Martin Truex, Jr. took victory at the NASCAR Sprint Cup‘s first road course event of the year at Sonoma.
The #56 Toyota Camry drove a dominant race as he took the win ahead of Jeff Gordon and Carl Edwards. Juan Pablo Montoya looked set to take a second place finish but ran out of fuel on the final lap, plummeting down the order and finishing well outside the top twenty.
The race began under drizzling conditions, with all 43 drivers struggling for grip. The #52 car of Sprint Cup débutante, Paulie Harraka, appeared to struggle more than others, driving in to the car in front on pit road before the start of the race before bringing out the first caution of the day on lap 5.
Racing resumed for 14 laps before weather brought out the second caution of the day on lap 25. Jeff Gordon continued his run of bad luck, getting penalised for pitting too early after pit road closed merely seconds before he crossed the entrance line, but too late for him to back out of the stop.
Kurt Busch took the lead from the restart, but ended all hopes of a race victory by speeding on entry to pit road, and then again as he came in to take his original speeding penalty. Truex took the advantage as Busch dropped down the order, taking the lead of the race on lap 41.
Despite a mix of strategies from the chasing pack, including a late race comeback for both Gordon and Busch, Truex drove away from the field to win the race by over six seconds, asserting his dominance over the rest of the field.
Jimmie Johnson still leads the Sprint Cup standings, holding a 25 point lead over Carl Edwards, with Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick and Matt Kenseth rounding out the top five.
