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| Hendrick Motorsports |
Kyle Larson has won the NASCAR Cup Series “Toyota/Savemart” 350 at Sonoma Raceway, joining Martin Truex Jr. as this season’s second driver to win 3 races.
Hendrick Motorsports’ California native Kyle Larson won this week’s road course race at Sonoma Raceway in dominant fashion. Starting from the pole the No. 5 HendrickCars.com machine was untouchable leading the most laps of the race, and winning both stages. Aside from pit stops where Kyle Larson would have to fight his way back to the lead, for this entire race the No. 5 was the car to beat, though in what seems to be an all too common trend, nobody could. The closest anybody came to beating Kyle Larson was his teammate, and fellow road course racer, Chase Elliott. While Elliott was running 1-2 with Larson most of the day, only on occasion did the No. 9 car get close enough to battle for the lead. For 4 races in a row Hendrick Motorsports has held a grip on the Top-2, which marks only the second time that has happened in NASCAR history.
While Hendrick Motorsports was obviously dominant, the Gibbs camp wasn’t too far off, with their road course racers Martin Truex Jr., and Kyle Busch finishing 3rd and 5th (respectively). For much of the race, Truex stayed very close to Elliott, and at times it seemed as though Truex might have been able to clinch second from Elliott. Kyle Busch, while sustaining some damage, had a fairly decent day, in the “cursed” Sport Clips paint scheme, bringing back a little bit of hope for the continuation of his NASCAR career.
While these two teams did very well with some their drivers, not all of their cars had such decent finishes. Hendrick Motorsports had driver William Byron (in the No. 24) finish 35th, after driving into the back of a wrecking Kevin Harvick. Harvick continue in this race, coming back to finish 22nd, though Byron would bring his Camaro to garage and end his day early. Joe Gibbs Racing had their bad luck with their newest driver Christopher Bell, who finished 24th, after an overall bad day. Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 team had another Top-10 finish, but for the most part, Hamlin’s performance during this race was less than impressive. Hamlin’s points lead is slowly getting and smaller each race, if he isn’t careful, he could soon lose it.
While this race showed clear dominance by the No. 5 of Kyle Larson, I hardly believe it was lacking, as each every pit stop we saw the dominant teams have to battle their way back to lead. This allowed for cautions, close calls, and overall a fairly entertaining race. Next week NASCAR moves on to Texas Motor Speedway for the All-Star weekend, bringing a somewhat confusing, but most definitely new format.
The following are the complete race results:
1. Kyle Larson- No. 5
2. Chase Elliott- No. 9
3. Martin Truex Jr.- No. 19
4. Joey Logano- No. 22
5. Kyle Busch- No. 18
6. Kurt Busch- No. 1
7. Ross Chastain- No. 42
8. Denny Hamlin- No. 11
9. Alex Bowman- No. 48
10. Ryan Blaney- No. 12
11. Erik Jones- No. 43
12. Daniel Suárez- No. 99
13. Austin Dillon- No. 3
14. Bubba Wallace- No. 23
15. Brad Keselowski- No. 2
16. Chris Buescher- No. 17
17. Chase Briscoe- No. 14
18. Corey LaJoie- No. 7
19. Tyler Reddick- No. 8
20. Cole Custer- No. 41
21. Ryan Preece- No. 37
22. Kevin Harvick- No. 4
23. Matt DiBenedetto- No. 21
24. Christopher Bell- No. 20
25. James Davison- No. 15
26. Scott Heckert- No. 78
27. Aric Almirola- No. 10
28. Michael McDowell- No. 34
29. Josh Bilicki- No. 52
30. Ben Rhodes- No. 77
31. Anthony Alfredo- No. 38
32. Garrett Smithley- No. 53
33. Ryan Newman- No. 6
34. Cody Ware- No. 51 - DNF
35. William Byron- No. 24 - DNF
36. Quin Houff- No. 00 - DNF
37. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.- No. 47 - DNF
Can anyone stop @TeamHendrick this season?
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) June 6, 2021
They've now finished 1-2 in the last FOUR races as @chaseelliott finishes 2nd behind @KyleLarsonRacin at Sonoma. pic.twitter.com/1KsVFXcS3h
The crash: pic.twitter.com/jTaLxryNCS
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) June 6, 2021
Classic Turn 11 on the last lap at Sonoma. pic.twitter.com/bgBiq27ODL
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) June 6, 2021
When the Days-of-Thunder strategy goes wrong 😳 pic.twitter.com/jkMMEv5Smj
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) June 6, 2021
New leader: Larson gets by Elliott!
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) June 6, 2021
(That battle was awesome) https://t.co/mOlTT12f0t pic.twitter.com/7fyxLBYOH2
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