The twelve turns of Sonoma Raceway in northern California brought twists and turns into the picture for NASCAR drivers who mostly race on long ovals or modified ovals. Sonoma Raceway, formerly Sear Point Raceway in the wine country, used to be the nemesis for traditional drivers and attracted hired-in sports car drivers who were more familiar with road courses.
Fortunately, the whining by drivers in previous years about road courses has made for better drivers, smarter team strategies and a lot tighter racing. The Monster Energy NASCAR Toyota/Save Mart 350 turned out to be a battle-involving veteran Kevin Harvick as he fought off Martin Truex Jr. in a late race charge for the win.
Truex’s crew chief, Cole Pearn made all the right calls and with fresher tires Truex was able to pass Harvick’s #4 Mobil 1 Ford with twenty laps to go. Harvick couldn’t catch the Truex Jr’s Toyota Camry.
Truex’s victory was his second one in Sonoma, already his third Winners Circle midway through this 2018 season.
Our awesome BANGShift.com photographers Mike and Jeff Burghardt walked much of the 1.99 mile course to shoot the bumping, bouncing, rubbing, turning and dust of this historic racetrack, here are their photos.
Finishing order for the NASCAR Toyota/Save Mart 350:
1. Martin Truex Jr. (third win of ’18, 18th career NASCAR Cup Series victory)
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Clint Bowyer
4. Chase Elliott
5. Kyle Busch
6. Kurt Busch
7.Erik Jones
8.Aric Almirola
9.Alex Bowman
10. Denny Hamlin (Stage 2 winner)
It’s fascinating that more than half the field are sporting wiper blades on their cars since the chance of rain in NorCal in June is about once every 20 years. The fact that all the weeds around the track are always dead is proof of that.