Toyota/Save Mart 350 Recap

In a very unusual race, although that's what is expected at Sonoma, Kyle Busch won the Toyota/Save Mart 350, his fifth of the year.

Kasey Kahne, the polesitter, barely led any laps and then handed the lead to Jimmie Johnson, falling way back into the field. Johnson looked to have a pretty good car, as he had a pretty big lead.

On lap 26, Greg Biffle made a green flag pit stop, starting the cycle of drivers attempting to use strategy to win the race. A few more drivers came in before lap 29, when David Ragan and Joe Nemechek got together in the paper clip turn, dismantling a set of tires used as walls and bringing out the caution.

This meant that good cars that had been up front and pitted, most notably Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart, two drivers great at road-racing that qualified poorly and needed to gain track-position, Kyle Busch, and Juan Montoya were now the leaders along with Biffle.

On the restart, Biffle put his right tires over the first two turns, spinning the car and going to the back, showing us how one small mistake can lead to a very bad result.

Busch then gained the lead, passing Montoya after he had to check up to see where Biffle was going. Form there, he proved that he had the best car, and kept on hitting his marks. It might not have had the top lap times, but it didn't really have any bad ones.

Things then got messed up again when green flag pit stops were made on lap 65+, with drivers such as Tony Stewart, who stalled his car but ended up OK, Jamie McMurray, Harvick, and Busch pitting. Caution came out yet again, disrupting the stops, as Robby Gordon and Kurt Busch made contact and spun.

Carl Edwards, who had a good car all day, was put back in the pack because of the cars that already pitted being on the lead-lap.

From there it was pretty much Kyle Busch leading the way, with many cautions coming out.

The top ten(scenedaily.com full results):

1. Kyle Busch
2. David Gilliland
3. Jeff Gordon
4. Clint Bowyer
5. Casey Mears
6. Juan Montoya
7. Ryan Newman
8. Matt Kenseth
9. Carl Edwards
10. Tony Stewart

• Road-course ace Boris Said had some brake and shock issues and ended up finishing forty-first. That's too bad, as this is probably the first of only two or three races he'll run this season.
• A week effort by Kahne today. I'm not sure why, but his car was just much, much worse than it was in qualifying and practice. This is definitely a setback, and might just end his hot streak.
• When contact is made at Infineon, there's a good chance some driver will start spinning. It's kind of ridiculous.
• A great run by David Gilliland, even if he got kind of lucky to get up that high and finish second. He has some experience at this track, and used it to drive with the best Cup drivers.
• Robby Gordon had a very bad day. At the start, it looked like he might contend for the win, but his car was very bad towards the middle of the race. He ran out of fuel after spinning in the incident with Kurt Busch, and had trouble getting to pit-road, making for some very frustrating moments.
• Kevin Harvick was up there until the end, but was involved in an incident that made him finish thirtieth. He might be in some trouble now.
• Scott Pruett didn't have a good race, getting together with Denny Hamlin and finishing thirty-eighth. Definitely not what the forty-one team had in mind.
  
• A good race for Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished twelfth. He hates this track, and wanted to just get out with a decent finish. He did lose significant ground to Kyle Busch, though.
• Jamie McMurray had a good car all race, but feel to eighteenth after getting together with Harvick.
• Juan Montoya was spun by Marcos Ambrose, but battled back to finish sixth. This was a very good job by him, and maybe he can use the confidence to run well in upcoming races.
• Elliot Sadler had a very good race, running in the top five up until the end. He had a flat tire for the GWC finished though, and ended up finishing eighteenth. That's very unfortunate for him, as he was having his best race of the season.
• Jeff Burton finished thirteenth, his first finish outside of the top ten this season. He wasn't going to do it all year, and he's still in second place.
• So much for ringers. Ron Fellows was the best one in the race, finishing twenty-ninth. Now granted, he had a much better car and was involved in a crash, but that is kind of pathetic.
• It was a bad day for Kurt Busch, who finished thirty-second after being involved in multiple wrecks. His Chase hopes are starting to fade