SONOMA, California — California driver Kevin Harvick claimed his first win of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season in his home state Sunday by winning the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.
The win also was his first win on the road course.
The race ended under the checkered and yellow flags after Kasey Kahne crashed on the final lap.
Harvick took the race lead from Kyle Busch with just under 45 laps remaining and then losing it to Martin Truex Jr. a lap later. But when the field began cycling through green-flag pit stops in the last 40 laps, Harvick cycled ahead of Truex.
Truex lost a cylinder and retired from the race with engine problems inside the final 25 laps.
Brad Keselowski stayed out longer and still needed to make one final pit stop when he lost the lead to Harvick with 22 laps remaining. Keselowski finally pitted inside the final 20 laps. By that time, Denny Hamlin was a distant second to Harvick and Clint Bowyer third.
Bowyer got by Hamlin to take second inside the final five laps and give Stewart-Haas Racing a one-two finish, with Harvick still holding a sizable lead.
Keselowski got by Hamlin on the final lap to finish third for his first career top-five Sonoma finish. Hamlin and Kyle Busch rounded out the top five.
Hamlin led early in the final third stage of the race that made up the last 60 laps of the 110-lap race when he stayed out after Jimmy Johnson gave up the lead to pit between the second and third stages.
Johnson claimed his first stage win of the season by running up front at lap 50, the end of the second 25-lap stage. Keselowski and Matt Kenseth were second and third at the end of the stage.
Truex led the way early in the second stage but gave up the lead to pit during a debris caution on lap 39. When Truex hit pit road, Johnson inherited the lead. Truex lost several more positions with a slow stop, in addition to the varying pit strategies.
Several drivers pitted before pit road closed in the final laps of the second stage. The move didn’t pay off for Bowyer, though, as he was nabbed for speeding on pit road.
Truex won the opening 25-lap stage, followed by A.J. Allmendinger and Kyle Larson in second and third. It was Truex’s 11th stage win of the 2017 season so far.
Truex passed pole-sitter Larson for the lead on lap 10. After losing the lead, Larson ran off track, giving up second to Allmendinger.
The top three were shuffled outside the top 10, though, when the yellow flag waved for the first time on lap 15 for an incident involving Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Danica Patrick that resulted in slight damage to Larson’s car.
Larson, Earnhardt and Patrick also were players in a second incident that brought out the third caution on lap 31 and ended the race for Ricky Stenhouse Jr., the other driver involved.
NOTES: The race was the first in stages for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series on a road course. … Matt Kenseth had to start in the back because of an engine change. Alon Day also started in the back after missing driver introductions. … Erik Jones and Chase Elliott started the race in backup cars because of wrecks in practice. They started where they qualified, because they had already gone to backups by qualifying. … Kevin Harvick won the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race at Sonoma on Saturday. … Kyle Larson’s pole at Sonoma was his third pole of the season but marked the fifth time this year he started first. He started first in two other races by virtue of being the points leader when rain forced cancellations of qualifying. … Tony Stewart won the 2016 Toyota/Save Mart 350 and Denny Hamlin finished second. … Hamlin won the most recent Cup Series road-course race, the 2016 race at Watkins Glen (New York) International. … Kyle Busch is the only Sonoma multi-race winner among active drivers with two wins at the track, most recently in 2015. … With several teams going calling on road-course specialists for the Toyota/Save Mart 350, the race field included drivers making their Cup Series debut, including Day, Billy Johnson, Kevin O’Connell and Tommy Regan. When Day took the green flag, he became the first Israeli driver to start a NASCAR premier series race. … Ten of the 38 drivers in the race hail from California.