Kyle Larson charged through the field to claim his third win of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season Sunday, June 9.
Chris Buescher and Martin Truex Jr. battled hard for the top spot most of the final stage, but Larson’s fresher tires were the key to victory.
“We said we had to go race and pass those guys; I got a bit nervous,” Larson told FOX Sports. “I knew I’d be quick from the get-go, but I thought once the tires would come up to temp it would even off too much.”
Michael McDowell, Buescher, Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain completed the top five, while AJ Allmendinger, Ryan Blaney, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell and Todd Gilliland rounded out the top 10.
Truex would have finished in second, but coming out of the final turn he ran out of fuel, ultimately finishing 27th.
The Toyota/Save Mart 350 ran under chaos from the moment the green flag flew. On lap 2 Denny Hamlin‘s No. 11 Toyota suffered an engine failure, taking Hamlin out of contention in Sonoma for the second year in a row.
The caution flew on lap 15 following a front tire lock up by Ty Gibbs. Gibbs smacked the right front fender of his No. 54 Toyota into the wall, ending his day.
Only three laps later, Chase Briscoe got tight through the esses, spinning through the middle of the pack and collecting Ricky Stenhouse Jr., pole-sitter Joey Logano and Harrison Burton.
Reddick held off Blaney to take the stage 1 win over a bumper-to-bumper top five consisting of Larson, Elliott and Alex Bowman. McDowell, Chastain, Daniel Suárez, Corey LaJoie and Gilliland completed the top 10.
The chaos recommenced with the fourth caution for cause after Australian SuperCar driver Will Brown, making his Cup debut, came to a stop citing an electrical fire under the dash.
Not but three laps later, the caution flag flew after Josh Berry drove deep into turn 11, collecting Truex, John Hunter Nemechek, Bell, Austin Dillon and Australian SuperCar driver Cam Waters, like Brown making his Cup debut.
When the racing continued, the field ran three laps under green until last week’s winner Austin Cindric, McDowell and Noah Gragson slid off the track and into a tire barrier.
The remainder of stage two stayed free of cautions, with Buescher, Ryan Preece, Truex, Busch and Allmendinger completing the top five. Brad Keselowski, Erik Jones, Gilliland, Logano and Burton rounded out the top 10.
Cup Sonoma Results
Next Sunday (June 16), the Cup Series heads back to the Midwest for the Iowa Corn 350 Powered by Ethanol at Iowa Speedway. Coverage will be provided by USA, MRN, SiriusXM and NBC Sports beginning at 7 p.m. ET.
About the author
Ty joined the Frontstretch team in February of 2024 as a Contributor covering Sunday news. He has two books available on Amazon: A Perfect Sundae and Chartreuse: Crime & Horror Short Stories.
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Finish the article. Who’s leading the points now !!!
Hmmmm, I figured Hamlin must missed a shift and blew a seal but it must’ve just been a little ice cream.
I wonder if he’d admit making such a mistake if he did?
I figured he downshifted instead of up. Again without admitting it.
The Fox broadcast eventually said that the SMS data did not show an over-rev of the engine. Either it happened at the end of qualifying and wasn’t noticed or this was some other kind of engine failure.
He spent a lot of time in the car during the weekend for Brian’s product.
Toyota’s never break down on their own, Denny MUST have done something really dumb at some point to break it (perhaps in qualifying or practice?)!
“right front quarter panel”????
Really? It’s a front fender! It’s a rear quarter panel! Just sayin’.