Truex wins for fourth time at Sonoma
Martin Truex Jr. won at Sonoma Raceway for the fourth time in his career Sunday, passing Chase Elliott for the lead after a finalstage restart and holding off Kyle Busch for his second NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season.
Truex, 42, confidently drove his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to another victory on the hilly road course at the base of Northern California wine country, where he also won in 2013, 2018 and 2019. Only Jeff Gordon has more victories (five) at Sonoma than Truex, who earned the 33rd win of his Cup career and his second in the last six races after winning at Dover.
Elliott finished fifth in his return from a one-race suspension for deliberately wrecking Denny Hamlin at Charlotte. Elliott, who has missed seven races this season, twice held the lead in the final stage before Truex blew past him on fresher tires. Truex has seven top-10 finishes in his last nine races.
“Hats off to my team,” said Truex, who finished 26th at Sonoma last year. “To be so bad last year, and to come back and do that with basically the same car, is incredible . ... My team is doing everything right.”
Joey Logano was third behind Busch, with Chris Buescher in fourth.
Truex and Busch, who was 2.979 seconds behind in his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, had the 11th 1-2 finish of their long Cup careers.
“Not too bad,” said Busch, who won last week’s Cup race outside St. Louis. “Just wish we had a little bit more. I was just trying to keep him honest there at the end.”
Truex appeared to be cruising toward victory before pole-sitter Hamlin spun after he made contact with the wall with 19 laps to go. Hamlin’s car slid sideways across the start-finish line.
Elliott led coming out of the caution with 15 laps left, but Truex surged up on fresh tires and reclaimed the lead for good.
Ferrari triumphs
Ferrari ended a 50-year absence from the 24 Hours of Le Mans by toppling mighty Toyota in the centenary running of the most iconic sports car race in the world.
Toyota, which had a fiveyear winning streak, was dealt a blow leading up to the race when race officials added additional weight to the dominant GR010s in a controversial “balance of performance” adjustment designed to level the playing field.
The trio of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi — with Ferrari Formula One driver Charles Leclerc in the garage watching — easily won. The trio had a solid lead even before defending race winner Ryo Hirakawa locked the brakes on his Toyota and hit the wall with 1 hour 44 minutes left.