Toyota Save Mart 350 Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. – What a difference a year makes.  After struggling mightily last year at Sonoma Raceway in the debut season for NASCAR’s Next Gen car, Martin Truex Jr. pulled off a dominating 180-degree turnaround in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350.  Overcoming an inopportune caution and leading a race-high 51 of 110 laps, Truex scored his second victory of the season and his fourth at the 1.99-mile road course, most among active drivers and second only to Jeff Gordon’s five in track history.  Truex’s 33rd careerRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. – Denny Hamlin made the most of a second lap in the final round of Saturday’s qualifying to edge Tyler Reddick for the pole position for Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Running the fastest lap of the day, Hamlin toured the 1.99-mile road course in 77.719 seconds (92.178 mph) to earn his second Busch Light Pole Award of the season, his first at Sonoma and the 38th of his career. Reddick hadRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The second half of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season rolls on as the West Coast comes calling this weekend, with Sonoma Raceway playing host to Sunday’s running of the Toyota/Save Mart 350. A 12-turn technical road course situated about 30 miles north of San Francisco, Sonoma is one of six road courses on the 2022 schedule, with Sonoma first joining the circuit back in 1989. Over the years, the course at Sonoma Raceway has gone through a few configuration changes. When the track was firstRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service “Win Numero Uno.” Those were the words on the flag Mexican driver Daniel Suárez held out the window of his No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet as he turned celebratory “donuts” on the frontstretch of Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway Sunday afternoon in the ecstatic first moments of his first ever NASCAR Cup Series victory. Suárez’s No. 99 Chevrolet pulled away from runner-up Chris Buescher’s RFK Racing Ford in the closing laps to take an impressive 3.849-second maiden NASCAR Cup Series win on the 1.99-mile Northern CalifornianRead More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Defending race winner Kyle Larson will start Sunday’s Toyota / Save Mart 350  (4 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) from the same position he finished the race last summer – leading the field.  Larson earned his fourth career NASCAR Cup Series pole position at the 1.99-mile Northern California road course on Saturday afternoon with a blistering lap of 91.935 mph in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. He was fastest in practice and both rounds of qualifying to definitively earnRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The second half of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season rolls on as the West Coast comes calling this weekend, with Sonoma Raceway playing host to Sunday’s running of the Toyota/Save Mart 350. A 12-turn technical road course situated about 30 miles north of San Francisco, Sonoma is one of six road courses on the 2022 schedule, with Sonoma first joining the circuit back in 1989. Over the years, the course at Sonoma Raceway has gone through a few configuration changes. When the track was firstRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer Sonoma Raceway announced Monday “The Chute,” the layout NASCAR ran from 1998-2018, will make its return June 10-12. This comes after the Cup Series ran “The Carousel” layout (2.52-mile circuit) in 2019 and 2021. Those respective races were won by Martin Truex, Jr. and Kyle Larson. Sonoma General Manager Jill Gregory explained in a press release that fans openly expressed how much they’ve enjoyed the 1.99-mile layout. “We heard from many fans and drivers how much they loved it when we raced the Chute,” said Gregory.Read More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer SONOMA, Calif. – There was no Sonoma Raceway three-peat for Martin Truex, Jr during Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350. In fact, the three-time track winner didn’t even lead a lap at all. What he was able to do was finish third, behind Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic cancelling last year’s race, Truex entered as the defending race winner. Of course, the question was can he still get the job done in “Wine Country” despite a two-year gap? Truex feltRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service SONOMA, Calif. – Score another sweep for Kyle Larson, who dominated an action-filled Toyota/Save Mart 350 NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday at Sonoma Raceway. Through a spate of late accidents and restarts, Larson held off Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott and three-time Sonoma winner Martin Truex Jr. to claim a second-straight race in which he also swept both the first and second stages. The victory was Larson’s first at the 2.52-mile road course, his third of the season and the ninth of hisRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After missing out on a trip to California wine country last season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NASCAR Cup Series heads back to Sonoma Raceway this weekend for Sunday’s running of the Toyota/Save Mart 350. A 12-turn technical road course situated about 30 miles north of San Francisco, Sonoma is one of seven road courses on the 2021 schedule, with Sonoma first joining the circuit back in 1989. Over the years, the course at Sonoma Raceway has gone through a few configuration changes. When theRead More