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24th
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It was not a gift; Martin Truex, Jr.'s dominating win at Sonoma ended his six-year drought of 218 races to earn that victory his second in Sprint Cup. “What streak?” Truex asked rhetorically. “Michael had 400 or so (races before a win)” he joked.
“Damn good to get a win, finally,” the Toyota driver said in Victory Lane. He led a race-high three times for 51-laps including the final 28-laps. “Quite a relief to be honest,” he added. “We should have run six or seven races,” Truex continued, regarding his second place finishes in the past, “we've had some tough breaks...but that's part of racing. Days when you do everything right,” and not win, “it's so frustrating.”
“Pit strategy worked out perfectly, just proud of Chad (Johnston his crew chief) and the team.”
“I was a little nervous about a caution,” Truex said about protecting his five-second plus lead before a bit of luck made that drought snapping win more likely.
Although Juan Pablo Montoya was running second, late in the 110-lap race around the 1.99 road course, the Colombian never got close to Truex and then ran out of gas on the last lap falling to 34th place. “It's a hard break,” said Montoya. “Cautions on earlier runs made it harder to calculate."
The race got off to a bumpy opening even before the green flag when David Reutimann stopped, suddenly, driving off of pit road. A chain collision involved Alex Kennedy and Paulie Harraka making his Sprint Cup debut.
Marcos Ambrose, who started second, jumped ahead of polesitter, Jamie McMurray, to take the lead and hold it for 18 laps. Then his car faded. The Australian, a favorite pick for road courses, explained “the weather cooled down a lot and we just didn't anticipate that when we set the car up and we just fought it all day.” He ended up seventh.
Jeff Gordon finished second in a Chevrolet and Carl Edwards finished third in a Ford.
Kurt Busch's hard luck saga at this track continued after taking the lead on lap 19, but, later suffered a pit road speed violation. Amazingly the 2004 Champion was hit again with another speeding violation while he was paying that penalty dropping him deep in the field. Last year he overcame a broken trackbar to finish third. This year he recovered to finish fourth.“We were fast, even on pit road, twice. I messed up, flat out. I was speeding both times,” he admitted.
Jacques Villeneuve, making his first NASCAR Sprint Cup start since the Brickyard 400 in 2010, had to stay on pit road due to being stuck in second gear he stopped for a quick repair, but, that wasn't a final fix. Although he was able to start the problem was bigger. It got stuck again and his engine was blown. He ran only 19 laps for the team which finished third last year with Kurt Busch.
Jimmie Johnson, who finished ninth, saw his points lead over Edwards lead shrink to 25 (573-548). Clint Bowyer, last year's winner in Sonoma, finished fifth and is third in the points with 528.
“Damn good to get a win, finally,” the Toyota driver said in Victory Lane. He led a race-high three times for 51-laps including the final 28-laps. “Quite a relief to be honest,” he added. “We should have run six or seven races,” Truex continued, regarding his second place finishes in the past, “we've had some tough breaks...but that's part of racing. Days when you do everything right,” and not win, “it's so frustrating.”
 |
| Photo: NASCAR |
“Pit strategy worked out perfectly, just proud of Chad (Johnston his crew chief) and the team.”
“I was a little nervous about a caution,” Truex said about protecting his five-second plus lead before a bit of luck made that drought snapping win more likely.
Although Juan Pablo Montoya was running second, late in the 110-lap race around the 1.99 road course, the Colombian never got close to Truex and then ran out of gas on the last lap falling to 34th place. “It's a hard break,” said Montoya. “Cautions on earlier runs made it harder to calculate."
The race got off to a bumpy opening even before the green flag when David Reutimann stopped, suddenly, driving off of pit road. A chain collision involved Alex Kennedy and Paulie Harraka making his Sprint Cup debut.
Marcos Ambrose, who started second, jumped ahead of polesitter, Jamie McMurray, to take the lead and hold it for 18 laps. Then his car faded. The Australian, a favorite pick for road courses, explained “the weather cooled down a lot and we just didn't anticipate that when we set the car up and we just fought it all day.” He ended up seventh.
 |
| Photo: NASCAR |
Jeff Gordon finished second in a Chevrolet and Carl Edwards finished third in a Ford.
Kurt Busch's hard luck saga at this track continued after taking the lead on lap 19, but, later suffered a pit road speed violation. Amazingly the 2004 Champion was hit again with another speeding violation while he was paying that penalty dropping him deep in the field. Last year he overcame a broken trackbar to finish third. This year he recovered to finish fourth.“We were fast, even on pit road, twice. I messed up, flat out. I was speeding both times,” he admitted.
Jacques Villeneuve, making his first NASCAR Sprint Cup start since the Brickyard 400 in 2010, had to stay on pit road due to being stuck in second gear he stopped for a quick repair, but, that wasn't a final fix. Although he was able to start the problem was bigger. It got stuck again and his engine was blown. He ran only 19 laps for the team which finished third last year with Kurt Busch.
Jimmie Johnson, who finished ninth, saw his points lead over Edwards lead shrink to 25 (573-548). Clint Bowyer, last year's winner in Sonoma, finished fifth and is third in the points with 528.