Truex Jr. Holds off Busch, Rides Carousel to Sonoma's Victory Lane

Martin Truex Jr celebrates his Sonoma victory (Google Images)

Martin Truex Jr scored his second consecutive win in the Toyota/SaveMart 350 at Sonoma Raceway. This checkered flag is his fourth win in the last eight races, tying him with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch for the most victories this year.

The duo have already won half the races so far this year; a staggering statistic in what has been an incredibly dominant year for JGR.

Featuring a new (technically old) layout, Sonoma opened up the long, sweeping left-hand turn known as the Carousel for NASCAR competition for the first time since 1997 to celebrate the California course's 50th anniversary. Many thought this would throw a kink in team's plans, leading to closer competition and more action. But, no matter the layout, Truex and his crew chief Cole Pearn showed that they have Sonoma figured out.

The field paces through the Carousel before the green flag
(Google Images) 

Busch finished second to Truex for the seventh time in his cup career. With three-lap fresher tires, the Las Vegas driver made up an eight second deficit during the race's final 24 lap run, but once he had to use up a little too much of his equipment to make up that time, so once he got within two seconds of the No. 19 car, his progress stalled.

“I just dug down deep and tried to be smooth and hit my marks,” said Truex. “Luckily I began with a big enough gap where I could get away and not feel too much pressure.

“It was definitely a 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 of 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.”

Hoping that Busch and Truex might make a bit of contact going for the win, Ryan Blaney finished a very distant third. Matt DiBenedetto drove the race of his life to come from just inside the top 20 to a career-best fourth place in a special Darrell Waltrip tribute scheme to honor the stock car legend's final race in the broadcast booth for Fox. Stage 2 winner Denny Hamlin came home fifth.

“Yeah, any time I had to lean on the left rear, I just didn’t have the drive that I needed,” Busch said. “Actually tried to hold on to it, trying to save it. I knew that was going to be our problem — that had been our problem all day long. You get closer, you’re like, ‘OK, I can get him, I better go, pounce on him fast, so then he doesn’t have the time to pick up the pace.’

Matt DiBenedetto drove his DW tribute scheme to a
career-best fourth place finish (Google Images)

“But it didn’t work. He was obviously saving a lot. I knew he was going to be saving a lot, have enough to be able to most likely hold us off. I was right. I still tried everything I could to get there and ran real hard. … Sucks to finish second to a teammate, but it’s good for the company. Overall Martin is really, really good here. I’m just pumped that I actually ran good here.”

Kevin Harvick and Ryan Newman claimed the sixth and seventh respectively. Erik Jones, who started from the rear of the field after his team made repairs to the left rear quarter of his car post-qualifying, was eighth in the fourth JGR Toyota. Aric Almirola and polesitter Kyle Larson rounded out the top 10. Like DiBenedetto, this was also a career best finish for Larson at Sonoma Raceway.

The race ran caution-free, except for the two stage breaks. Front-row starter William Byron grabbed the lead from polesitter Larson on the first lap and drove to an easy victory in Stage 1. However, after leading every lap in that initial stage, the sophomore driver lost track position after pitting during the stage break and finished 19th.

NASCAR heads to the windy city this weekend for a triple-header at Chicagoland Speedway. The Camping World 400 will go green on Sunday, June 30 at 3:15 p.m ET on NCBSN, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.