Sonoma is the first road course race of the year for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup series. Can anyone break the dominance Kevin Harvick(4) and Kyle Busch(18) have shown to date? Harvick is the defending race winner, he starts 6th. Busch qualified 9th. Young gun Kyle Larson(42) sits on the pole today with defending Cup Champion Martin Truex Jr. (78) next to him on the front row.
Larson took the lead on the start. Three laps in Truex passed Larson and began to drive away. Stage lengths at Sonoma are 25, 25, and 60 laps. With 10 laps to go in Stage 1, Truex built a 3.5-second lead. Harvick moved into 2nd, A.J. Allmendinger(47) sat 3rd, Jimmie Johnson(48) 4th, and Chase Elliott(9) in 5th.
Road course pit strategy always brings some surprises and often jumbles the field. A number of drivers pitted with 3 laps to go in the Stage. Truex and Harvick pitted with 2 laps to go. Allmendinger inherited the lead and held it to the green and white checkered ended the Stage.
Stage 1 Results
| Car | Driver | Stage Points |
| 47 | Allmendinger | 10 |
| 2 | Keselowski* | 9 |
| 48 | Johnson | 8 |
| 9 | Elliott | 7 |
| 42 | Larson | 6 |
| 31 | Newman | 5 |
| 10 | Almirola* | 4 |
| 19 | Suarez | 3 |
| 37 | Buescher | 2 |
| 95 | Kahne | 1 |
* Ford Fusion Drivers
Stage 2
After Stage ending pit stops Truex returned to the lead with Harvick in 2nd. Clint Bowyer(14) ran 3rd, Denny Hamlin(11) 4th, and Joey Logano(22) 5th. After winning his first Stage of the year, Allmendinger missed a shift on Lap 33 and over-revved the engine. The motor could not take the abuse and expired taking A.J out of the race.
Turex, unable to pull away from Harvick, led for the majority of Stage 2. Until with 7 laps to go in the Stage, Harvick drove past the 78 car and took the lead. Again, many teams opted to make stops prior to the pits being closed at the end of the stage. Harvick and Truex both pitted forfeiting the lead to Hamlin.
Stage 2 Results
| Car | Driver | Stage Points |
| 11 | Hamlin | 10 |
| 9 | Elliott | 9 |
| 48 | Johnson | 8 |
| 2 | Keselowski* | 7 |
| 12 | Blaney* | 6 |
| 10 | Almirola* | 5 |
| 88 | Bowman | 4 |
| 34 | McDowell* | 3 |
| 37 | Buescher | 2 |
| 31 | Newman | 1 |
* Ford Fusion Drivers
The Final Stage
After all the pit stops sorted out at the end of Stage 2 it was again Harvick and Truex back to the front. Bowyer, Kurt Busch(41) and Kyle Busch(18) rounded out the top 5. All race winners this year with the exception of Kurt Busch.
Green flag pit stops began with 40 laps to go. Harvick pitted with 38 to go, Truex gambled, stayed out and took over the lead. Truex used a pit strategy that meant 1 less stop than the rest of the field. He pitted with 30 laps to go. As pit stops cycled through Harvick returned to the lead about a second ahead of Bowyer. Truex, in third, trailed by 6 seconds, and Kyle Busch 8 seconds behind.
With 22 laps to go Truex passed Bowyer and cut Harvick’s lead to 2 seconds. With 20 to go Truex re-took the lead. Harvick, after pitting early, had to make one more pit stop to make it to the end.
To the Checkered Flag
With 9 laps to go Harvick moved back into second place. However, Truex led by 24 seconds. If the race goes green to the finish Truex, providing he stays out of trouble, will win. If there is a late caution Harvick has the fresher tires and would be the favorite for the victory.
Martin Truex Jr.’s luck holds out and the pit gamble pays off. He cruises to the win 10 seconds ahead of Harvick. The victory solidifies Truex as a serious championship contender again this year.
Next week it’s Chicagoland Speedway and Series TV coverage switches from Fox to NBC. The Overton’s 400 is scheduled for a 2:30 pm on NBCSN.
Results of the Sonoma 350
| Position | Car | Driver | Behind | Laps |
| 1 | 78 | Martin Truex Jr. | — | 110 |
| 2 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | 10.513 | 110 |
| 3 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | 22.079 | 110 |
| 4 | 9 | Chase Elliott | 24.41 | 110 |
| 5 | 18 | Kyle Busch | 26.737 | 110 |
| 6 | 41 | Kurt Busch | 34.294 | 110 |
| 7 | 20 | Erik Jones | 36.66 | 110 |
| 8 | 10 | Aric Almirola | 41.427 | 110 |
| 9 | 88 | Alex Bowman | 46.498 | 110 |
| 10 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | 48.053 | 110 |
| 11 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | 48.343 | 110 |
| 12 | 37 | Chris Buescher | 53.262 | 110 |
| 13 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | 55.713 | 110 |
| 14 | 42 | Kyle Larson | 57.722 | 110 |
| 15 | 19 | Daniel Suarez | 59.287 | 110 |
| 16 | 3 | Austin Dillon | 66.875 | 110 |
| 17 | 32 | Matt DiBenedetto | 73.73 | 110 |
| 18 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 75.925 | 110 |
| 19 | 22 | Joey Logano | 78.441 | 110 |
| 20 | 95 | Kasey Kahne | 79.322 | 110 |
| 21 | 34 | Michael McDowell | 86.688 | 110 |
| 22 | 38 | David Ragan | -1 | 109 |
| 23 | 96 | Parker Kligerman | -1 | 109 |
| 24 | 31 | Ryan Newman | -1 | 109 |
| 25 | 24 | William Byron | -1 | 109 |
| 26 | 21 | Paul Menard | -1 | 109 |
| 27 | 6 | Trevor Bayne | -1 | 109 |
| 28 | 15 | Justin Marks | -1 | 109 |
| 29 | 43 | Bubba Wallace | -1 | 109 |
| 30 | 23 | Gray Gaulding | -1 | 109 |
| 31 | 51 | Chris Cook | -1 | 109 |
| 32 | 0 | Tomy Drissi | -2 | 108 |
| 33 | 13 | Ty Dillon | -4 | 106 |
| 34 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | -5 | 104 |
| 35 | 72 | Cole Whitt | -53 | 57 |
| 36 | 52 | Cody Ware | -68 | 42 |
| 37 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | -77 | 33 |
| 38 | 47 | AJ Allmendinger | -77 | 33 |
Points/Playoff Standings
| Rank | Driver | Points | Wins |
| 1 | Kevin Harvick* | 624 | 5 |
| 2 | Kyle Busch | 696 | 4 |
| 3 | Martin Truex Jr. | 546 | 3 |
| 4 | Clint Bowyer* | 544 | 2 |
| 5 | Joey Logano* | 584 | 1 |
| 6 | Austin Dillon | 313 | 1 |
| 7 | Brad Keselowski* | 554 | 0 |
| 8 | Kurt Busch* | 524 | 0 |
| 9 | Denny Hamlin | 505 | 0 |
| 10 | Kyle Larson | 472 | 0 |
| 11 | Aric Almirola* | 471 | 0 |
| 12 | Ryan Blaney* | 466 | 0 |
| 13 | Jimmie Johnson | 419 | 0 |
| 14 | Chase Elliott | 411 | 0 |
| 15 | Erik Jones | 376 | 0 |
| 16 | Alex Bowman | 363 | 0 |
| Playoff Cut Line | |||
| 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr.* | 346 | 0 |
| 18 | Paul Menard* | 338 | 0 |
| 19 | Daniel Suarez | 290 | 0 |
| 20 | William Byron | 289 | 0 |
* Ford Fusion Drivers
