Wine Country Winner

Toyota SaveMart 350:

Kyle Larson snagged his third victory of the season on Sunday afternoon at Sonoma Raceway winning the Toyota SaveMart 350 - his second victory at the racetrack. Larson chased down Chris Buescher and Martin Truex Jr late in the race (both on different strategy than Larson) and was able to complete the pass when the 17 and 19 both slipped up over a few laps. Once Larson had the lead he set sail for the checkered flag and flexed the Valvoline cars strength. It was no doubt, at that point for sure, that Larson had the fastest car of the weekend. Couple that with a little luck and excellent calls atop the pit box from Cliff Daniels, and Larson was bound to be chugging wine from the winner's goblet. The win did not come as much of a shock - I had predicted Larson early in the week. For one, Larson has been bad fast on road courses (and really everywhere) since joining Hendrick in 2021. Moreover, and I know he has the same amount of wins at Watkins Glen, but I feel as if Sonoma is Larson's best road course. He usually runs well, it takes finesse, race management, and extreme car control skills. All things Larson excels in behind the wheel of literally anything. And Sonoma is his home track - not to far away from the California native's hometown. Most importantly, and why I was confident Larson was going to be the guy to beat this weekend: all the waiver talk and drama is behind us. NASCAR granting his playoff waiver earlier in the week no doubt took some stress of driver #5 and the entirety of the team. This week they were absolutely going for blood, and the did. A week like this shores up Larson as a title (both regular season and playoff) favorite.

The race as a whole was a good race. Gluck and Bianchi on "The Teardown" nailed their description: it was two races within one. Stage 1 and Stage 2 were a cluster. Wrecks and hurt feelings. Strategy getting thrown wonky. Felt like road courses races of years past. Which I, for one, loved. That type of racing, to me, is what propelled road racing in NASCAR in recent years to coveted and some of the most exciting. It did so, yesterday at least, without going overboard into an obnoxious cluster - just a cluster of intense racing and drivers trying to get all they could to position themselves best for Stage 3. Sure, this mixed things up and took out some cars, but that's the beauty of racing, especially intense, all-out road racing with a car we know can struggle to pass later on runs.

Stage 3 played out how we've come to expect road course races to play out the last few years of the NextGen car. All came down to strategy. Who hit it perfectly, who made no mistakes on pit road or on track, who was fast at the end and what was their delta to their competitors, and who maybe got a tiny bit lucky. The only thing that was a little shocking with Stage 3 was no cautions - and that's only given how the race had gone up to that point. And as such, I figured the race would come down to Larson and Truex. Buescher hung in there much better than I anticipated (although after looking at his road course runs the last few years I shouldn't have been shocked). And McDowell stayed in contention fairly well, but part of me wonders if he knew they would be close on fuel so played it safe to ensure he made it to the checkered flag. I was thrown off when Chase Elliott stayed out several laps past Larson, but respect the effort of the 9 team to not follow the leader and do something a little different in an effort to win. Yet the race played out perfectly for Larson. He did get a little help with Truex and Buescher going hard at it late in the race. Thus allowing the 5 car to get to them quicker. With his much faster car and 10-ish laps better tires, it was no doubt he'd get the lead eventually. But getting it as early as he did in the last run set up a smooth sailing finish for Larson.

All in all, as I said above, the race was a good race. I'd give it an 8/10. I feel like it had all you could want in a road course race for this generation of car. The Sonoma repave held up fine, and in my opinion, it raced excellent for a repave. A few drivers post-race even compared it to "old Sonoma" and it had me reflecting on races there in the late 2000s to 2010s when I can't recall being let down by a wine country showdown. I hope it holds true in years to come for NASCAR's annual stop in Northern California.

Now we are off to the inaugural Cup race at Iowa Raceway and a return for the Xfinity Series to the Midwest track, and as we bid farewell to Fox for their coverage of the 2024 season, we welcome in the NBC family to pick up the remaining races (except the playoffs for Xfinity on The CW). I am a little anxious for how the race will play out given the half repaved track, but I have always been a fan of the short track in the middle of the corn fields. I am excited to see the Cup cars get a shot on a great track. The Craftsman Truck Series folks are yet again off this weekend with their return to racing coming in two more weeks at Nashville Superspeedway. So, we are back on track with the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Saturday afternoon 3:30 p.m. EST on USA, and we cap off the weekend with the Cup Series on Sunday at 7:00 p.m. EST on USA.

Picks: Cup = Joey Logano

Xfinity = Chandler Smith

Trucks = Off

Header Photo: Beth Schlanker/The Press Democrat