SONOMA, Calif. – Daniel Suárez roared to his first NASCAR Cup Series win Sunday, leading the most laps and prevailing at Sonoma Raceway.
Suárez was in front for 47 of the 110 laps in the Toyota/Save Mart 350, pushing the Trackhouse Racing No. 99 Chevrolet to a 3.849-second margin of victory at the end over second-place Chris Buescher.
● Suárez is the 12th different winner and the fourth first-time Cup Series winner in the 16 races run this season.
● Suárez joins Juan Pablo Montoya (June 2007) as the second driver to win his first career NASCAR Cup Series race on the 1.99-mile Sonoma road course. He is the first driver from Mexico (Monterrey) to win in the Cup Series, and the fifth different driver all-time not from the United States to win a Cup Series race, joining Marcos Ambrose (Australia), Montoya (Colombia), Earl Ross (Canada) and Mario Andretti (Italy).
There were four caution periods for a total of 14 laps. Thirty-one of the 36 drivers in the Save Mart 350k finished on the lead lap.
Chase Elliott remains the championship leader after Sonoma with a 16-point advantage over second-place Ross Chastain. Only 10 races remain in the regular season before the start of the 10-race, 16-driver NASCAR Playoffs.
Stage 1 Winner: Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports (Chevrolet)
Stage 2 Winner: Joey Logano of Team Penske (Ford)
SHR Race Finish:
● Kevin Harvick (Started 23rd, Finished 4th / Running, completed 110 of 110 laps)
● Chase Briscoe (Started 15th, Finished 13th / Running, completed 110 of 110 laps)
● Aric Almirola (Started 21st, Finished 14th / Running, completed 110 of 110 laps)
● Cole Custer (Started 6th, Finished 21st / Running, completed 110 of 110 laps)
SHR Points:
● Aric Almirola (11th with 423 points, 113 out of first)
● Kevin Harvick (12th with 416 points, 120 out of first)
● Chase Briscoe (13th with 386 points, 150 out of first)
● Cole Custer (27th with 262 points, 274 out of first)
Harvick earned his fourth top-five and eighth top-10 of the season, It was his seventh top-five and 11th top-10 in 21 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Sonoma.
Harvick finished fifth in Stage 2 to earn six bonus points.
Briscoe earned his eighth top-15 of the season and his first top-15 in two career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Sonoma.
Briscoe’s 13th-place result bettered his previous best finish at Sonoma – 17th, earned last June.
Almirola earned his ninth top-15 of the season and his fourth top-15 in 10 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Sonoma.
“A few more laps and I think we would’ve had a top-10. Our long-run speed was really good today. The timing of the caution in the last stage wasn’t in our favor, so we had to battle back. Those last few laps we really had the speed. Proud of this Farmer John Ford team for putting together a really good points day. Ready for an off weekend,” said Aric Almirola, driver of the No. 10 Farmer John Ford Mustang
Almirola finished fifth in Stage 1 to earn six bonus points and second in Stage 2 to earn nine more bonus points.
Next Up:
The NASCAR Cup Series gets a well-deserved weekend off before returning to action on Sunday, June 26 for the Ally 400 at Nashville (Tenn.) Superspeedway. The race starts at 5 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
