Kyle Larson has won for the second time at Sonoma Raceway and for the first time at the road course since the 2021 season.
Larson, who received a waiver to keep him eligible for the playoffs, passed Martin Truex Jr. with nine laps to go. He closed out a day in which he led 19 laps, and he celebrated his third win of the season.
MORE: Larson wins, full Sonoma results
Michael McDowell crossed the line second. Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott, and Ross Chastain rounded out the top five. Busch was fifth on the final lap but Chastain spun him. Busch finished 12th.
Truex was in second place on the final lap, but he ran out of gas right before the start-finish line. He was able to coax his car to the end. He finished 27th and on the lead lap.
REPOST TO CONGRATULATE KYLE LARSON ON HIS NASCAR CUP SERIES WIN AT SONOMA! pic.twitter.com/DgKGNH2pLI
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) June 9, 2024
The final run to the checkered flag was all about strategy. Buescher was in the lead with Truex and Busch behind him. The members of this trio had all stopped for fuel and tires on Lap 68. Larson was in fourth with 13-lap fresher tires.
Larson was eight seconds behind the leaders with 22 laps to go. He cut the deficit to 4.26 seconds with 16 laps to go and passed Busch in the process. Larson was on Truex's bumper with 11 laps to go.
The top three cars were within one second of each other as they reached 10 laps to go. Neither Truex nor Larson could make the pass in the dirty air, but Buescher could not pull away.
In fact, Buescher made a mistake entering Turn 11, which opened up an opportunity for Truex to take the lead. The 2017 Cup champion's time at the front of the pack was short-lived, however, as he made a mistake of his own. Larson then jumped to the lead for the final time.
"I was like, 'Well, man, these guys are going to have to pit another time maybe,'" Larson told Fox Sports after the race. "Then we said we had to go race and pass these guys, I got a bit nervous. 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.
"Thankful that we had enough grip. Thankful, too, that those guys got racing and Martin never got clear really to where I could get stuck in third and that really saved the race."
Stage 1: A late caution set up a three-lap shootout. Tyler Reddick won stage 1. Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman, Michael McDowell, Ross Chastain, Daniel Suarez, Corey LaJoie, and Todd Gilliland all finished top 10.
Pole-winner Joey Logano crashed in a multi-car incident involving Harrison Burton, Chase Briscoe, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. He had to make multiple pit stops during the closing laps of stage 1 to diagnose the damage on the No. 22.
Stage 2: Chris Buescher won a chaotic second stage featuring three cautions for multi-car incidents. Ryan Preece, Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, AJ Allmendinger, Brad Keselowski, Erik Jones, Todd Gilliland, Joey Logano, and Harrison Burton all finished top 10.
Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, Daniel Suarez, Ross Chastain, and Chase Elliott all made their first pit stops of the day before the end of stage 2. This way, they could flip track position and chase the win.
Notable: Sunday's race featured eight cautions. This was one shy of the track record, which Cup teams set in 1990. Seven drivers failed to finish Sunday's race at Sonoma.
Next: The Cup teams head to Iowa Speedway for the first time on June 16 (7 p.m. ET on USA). This race is the first of the NBC Sports portion of the schedule.