Motor Racing Digest

 

Posted by: Dave Thompson, follow @phillyfan17

June 24, 2012

Clint Bowyer held off a hard charging Kurt Busch in a green-white-checkered finish to win Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma raceway.

The win was Bowyer’s first at a road-course and sixth of his Sprint Cup Series career and his first victory with Michael Waltrip Racing.

Bowyer took the lead on Lap 74 and remained at the front until crossing the start/finish line.

Tony Stewart finished second after passing Busch on the final lap. Brian Vickers finished fourth for his second top-five finish in three races with Michael Waltrip Racing. Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon finished fifth and sixth.

Busch was looking to become the first repeat winner at Sonoma since Jeff Gordon (1998-2000) after winning the race last year while at Penske Racing. Busch battled Bowyer for several laps, reached his bumper several times but unable to make the pass before his tires began to wear down with 10 laps remaining.

Paul Menard’s spinout brought out the final caution flag which set up the green-white-checkered finish and gave Busch one last shot at Bowyer. Lurking in third on the restart was Stewart, who had 12 fewer laps on his tires than Bowyer and Busch. With just four laps to go, Bowyer shared his thoughts on the caution after building a two second lead over Busch. “You’ve got to be (expletive) kidding me!”

Bowyer continued his dominance on the final restart as he held off Busch and Stewart, pulling away to seal the win.

After the race, Bowyer was forced to walk to Victory Lane after his car ran out of fuel during his victory burnout.

“To switch teams like I did was a huge risk for me, and obviously a chance for me to showcase my talent,” said Bowyer after making it to victory lane to celebrate with his team.

The race itself set a record for fewest number of cautions in the race with two (four was the previous record). The first caution did not wave until lap 83 for a spin by Tomy Drissi, which set another track record for most green-flag laps to start the race.

Marcos Ambrose, the pole-sitter on Sunday, led the first 11 laps, but his car seemed to fade after 12-15 laps as he lost the handling on the No. 9 Stanley Ford. Ambrose was unable regain the handling and finished eighth.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. was spun around on the final restart and finished 23rd, his worst finish of the season.  In his 13 career Sprint Cup starts at Sonoma, Earnhardt has yet to finish in the top-10.

Matt Kenseth, who finished 13th, maintained his lead in the point standings over Biffle and Earnhardt.

Results of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma:

Fin	Str	Car	Driver	Team	Laps	Pts	Bpts	Status	TLd	LLd
1	6	15	Clint Bowyer	5-hour Energy Toyota	112	48	5	RUNNING	3	71
2	24	14	Tony Stewart	Office Depot / MOBIL 1 Chevrolet	112	42		RUNNING
3	8	51	Kurt Busch	Phoenix Construction Services Chevrolet	112	42	1	RUNNING	2	2
4	21	55	Brian Vickers	RKMotorsCharlotte.com Toyota	112	40		RUNNING
5	3	48	Jimmie Johnson	Lowe’s Chevrolet	112	39		RUNNING
6	2	24	Jeff Gordon	Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet	112	39	1	RUNNING	1	13
7	4	16	Greg Biffle	3M / US Stationary Ford	112	37		RUNNING
8	1	9	Marcos Ambrose	Stanley Ford	112	37	1	RUNNING	1	11
9	17	22	AJ Allmendinger	Shell Pennzoil Dodge	112	35		RUNNING
10	14	20	Joey Logano	The Home Depot Toyota	112	34		RUNNING
11	35	31	Jeff Burton	Wheaties Chevrolet	112	33		RUNNING
12	13	2	Brad Keselowski	Miller Lite Dodge	112	32		RUNNING
13	9	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford EcoBoost Ford	112	31		RUNNING
14	15	5	Kasey Kahne	Farmers Insurance Chevrolet	112	30		RUNNING
15	20	13	Casey Mears	GEICO Ford	112	29		RUNNING
16	26	29	Kevin Harvick	Rheem Chevrolet	112	28		RUNNING
17	7	18	Kyle Busch	M&M’s Toyota	112	27		RUNNING
18	10	39	Ryan Newman	Quicken Loans / Children’s Tumor Fndtn Chevrolet	112	26		RUNNING
19	25	1	Jamie McMurray	McDonald’s Chevrolet	112	25		RUNNING
20	23	27	Paul Menard	Menards / Moen Chevrolet	112	24		RUNNING
21	11	99	Carl Edwards	Aflac Ford	112	23		RUNNING
22	5	56	Martin Truex Jr.	NAPA Auto Parts Toyota	112	23	1	RUNNING	2	15
23	19	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Diet Mntn Dew / Ntnl Guard / 7-Eleven Chevrolet	112	21		RUNNING
24	18	47	Bobby Labonte	Clorox Toyota	111	20		RUNNING
25	22	95	Scott Speed	Leavine Family Racing Ford	111	19		RUNNING
26	27	38	David Gilliland	1-800-LoanMart Ford	111	18		RUNNING
27	29	34	David Ragan	Green 1 High Performance Green Ford	111	17		RUNNING
28	30	43	Aric Almirola	Medallion Ford	110	16		RUNNING
29	28	32	Boris Said	HendrickCars.com Ford	110	15		RUNNING
30	40	26	Josh Wise #	MDS Transport Ford	110	14		RUNNING
31	42	83	Landon Cassill	Burger King / Dr Pepper Toyota	110	13		RUNNING
32	31	78	Regan Smith	Furniture Row / Farm American Chevrolet	109	12		RUNNING
33	38	49	JJ Yeley	America Israel Racing / JPO Absorbents Toyota	107	11		RUNNING
34	12	42	Juan Pablo Montoya	Target Chevrolet	107	10		RUNNING
35	16	11	Denny Hamlin	FedEx Ground Toyota	98	9		Suspension
36	39	93	Travis Kvapil	Burger King / Dr Pepper Toyota	92	8		RUNNING
37	32	36	Dave Blaney	Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet	84	7		Suspension
38	41	10	Tomy Drissi	Ice Age Continental Drift Chevrolet	78	6		Accident
39	34	7	Robby Gordon	MAPEI / Save Mart Supermarkets Dodge	73	5		Steering
40	33	98	David Mayhew	Phil Parsons Racing Ford	25	4		Brakes
41	43	33	Stephen Leicht #	LittleJoesAutos.com Chevrolet	22	3		Brakes
42	37	19	Chris Cook	Humphrey Smith Racing Toyota	13	2		Brakes
43	36	87	Joe Nemechek(i)	AM/FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves Toyota	1	0		Engine