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 "This is awesome; it's unbelievable. Can't say enough about my team,
everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing," Busch said. "I don't know if they can
all understand how it feels. There's some sentimental fans out
there, for sure, the ones that are cheering that normally wouldn't
cheer for me. It's definitely special to be here in victory lane in
a Sprint Cup Series race at Sonoma."
On newer tires, Busch drove up from seventh to second in one lap on
a restart with seven laps to go, then got by Jimmie Johnson for the
lead one lap later.
"I felt like the sooner the better," Busch said. "I couldn't let him
(Johnson) hold me up. I couldn't let him break my momentum and
everything I had going. It would just take too long for me to get it
back."
Several other drivers also passed Johnson in the closing laps,
dropping him outside the top five. Kurt Busch finished second, Clint
Bowyer third, Kevin Harvick fourth, and Joey Logano fifth.
"Gene Haas (car owner) has given everything to me, and I wanted to
deliver a win for him," Kurt Busch said. "It was an incredible drive
all day. The car was fast. I thought we had the right sequence. Kyle
got a lucky break when that yellow came out and he got onto pit
road, and there were just too many cars between me and him on some
of those restarts. I just didn't quite get the restarts I needed."
The yellow flag waved for the fifth and final time with just over 10
laps remaining. Johnson stayed out while other front-runners,
including Bowyer and Kyle Busch, pitted.
Bowyer and Busch were the first two off pit road and lined up sixth
and seventh, respectively, for the restart. Meanwhile, Jamie
McMurray and Jeff Gordon lined up second and third after staying out
with Johnson.
"I saw there were a bunch of cars between myself and the first guy
on (new) tires," Johnson said. "I felt pretty good about things. And
then after about a lap and a half, I wasn't feeling so good about
things. They were there quickly. But if we came back tomorrow, we'd
still run the same strategy. We played it perfectly."
Two quick cautions between laps 74 and 78 of the 110-lap race left
all drivers good to go the remaining distance without additional
trips to pit road. Johnson was up front for the restart that
followed the lap-78 caution, with Bowyer and Busch in second and
third. As Johnson maintained the lead, Busch and Bowyer battled back
and forth for second.
A.J. Allmendinger and Kurt Busch started the race on the front row,
with Allmendinger on the pole. Busch took the lead at the start, and
he and Allmendinger ran first and second until the first caution of
the race for David Gilliland on lap 21.
Jeff Gordon moved up to third on lap eight and ran third to Busch
and Allmendinger until the first yellow flag.
When the caution came out, the top three were among those who headed
for the pits while eight cars stayed out. As a result, those three
restarted ninth, 10th and 11th.
Bowyer and Tony Stewart preferred to stick to a two-stop strategy,
while most of the six other cars that stayed out pitted earlier
under green.
Bowyer was passed by Kyle Busch for the lead when the race
restarted, while Stewart dropped back several spots. Bowyer and
Stewart made their first stops during a lap 28 caution for Martin
Truex Jr.
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As a result of the wreck, Truex wound up outside the top 10 for only
the second time through the 16 races this season.
"It's just a product of restarts here," Truex said of the incident.
"When you are in mid-pack, it's not a good place to be. It's just
really congested. We were a lot faster than a couple of guys around
us. You're trying not to get run over. You've got to make moves."
Allmendinger and Kurt Busch were back inside the top five for the
restart following a yellow and red flag for Truex's incident. Kyle
Busch and Jamie McMurray restarted on the front row.
Allmendinger and Kurt Busch quickly got up to second and third and
then Busch took second from Allmendinger and the lead from Kyle
Busch on lap 40. Allmendinger followed him to retake second.
Busch and Allmendinger gave up the top two spots to pit under green
just before the halfway point of the race, handing the lead over to
Johnson. Allmendinger's bid for the win went away a few laps later
with an additional 25-second pit stop to remedy a mechanical issue
and then a related trip to the garage to change the fuel cell in his
No. 47 Chevrolet.
"The car was good," Allmendinger said. "I thought we had a better
chance of winning this year than we did last year. It was still
going to be tough."
Busch eventually worked his way back up to second, with Johnson
one-third of a lap ahead. Johnson had yet to make a second pit stop.
Johnson, utilizing a two-stop strategy, gave up a 28-second lead to
pit for the final time with 43 laps to go. Busch reassumed the lead.
NOTES: Jeff Gordon is a five-time winner and five-time pole sitter
at Sonoma Raceway. He finished second at Sonoma in 2014 and 2013.
... A.J. Allmendinger was the most recent road course winner,
winning at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) last year. ... Carl Edwards won last
year at Sonoma Raceway. ... Kyle Larson set a track qualifying
record on Saturday with a 96.568 mph lap in the first round of
qualifying. He started fourth and Allmendinger started on the pole
after posting a 96.310 mph lap in the second round. ... Dale
Earnhardt Jr's team had to replace the transmission in the No. 88
Chevrolet after qualifying, but Earnhardt still started the race in
his original 20th spot, as NASCAR rules allow for a transmission
change at a road course. ... The Sonoma race is the first of two
road courses on the Sprint Cup schedule. The other is at Watkins
Glen in August.
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
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