What a difference a year has made for Martin Truex Jr. at Sonoma.
Truex passed Chase Elliott shortly after a late restart and won for the fourth time in Northern California’s wine country, grabbing the checkers in the NASCAR Cup Series’ Toyota/Save Mart 350 on Sunday in Sonoma, Calif.
After Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin brought out a caution with 19 laps remaining at Sonoma Raceway, Truex restarted his No. 19 Toyota inside the top four with 15 laps to go.
Truex maneuvered past leader Elliott, on older tires, and snaked his way around the 12-turn road course to find victory for the third time in the past five races there after finishing 26th a year ago.
“Hats off to my team,” said Truex, who led a race-high 51 laps. “To be so bad here last year and to come back and do that with the same car basically is really unbelievable.
“This is why we do it. This is why we go through years we had like last year. You just keep fighting and never give up on it. You always believe in each other. We haven’t changed anything on our team other than parts and pieces. It’s through a lot of hard work by a lot of people.”
His four wins trail only Jeff Gordon’s five for the most all-time at Sonoma.
It was the Mayetta, N.J., native’s 33rd Cup triumph and fourth win in 17 starts at Sonoma.
The win was Truex’s second of 2023 and first since his victory at Dover Motor Speedway on May 1.
“I tried really hard there at the end to keep Martin honest,” runner-up Kyle Busch said. “I’d beat him a little on a lap then I’d mess up. Then he’d beat me by a little more on the next lap.”
Joey Logano and Chris Buescher finished third and fourth, respectively.
Following a one-race suspension for intentionally wrecking Denny Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600, Elliott came in fifth.
In his final race in his home state of California, Kevin Harvick brought his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford home in 11th.
Harvick’s start — his 806th in the series — moved him ahead of Gordon and into ninth place among all-time drivers.
After securing his first-ever pole position at the 2.385-mile track, Hamlin took off in his No. 11 Toyota and won the first stage’s bonus points at Lap 25 by 2.987 seconds over Truex.
Hamlin paced all 25 laps in the caution-free segment, which stayed green and didn’t bunch the field under a rule used by NASCAR at its road courses.
However, Truex made a pass on Lap 34 and left his stablemate, only to lose the point when most of the field pitted with five laps left in Stage 2 during the 110-lap race’s first caution.
Under green, Busch went on to win the stage — his second segment win this season and first at Sonoma — with Logano behind him at the halfway point.
–Field Level Media
