Race report

NASCAR Cup Sonoma

Truex takes Sonoma win after pit strategy works to perfection

Martin Truex Jr. earned his 18th career win and third victory of the season, outsmarting the competition in a game of strategy at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday.

Nick DeGroot

Edited: Jun 24, 2018, 11:45 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Race winner Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing, Toyota Camry 5-hour ENERGY/Bass Pro Shops

Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing, Toyota Camry 5-hour ENERGY/Bass Pro Shops

Kevin Harvick, Stewart-Haas Racing, Ford Fusion Mobil 1

Clint Bowyer, Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet Camaro One Cure

Truex led 62 of 110 laps en route to the victory, his second at Sonoma Raceway.

"That's all Cole (Pearn). That's all him," exclaimed Truex in Victory Lane.

"I was just begging, hoping the caution wouldn't come out."

The race went back green for the final stage just before halfway on Lap 55/110. After short-pitting just shy of the end of the stage, Kevin Harvick and Truex once again cycled into the race lead for the restart.

As the drivers settled in for the final 55 laps, it was Harvick ahead of Truex, Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch.

Back in the pack, Ryan Blaney struggled to keep up as he battled power steering issues. Ty Dillon encountered issues of his own, stuck in third gear and falling off the lead lap.

Green-flag pit stops began with 40 laps to go, but it was two laps later that Harvick pitted from the race lead. However, Truex did not follow him into the pit lane. Radio communication revealed that No. 78 crew chief Cole Pearn intended to bait the race leading No. 4 into pitting, making them think Truex was coming in the same lap. He repeatedly said “pit now” before telling him to stay out at the last second. After the fake-out, Truex continued on for nine laps before making his final stop with 29 laps to go.

Harvick’s crew chief Rodney came over the radio, telling his driver, “kinda screwed us a little bit.”

Truex emerged seven seconds adrift of Harvick, but it didn’t take him long to cut the gap to pieces.

With 22 laps to go, he passed Bowyer with ease, and then got Harvick under braking into the hairpin just two laps later.

With Truex in the catbird seat, SHR decided to swing the odds back in their favor and threw the dice, calling both Harvick and Bowyer to pit road with 18 laps to go. The hope was that a caution would occur, putting them back in control of the race.

But even without a yellow, they had the pace to regain their lost positions with Harvick retaking second-place from Chase Elliott with nine laps to go. Bowyer followed suit and moved into third soon after.

But it was cruise control for Truex at the front, crossing the finish line with a 10.5 second advantage.

Harvick, Bowyer, Elliott, Kyle and Kurt Busch rounded out the top-five.

"Oh man we all make mistakes," said Harvick after the race. "We all do things split second that might be right after it all happens."

Read Also:

Denny Hamlin inherits Stage 2 win as the leaders pit early
Allmendinger wins Stage 1 at Sonoma after Truex and Harvick pit

Cla#DriverManufacturerLapsTimeLaps Led 1 78 united_states Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 110 62 2 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 110 10.513 35 3 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 110 22.079 4 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 110 24.410 5 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 110 26.737 6 41 Kurt Busch Ford 110 34.294 1 7 20 Erik Jones Toyota 110 36.660 1 8 10 united_states Aric Almirola Ford 110 41.427 9 88 Alex Bowman Chevrolet 110 46.498 10 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 110 48.053 4 11 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 110 48.343 12 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 110 53.262 13 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 110 55.713 14 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 110 57.722 2 15 19 mexico Daniel Suarez Toyota 110 59.287 16 3 united_states Austin Dillon Chevrolet 110 1'06.875 17 32 Matt DiBenedetto Ford 110 1'13.730 18 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 110 1'15.925 19 22 Joey Logano Ford 110 1'18.441 20 95 Kasey Kahne Chevrolet 110 1'19.322 21 34 Michael McDowell Ford 110 1'26.688 22 38 united_states David Ragan Ford 109 1 lap 23 96 Parker Kligerman Toyota 109 1 lap 24 31 Ryan Newman Chevrolet 109 1 lap 25 24 William Byron Chevrolet 109 1 lap 26 21 Paul Menard Ford 109 1 lap 27 6 Trevor Bayne Ford 109 1 lap 28 15 Justin Marks Chevrolet 109 1 lap 29 43 united_states Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 109 1 lap 30 23 Gray Gaulding Toyota 109 1 lap 31 51 Chris Cook Ford 109 1 lap 32 00 Tomy Drissi Chevrolet 108 2 laps 33 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 106 4 laps 34 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 104 5 laps 35 72 Cole Whitt Chevrolet 57 53 laps 36 52 united_states Cody Ware Chevrolet 42 68 laps 37 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet 33 77 laps 38 47 A.J. Allmendinger Chevrolet 33 77 laps 5

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Allmendinger wins Stage 1 at Sonoma after Truex and Harvick pit

Next article Kevin Harvick loses out on strategy at Sonoma

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

2027 Formula E drivers and teams: The line-up so far

Formula E

FE Formula E 1 h

2027 Formula E drivers and teams: The line-up so far

Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 1 h

Kimi Antonelli meets Italian president Sergio Mattarella

How seizing every chance – and making it happen – keeps Pierre Gasly’s fire burning

Formula 1

How seizing every chance – and making it happen – keeps Pierre Gasly’s fire burning

How Qatar red flag helped Johann Zarco put Barcelona crash behind him

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Qatar GP

2 h

How Qatar red flag helped Johann Zarco put Barcelona crash behind him

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts