Photo: stewarthaasracing.com
Busch quickly slid from his fourth-place starting position after taking the green flag due to a lack of rear grip. The team put an air pressure adjustment strategy into place, but it wasn’t until the midway point that the car’s handling began to dial in. He then fought aggressively to race his way back to the front after falling as far back as 22nd.
Powering past nine cars after his second air-pressure adjustment, Busch reached 11th before crew chief Tony Gibson called him to pit road for four tires and fuel on lap 69. After green-flag stops cycled through, he finally settled back into the top-10.
The No. 41 Chevrolet then began to fall on the tight side, but the team didn’t have enough laps remaining to correct the issue. Despite the hard work on pit road, Busch could only race up to 10th before crossing the finish line. It was Busch’s 14th top-10 this season and his eighth top-10 in 16 career Sprint Cup starts at Sonoma.
“We battled really hard. I was somewhat surprised by the lack of grip in the rear of the car,” Busch said. “It showed a little bit of that in practice, and some of the other guys had the same issues as far as our teammates.
“We just didn’t correct handling enough,” Busch said. “It’s my fault that I didn’t relay the information well enough to the Monster Energy guys. Congratulations to Tony Stewart. This is a huge day for SHR. To have three cars in the Chase, to have Tony’s confidence up, to have him battle Denny Hamlin like that – this is the best way for a champion like him to go out.”
Stewart took the lead with 22 laps to go around the 10-turn, 1.99-mile road course en route to his 49th career Sprint Cup victory, his third at Sonoma and his first since winning at Dover (Del.) International Speedway on June 2, 2013. This was also Stewart’s eighth Sprint Cup win on a road course, as he has five victories at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.
There were four caution periods for 10 laps, with three drivers failing to finish the 110-lap race.
With round 16 of 36 complete, Harvick leads SHR and the series in the championship standings. He is first with 562 points, 35 ahead of teammate Busch. This marks the fifth straight week SHR drivers have been 1-2 in the championship standings.
Patrick is 24th with 288 points, 89 ahead of 31st-place Regan Smith. Like Stewart, if Patrick can win a race and finish among the top-30 in points following the 26th race of the season, she will earn a Chase berth. Harvick earned a Chase spot via his win March 13 at Phoenix International Raceway, and Busch secured his position via his win June 6 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola on Saturday, July 2, at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway. NBC will broadcast the race starting at 7 p.m. EDT.
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