.617 7 6 Ryan Newman Ford 90 52.411 8 20 Erik Jones Toyota 90 53.560 9 10 Aric Almirola Ford 90 58.419 10 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 90 1'02.554 11 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 90 1'03.669 12 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 90 1'04.920 13 1 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 90 1'06.499 14 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 90 1'09.215 15 8 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 90 1'09.331 16 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 90 1'12.751 17 41 
Daniel Suarez Ford 90 1'16.459 18 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 90 1'19.764 19 24 William Byron Chevrolet 90 1'21.843 21 20 38 David Ragan Ford 90 1'24.497 21 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 90 1'27.671 22 21 Paul Menard Ford 90 1'29.766 23 22 Joey Logano Ford 90 1'32.224 24 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 90 1'38.112 25 34 Michael McDowell Ford 89 1 lap 26 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 89 1 lap 27 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 89 1 lap 28 36 Matt Tifft Ford 89 1 lap 29 47 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 89 1 lap 30 96 Parker Kligerman Toyota 89 1 lap 31 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 89 1 lap 32 32 Corey Lajoie Ford 89 1 lap 33 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 89 1 lap 34 77 Justin Haley Chevrolet 88 2 laps 35 27 Reed Sorenson Chevrolet 88 2 laps 36 52 Cody Ware Ford 64 26 laps 37 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 60 3 38 51 J.J. Yeley Ford 53 37 laps
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Denny Hamlin wins Stage 2 at Sonoma as leaders short-pit
Next article Matt DiBenedetto: “We got the good run we deserve”
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jim Utter
Erik Jones agrees to multi-year contract extension with Legacy Motor Club
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Erik Jones agrees to multi-year contract extension with Legacy Motor Club
Goodyear's option tires at Richmond "were like Mario Kart with a star"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
Goodyear's option tires at Richmond "were like Mario Kart with a star"
NASCAR: Austin Dillon move was "really close to crossing the line"
NASCAR Cup
NASCAR Cup
Richmond II
NASCAR: Austin Dillon move was "really close to crossing the line"
Latest news
Five key takeaways from F1's big African Grand Prix reveal in Rwanda
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 50 min
Five key takeaways from F1's big African Grand Prix reveal in Rwanda
Niels Koolen makes switch to Abel Motorsports ahead of 2027 Indy NXT campaign
Indy NXT
IndL Indy NXT 2 h
Niels Koolen makes switch to Abel Motorsports ahead of 2027 Indy NXT campaign
GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 2 h
GT World Challenge Portimao: All you need to know about season finale featuring Max Verstappen
13 Autosport retains unchanged lineup for 2027 IMSA campaign, eyes global expansion
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 3 h
13 Autosport retains unchanged lineup for 2027 IMSA campaign, eyes global expansion
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe