By Jason Schultz


Clint Bowyer took the checkers at Sonoma, Sunday afternoon after dominating the race. 


Bowyer ran great all day and held off last year’s Sonoma winner, Kurt Busch and three-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart late in the race to claim victory. 


The Toyota/Save Mart 350 set records early in the race, running 82-laps caution-free. 


On lap 12, Jeff Gordon took the lead from pole sitter and race favorite Marcos Ambrose. Bowyer took the lead for the first time on lap 25 when he passed Jeff Gordon. 


The first round of green-flag pit stops began on lap 33. Martin Truex Jr was on a different pit-cycle than everyone else, therefore he took the lead when he didn’t pit during the lap 33 pit-cycle. 


On lap 42, rookie contender Josh Wise ran off track before the hairpin turn and nearly spun around but he managed to save it with no caution called. 


Halfway through the race – still caution-free – the leaders were; Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch. 


On lap 57, Bobby Labonte spun around in turn eleven but again, no caution flag flew. On lap 68, the second round of green-flag pit stops began. 


Race favorite Marcos Ambrose never returned to the front after so many people thought he would have the dominant car of the day. After this race, Ambrose is still winless at Sonoma and ended up finishing eighth. 


After the second round of pit stops, Clint Bowyer was the leader and he never gave up the top spot for the rest of the race. 


After 82 laps, the first caution flew for Tomy Drissi, in the No.10 car; he spun and crashed while entering the esses portion of the track.


With laps winding down, Kurt Busch was right up behind Bowyer chasing after the lead position. Lap after lap Busch was there without making a move to get around Bowyer. Eventually Busch made contact with the tire barriers in turn eleven, damaging his car and taking a hit on his chance of winning. 


With five laps to go the caution flew for Kyle Busch and Paul Menard. The younger Busch steamed into turn five and made contact with Menard, spinning both cars and bringing out the full-course yellow.  This set up a green-white-checker finish. 


Bowyer led coming to the restart followed by Kurt Busch, Tony Stewart and Jimmie Johnson. While the first part of the field got up the hill without issue, the second half had a problem. Another driver got into Earnhardt Jr and spun him out causing Earnhardt Jr to make contact with Almirola, who was trying to avoid the accident. Subsequently, Regan Smith crashed into Earnhardt Jr, causing heavy damage to both cars. The caution never flew with the leaders racing toward the white flag. As Bowyer led, Stewart raced around Kurt Busch. 


Back in the pack, Martin Truex Jr was having a great day until he spun in turn five and lost a bunch of positions. Again, no caution flew and Bowyer held off a late-charge by Stewart and took the checkers. 


This was Bowyer’s first win for Michael Waltrip Racing – MWR – since Bowyer joined the team from Richard Childress Racing this past offseason. This was only the third career win for MWR and was much eagerly celebrated. Bowyer commented on MWR’s success by saying that “MWR is working together.” 


Three-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart raced hard to the front to finish in second place.


Kurt Busch was grateful for a great race and said “Glad we brought it home third.” In an unsponsored car, Busch really showed great talent behind the wheel of his No. 51, Phoenix Racing car, as the defending winner of this race in 2011. 


A great performance by Clint Bowyer put him in victory lane today and his performance helped his chase chances a little bit more. 


Next week the NACAR Sprint Cup Series is off to Kentucky Speedway for a Saturday Night showdown.

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