Martin Truex Jr. leads 59 laps, claims third Toyota/Savemart 350 victory
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Don Lex (LuckyDuckImages.com)
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
SONOMA-The Toyota-Savemart 350 has always been a race where strategy seems to run its course.
But, unlike the 2018 version of the race strategy didn’t quite work out for the second-place finisher, which gave Martin Truex Jr. the win for the second consecutive year. After pitting on lap 64, Kyle Busch waited three laps later, but it wasn’t enough as Truex led 59 of the 90 laps in the event in claiming his third win at Sonoma. The win makes him the winningest active driver at Sonoma among all active Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers.
“I’d like to say yes, but I can’t,” Truex jokingly said of having three wins in Wine Country. “I just don’t like wine.”
The win is also Truex’s fourth of the season, which ties him with second-place finisher Kyle Busch for most wins on the season. With both drivers sitting at the same number of wins, it seems as though there could be a bit of a rivalry brewing between the top two Toyota drivers.
“I consider anyone that you have to race to win races and championships a rivalry,” Truex said of the possible rivalry with his teammate. “I think it’s a good rivalry. We’re obviously teammates.”
His march to the front began in the first stage when he jumped from eighth all the way up to third before pitting with two to go in stage one. Also at the beginning of the race, it was William Byron who was able to lead 20 laps and claim the stage one victory. Rounding out the top five in stage one was Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, and Aric Almirola.
With 20 laps to go Busch was hot on Truex’s tail, but was never able to get past and take the lead.
“I was just trying to get all I could out of the car, and not burn my tires up too much,” Truex explained of the run to the finish when Busch was coming. “I just hit my marks. I knew that he pitted a little bit later there at the end, so he had a little bit fresher tires.”
“I ran pretty hard the majority of that run trying to get there, so I really didn’t have a whole lot ready, and I didn’t think there was going to be a whole lot of a chance once I got there,” Busch added. “
In stage two, Truex finished seventh. That stage was won by his fellow Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin. Brad Keselowski, Byron, Logano, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. rounded out the top five.
It was a breakout day for Matt DiBendetto, who grew up in Grass Valley, and wheeled his No. 95 machine to a career-best fourth-place finish.
“It makes it mean that much more,” DiBendetto said of the good run at his home track that is also a very tough track. “One being in my home state here. My family’s here. It’s a driver’s track. It’s old, slick, worn out going back to the qualities that I always think stock car racing should be.”
Next week the Cup Series will be back in action when they head to Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois. The race will go green at noon pacific time on NBC Sports Network.
Race notes
- Elk Grove’s Kyle Larson started on pole for the third straight year and ended up finishing 10th. He finished in the top 10 in both stages.
- Kyle Busch only sits one point behind points leader Joey Logano heading to Chicagoland.
- After struggling early in the race, Kevin Harvick managed to finish sixth.
- Ryan Blaney finished third, which was his second top-10 finish at Sonoma Raceway.
- The win is Martin Truex’s 23rd of his career.
- The 2019 Toyota-Savemart 350 was Darrell Waltrip’s final broadcast in the NASCAR on FOX booth after 19 seasons.
- Before the race it was announced that the Bank of America ROVAL 400 at Charlotte Motor Speedway will adjust it’s chicane on the backstretch for the race on September 29th. Charlotte Motor Speedway also added 50 more Kilometers to it’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race that same weekend.
- Chase Elliot’s day came to an end at lap 60 when he blew an engine.
- With the win, Joe Gibbs Racing has now won 10 of the 16 Cup Series races this season. Joe Gibbs Racing also became the winningest team in NASCAR history with the victory. They have 326 wins across all three NASCAR National Series.
