Winners & Losers @ Sonoma

By Tom Luttermoser   Images Via NASCAR Twitter

Winners

Daniel Suarez - 154 Races... 5 1/2 full time season with 2 powerhouse teams, a backmarker & a brand new team.. 40 Top-Tens.. Several races ruined not of his doing and finally at Sonoma's picturesque road course... Daniel Suarez becomes only the 5th Foreign born driver to win at NASCAR's highest level. He locks himself into the Playoffs with his teammate Ross Chastain completing entry for the TrackHouse organization.

TrackHouse Racing - TrackHouse is in it's second season in NASCAR, last season they took the headlines purchasing Chip Ganassi's NASCAR program and scored 4 Top-10's and a single Top-5 with Daniel Suarez. It was announced that Ross Chastain would move from the Ganassi 42 to take over the 1 car marking his 3rd full-time Cup season. This year the Duo have scored 3 victories, 15 Top-10's & 10 Top-5's leading a combined 629 Laps. 

Chris Buescher - Fresh off a Covid case at Gateway, Chris finished 2nd at Sonoma. That marks his best career finish outside of his Rookie season, fog shortened win at Pocono. Chris led 7 laps and scored 8 stage points in the run for second, he even held his own for many laps following restarts against leaders Chase Elliott or eventual winner Daniel Suarez. 

Hendrick Motorsports - 100,000 miles led in the NASCAR Cup Series. Hendrick becomes the first organization to hit that milestone in NASCAR history. Hendrick also led a combined 52 Laps between Larson and Elliott leading 26 each with Larson winning Stage 1. 

Losers

Chase Elliott - Although Elliott led 26 laps and is very well know as the sports current road course Ace, he faced a tough time on pit road resulting in having to correct a loose wheel and then penalized for pitting outside the box. Chase went from 5th on a restart to 36th, slowly working his way through the field eventually working his way back up to 20th for the final restart eventually racing his way to 8th after some cars in front of him pit late. He scored no stage points for the first time in a while but still maintained his points lead of 16 points.

23XI - Lap 9, the 9th lap Bubba Wallace's engine let go causing the first Caution of the day and the only caution for cause for majority of the race. Bubba has now DNF'd at Sonoma, Charlotte & Darlington making it 3 of the last 5 races. 

Kyle Busch - Kyle Busch along with majority of the Toyota Drivers in the field this weekend were not much more than a no show all afternoon. Rowdy ran his way to the final restart well into the Top-10 to unfortunately spin in Turn 7 on lap 87 resulting in a 30th place finish only gaining 2 more spots after the spin. No contact was made in the corner, Kyle spun from 7th which could have resulted in him closing the gap on points leader Chase Elliott. 

Kyle Larson - Larson led a teammate matched 26 laps and won Stage 1 only to pit for the stage. He never really managed to run through the field and get that spot back or anywhere near it. He raced his way back to 5th position when he lost a wheel causing the final caution of the race. Due to the spin, Kyle finished a respectable 15th but Crew Chief Cliff Daniels will now have a mandatory 2 week vacation from the track when Cup racing resumes in 2 weeks at Nashville.