Avoiding errors that marred the race for several of the contenders, Kyle Larson ended up with fresher tires that his competitors and used them to surge to the front at Sonoma.
It was an odd day that started with nearly 2/3 of the field breaking the old track speed record on fresh pavement. But that speed didn’t turn into what I would call a great race. Sonoma can have a really strung-out field punctuated by drivers here and there going two and three wide trying to gain position and occasionally spinning each other out. Maybe it was the coverage by Fox that was off a bit, and we just didn’t see much of that hard racing instead of views of the leaders four seconds ahead of the field.
In any case, it was track strategy that did n many of the early leaders. Joey Logano led the field to green and led 16 laps but found himself in P30 at the end of Stage 1 and P9 at the end of Stage 2 before finishing P21.
Tyler Reddick led a race high 35 laps, won Stage 1, was P29 in Stage 2 thanks to pitting early and finished in P8. Not bad but not what they were hoping for when he was out front.
Chris Buescher led 32 laps and won Stage 2 before finishing P3 and succumbing to the fresher tires of Larson.
For a while it looked like Martin Truex, Jr. had this one in the bag, but he was forced to slow due to insufficient fuel. OK, maybe he can at least pull off a top 5 but oops, no. Running out of fuel at a road course isn’t unusual, but it is embarrassing. He slowly crawled to P27 finish. It was not a good day for Joe Gibbs with Denny Hamlin blowing an engine early and Ty Gibbs losing an argument with the wall.
Michael McDowell ended in P2 and had it not been for Larson’s fresher tires, he could have pulled off a huge win for his team.
It was a pretty good day in points for several drivers like Ross Chastain, AJ Allmendinger, Christopher Bell, Todd Gilliland and Corey Lajoie.
Now the TV attention turns to Team NBC. A team without its star booth personality, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. who is sitting out 2024 but still having his say on his podcast and not having to travel from coast to coast for 36 weeks. How NBC lost one of the best booth guys and fan favorite is still beyond me. He will be replaced by Rick Allen who is certainly competent, but he is not Dale Jr. And then, another change for the playoffs with Jimmy Johnson and Len Diffey. Again, neither are Dale Jr.
Get your waivers! Red hot waivers, right here folks!
And while the SHR conscious uncoupling is still going on, Kyle Larson won big time by getting a waiver for the playoffs from the head honchos in NASCAR. I know there are fans who think he should get a waiver and those who think he doesn’t deserve a waiver since he made the decision to go try the double in the Indy 500. But the fact that Larson was at the track for the 600 and weather determined the end of the race gave NASCAR an out for granting the waiver. It wasn’t an easy out, but it was an out. But NASCAR still needs to be clearer on what circumstances are going to be considered to grant a waiver. Right now, they seem to hand them out like candy on Halloween.
Da Points with 10 to go
So, Larson is back on top of the points with his win and newly minted waiver.
With just ten races to go in the “regular season” things are getting tight. Austin Cindric and Daniel Suarez are outside the top 16 but both have a win to make the playoffs. Currently winless and uncomfortably low on points are Joey Logano (P16), Kyle Busch (P15) Bubba Wallace (P14) Chris Buescher (P13) and even champion Ryan Blaney (P12).
Three are several drivers who could seriously throw this whole thing into a tailspin with a win. Chase Briscoe (P17) and Michael McDowell (P20) are two of the most obvious.
Any driver outside the top 20 that wins, and it could happen but less likely, would certainly shake things up and force some bubble drivers to perhaps press a little harder and make a mistake.
Now on to Iowa for the inaugural Hyvee Perks 250. Qualifying on this unknown track should be interesting. Short track racing has been in a funk so we’ll see what Iowa can bring.
(Photo by Tim Parks/HHP for Chevy Racing)
