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NASCAR: Kyle and Kurt Busch take 1-2 in Sonoma

  • Kyle Busch at 2015 Sonoma

The demanding Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway was won by Kyle Busch who finished the race in front of his brother Kurt. The first road course race in NASCAR calendar was held began at 3:00PM ET with AJ Allmendinger on pole position, but Kurt Busch took the early lead from him. Jeff Gordon was battling with Kyle Larson and Clint Bowyer made it to the top five. On lap 22, the race was yellow flagged when David Gilliland hit the barrier in turn 10 after puncturing a tire, and after the restart, Clint Bowyer took the lead, but soon lost it to Kyle Busch.

On lap 29, the race was yellow flagged and then on lap 31 red flagged because of a big crash involving David Ragan and Martin Truex Jr. who hit his car too hard and was out of the race. After ten and a half minutes, the race restarted under yellow with Kyle Busch in the lead and on lap 34, the race was green flagged. Jamie McMurray overtook AJ Allmendinger to take the second place, but AJ returned to second and McMurray was pushed back to seventh. Kurt Busch was in third and was holding off Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson. By lap 40, Kurt Busch went to second and started fighting hard with Kyle, dropping him to third because Allmendinger overtook Kyle as well. On lap 44, Matt Kenseth suffered a blown tire but made it to the pits without crashing or causing a yellow. On lap 50, Kyle Busch went to the pits for a tire change and restarted on fourteenth. On lap 52, Jimmie Johnson overtook AJ Allmendinger and got to the second position.

NASCAR: Kyle Busch wins in Sonoma

Halfway into the race, Jimmie Johnson went to the lead when Kurt Busch pitted, as well as Allmendinger. Johnson was followed by Clint Bowyer and Carl Edwards. On lap 61, AJ Allmendinger pitted due to engine issues and had to take his car to the garage. Justin Allgaier has lost all fuel and managed to roll his car to the pits. While Allgaier was nearing the pits, Joey Logano narrowly escaped him and the pit road barrier. In the meantime, Dale Earnhardt Jr, and Kasey Kahne climbed to second and third, while Kurt Busch went to first after Jimmie Johnson pitted and returned to the race in fourth after a late stop.

On lap 73 the third caution was out when JJ Yeley hit the wall on Turn 10 and he managed to drive his car to the pits. AJ Allmendinger has managed to get his car fixed and returned to the track. Jimmie Johnson reclaimed the lead after the leaders pitted. The race restarted on lap 79 with Johnson under attack from Clint Bowyer and Joey Logano and was yellow flagged again because of a crash between Carl Edwards and David Ragan happened when Edwards bounced into Ragan’s rear end which sent both cars into the concrete barriers. Luckily, both drivers were okay and the race restarted with 26 laps to go.

With 23 laps to go, Kyle Busch overtook Clint Bowyer and went to second, but Bowyer overtook him again with 17 to go. With 12 laps to go, Casey Mears’ rear axle broke and that accident caused a yellow flag. With 11 to go, there’s been a massive pit road but Jimmie Johnson didn’t pit and was followed by Jamie McMurray and Jeff Gordon. During the caution period, Mat DiBenedetto narrowly escaped crashing into a track truck, but slid into his pit. With 7 laps to go, the race restarted and on the same lap Danica Patrick spun her car, but returned to the track without the caution flag. In the next lap, Kyle Busch overtook Gordon and McMurray and started attacking Johnson, soon gaining the lead. Johnson was then overtaken by Bowyer who went up to second. Kurt Busch went to third and overtook Bowyer with 2 laps to go, finishing second, behind his brother who won the race. On fourth and fifth, there were Harvick and Logano, in front of Jimmie Johnson, Dale Jr, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman and Sam Hornish Jr. Jeff Gordon lost pace and dropped to sixteenth in his last hometown race.

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