Kevin Harvick wins at Sonona for 1st victory of season

Even 17 seasons into his career at NASCAR’s top level, Kevin Harvick keeps finding ways to do new things. In addition, Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Clint Bowyer (14) finished second. Of the non-winners, McMurray is third, one point ahead of Denny Hamlin and fifty ahead of Bowyer, who is sixteenth and last in the playoff points.

Some of his competitors probably didn’t think that Bowyer would be someone they would have to battle to make the playoffs.

Said driver will receive 15 extra playoff points over the field; second place will receive 10 points, third place eight, fourth place will receive seven and so on down the line to the 10th-placed driver. In NASCAR, unlike traditional professional sports where the team pays the athlete to compete, race auto drivers are required to pay their teams for the costs associated with their race cars, crew, and support facilities. “I felt like our vehicle was good enough to not chase stage points and go after the win today and it all worked out”.

He made the case for himself by winning at the Sonoma Raceway on Sunday.

One of the key moments for Bowyer was when the final 56 laps of the race did not see the yellow flag be displayed. The significance of Truex’s stage dominance shows in the points. His best chance to clinch a play-off spot could come in next week’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, a track where he has won four times in his Cup Series career.

“Yeah, it looked like it was putting us behind, but we had such a great long-run auto that it played back out for us, which was great”, Keselowski said.

INDYCAR: Scott Dixon won the Kohler Grand Prix at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., edging Josef Newgarden by 0.57 seconds, his first victory at the course. “It’s just a big undertaking, and one day I think when we get done with this year, I think everybody will actually learn all the details of all the things that it took to get to this particular point”.

The Furniture Row driver has notched up a massive 21 Play-Off points – thanks to two race wins, and a whopping 11 stage wins – five more points than his closest rival, and stage two victor at Sonoma, Jimmie Johnson, who recently signed a contract extension to stay at Hendrick, who has 16.

Truex moved past Harvick on the next lap and the two battled until the next pit stop. “The guys fixed it up and we were pretty sporty there at the end”. “We have technicians who work on our skis, boots and bindings, so we appreciate what they do”. Allmendinger, a pit road speeding penalty and unscheduled stops for repairs. “Just never could get track position”.

Truex handed the series lead back to Kyle Larson, who started on the pole but faded to 26th at the finish, one lap down, after a series of run-ins on the asphalt. We just clipped it a little bit and tore the left front up too bad to continue.

In fact, with all the points Truex has earned, and with the many more he’s bound to pick up before September 9 at Richmond, Truex looks like a sure bet for one of the final four spots at Homestead-Miami Speedway. I hope people just thought I was good and honest and represented the sport well. Alon Day also started in the back after missing driver introductions.

Matt Tifft was 22nd in his return to Iowa, the first race he missed in 2016 after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. The Hendrick Motorsports sophomore driver had a hard crash in practice but rebounded with a smooth drive on race day that ended up with an eighth-place finish. 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.