Coming off a week where Kyle Larson received news that his playoff waiver was approved by NASCAR, the Hendrick Motorsports driver took to his home track and roared from 23rd on the final restart to win his second career Toyota/Save Mart 350. Larson has now won on both configurations of Sonoma Raceway, dominating the Carousel layout in 2021 and conquering The Chute layout in 2024.
On Lap 51, Larson and other contenders like Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick short pitted the end of stage two, putting them in the middle of the pack when the final stage went underway. Yung Money would continue to slice his way through the field prior to the final pit stop cycle, chasing down Chris Buescher and Martin Truex Jr. into a three-way battle for the lead with 10 laps to go.
After MTJ passed Buescher in Turn 1 on Lap 101, Larson would subsequently pass both by the time the leaders reached Turn 7 and never looked back enroute to his third win of the season.
“With [the win] being at home, this feels more special,” said Larson. “It was really, really nice for me to get to come here this week.”
When asked how he felt after receiving the playoff waiver, Larson said, “my mind never wavered. It was always focused on executing and winning regular season points. My mindset has not changed.”
There was chaos aplenty in the first half of today’s race. Through the first two stages of the race a plethora of drivers had issues resulting in a whopping eight cautions, one off of tying the Toyota/Save Mart 350 record. There was a laundry list of drivers that had off-course excursions throughout the day, sending veterans like Joey Logano, MTJ, and William Byron to the back.
The differing strategies allowed Tyler Reddick and Chris Buescher to win stages one and two respectively, with both drivers capitalizing on their track position and attaining Top 10 results at the race’s conclusion. Kyle Busch and MTJ would not be so lucky on their pit strategy during the final 53-lap green flag run, as both drivers ran out of gas on the final lap and plummeted down to 12th and 27th respectively. Michael McDowell, Buescher, Chase Elliott, and Ross Chastain rounded out the Top 5.
MTJ barely missed out on making history and tying Jeff Gordon for five victories in Sonoma – he'll have another shot at it when NASCAR returns to Northern California in 2025.
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