NASCAR made the annual trip to wine country this past weekend and invaded Sonoma Raceway for the Toyota Save Mart 350.
Daniel Suarez captured his first career NASCAR Cup Series win at the event. Suarez led the final 30 laps of the 110-lap race in his number 99 Chevrolet. Suarez has started 195 Cup Series races prior to Sonoma.
Elk Grove native and last year’s event and Series Champion Kyle Larson started Sunday’s main event from the pole position. He led the first 10 green flag laps before the first caution came out for Bubba Wallace, who lost in engine in turn four. Larson led until the first stage of the race ended on lap 25 when pit stops were made. Chase Elliott took over the lead as he had made his stop prior to the end of stage one. Elliott turned over the lead to Joey Logano who won stage two. Logano then pitted under yellow, handing the lead to Chris Buescher with Daniel Suarez starting alongside of him. Buescher then pitted on lap 81 turning the lead over to Suarez. While Suarez pitted Kyle Larson came out of the pit and the driver’s front right wheel came off the car causing a caution. From there Suarez started on the front row for the final restart and was able to get the lead and pulled away from the field to score the win.
On Saturday, NASCAR brought the Camping World Truck Series out to Sonoma for the first time in 22 years. A few of the Cup drivers decided to hop into the field to take extra laps around the difficult 12-turn road course. Kyle Busch was one of them along with Ross Chastain. The two drivers started on the front row. Chastain got the lead early as Busch made a slight off-track detour that slowed him up briefly. As the race wound down though it was Busch with the better pit strategy to keep him near the front. Busch would start fourth and Chastain fifth on the final restart; both had fresher tires than those ahead of them. Busch was able to maneuver his way through the cars in front of him and pick up the lead by turn seven. Once in the lead Busch never looked back and scored the victory.
