Martin Truex Jnr has won the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma after a late-race game of chicken drew Kevin Harvick into pit lane.
The 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion took his third win of the season, Harvick drove back up to second following a subsequent strategy play of his own, and Clint Bowyer made it two Stewart-Haas Racing Fords in the top three.
Truex Jnr and Harvick were both in with a shot of winning each of the first two stages but gave up the chance with pit stops which set them up for the restarts.
Harvick led Truex Jnr at the start of the final stage, and it looked like they would pit together at the end of Lap 73.
The #78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota’s crew chief Cole Pearn had repeatedly told Truex Jnr to “pit now,” only to issue a seemingly last-minute instruction to stay on the race track.
With that, Truex Jnr took over the lead before actually pitting a full seven laps later, after which he used the advantage of newer tyres to run down Bowyer on Lap 89 and then take the lead from Harvick on Lap 91.
Click here to find out how.
SHR decided to pit the two again and while they managed to drive back to second and third, Truex Jnr was 10.5s in the distance after the 110th and final lap.
Harvick in the #4 Ford finished another 11.6s in front of the #14 Ford of Bowyer, while the other SHR entries Kurt Busch (#41 Ford) and Aric Almirola (#10 Ford) took sixth and eighth respectively.
Chase Elliott (#9 Hendrick Motorsports) was the lead Chevrolet in fourth, series leader Kyle Busch (#18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) finished fifth, and his team-mate Erik Jones (#20 Toyota) was seventh.
Alex Bowman (#88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet) and Denny Hamlin (#11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) rounded out the top 10, the latter taking out Stage 2 after the eventual podium finishers pitted just before the interval.
AJ Allmendinger won Stage 1 but his race lasted little longer when the skilled road course racer missed a gear and blew the engine in his #47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet, necessitating the only unscheduled Caution of the afternoon.
Ryan Blaney was the last running at the finish due to power steering issues in the #12 Team Penske Ford.
The series continues with Round 17, the Overton’s 400, at Chicagoland Speedway on June 30-July 1 (local time).
Race highlights
Results: Toyota/Save Mart 350, Sonoma Raceway
| Pos | Num | Driver | Make | Laps | Led | Status |
| 1 | 78 | Martin Truex Jnr | Toyota | 110 | 62 | Running |
| 2 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Ford | 110 | 35 | Running |
| 3 | 14 | Clint Bowyer | Ford | 110 | 0 | Running |
| 4 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Chevrolet | 110 | 0 | Running |
| 5 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Toyota | 110 | 0 | Running |
| 6 | 41 | Kurt Busch | Ford | 110 | 1 | Running |
| 7 | 20 | Erik Jones | Toyota | 110 | 1 | Running |
| 8 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Ford | 110 | 0 | Running |
| 9 | 88 | Alex Bowman | Chevrolet | 110 | 0 | Running |
| 10 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Toyota | 110 | 4 | Running |
| 11 | 48 | Jimmie Johnson | Chevrolet | 110 | 0 | Running |
| 12 | 37 | Chris Buescher | Chevrolet | 110 | 0 | Running |
| 13 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Ford | 110 | 0 | Running |
| 14 | 42 | Kyle Larson | Chevrolet | 110 | 2 | Running |
| 15 | 19 | Daniel Suarez | Toyota | 110 | 0 | Running |
| 16 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Chevrolet | 110 | 0 | Running |
| 17 | 32 | Matt DiBenedetto | Ford | 110 | 0 | Running |
| 18 | 17 | Ricky Stenhouse Jnr | Ford | 110 | 0 | Running |
| 19 | 22 | Joey Logano | Ford | 110 | 0 | Running |
| 20 | 95 | Kasey Kahne | Chevrolet | 110 | 0 | Running |
| 21 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Ford | 110 | 0 | Running |
| 22 | 38 | David Ragan | Ford | 109 | 0 | Running |
| 23 | 96 | Parker Kligerman | Toyota | 109 | 0 | Running |
| 24 | 31 | Ryan Newman | Chevrolet | 109 | 0 | Running |
| 25 | 24 | William Byron | Chevrolet | 109 | 0 | Running |
| 26 | 21 | Paul Menard | Ford | 109 | 0 | Running |
| 27 | 6 | Trevor Bayne | Ford | 109 | 0 | Running |
| 28 | 15 | Justin Marks | Chevrolet | 109 | 0 | Running |
| 29 | 43 | Bubba Wallace | Chevrolet | 109 | 0 | Running |
| 30 | 23 | Gray Gaulding | Toyota | 109 | 0 | Running |
| 31 | 51 | Chris Cook | Ford | 109 | 0 | Running |
| 32 | 00 | Tomy Drissi | Chevrolet | 108 | 0 | Running |
| 33 | 13 | Ty Dillon | Chevrolet | 106 | 0 | Running |
| 34 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | Ford | 104 | 0 | Running |
| 35 | 72 | Cole Whitt | Chevrolet | 57 | 0 | Crash |
| 36 | 52 | Cody Ware | Chevrolet | 42 | 0 | Fuel pump |
| 37 | 1 | Jamie McMurray | Chevrolet | 33 | 0 | Oil pump |
| 38 | 47 | AJ Allmendinger | Chevrolet | 33 | 5 | Engine |
Standings
| Pos | Driver | Pts | Gap | Starts | Wins | Playoff pts |
| 1 | Kyle Busch | 696 | 16 | 4 | 25 | |
| 2 | Kevin Harvick | 624 | -72 | 16 | 5 | 26 |
| 3 | Joey Logano | 584 | -112 | 16 | 1 | 7 |
| 4 | Brad Keselowski | 554 | -142 | 16 | 0 | 4 |
| 5 | Martin Truex Jnr | 546 | -150 | 16 | 3 | 18 |
| 6 | Clint Bowyer | 544 | -152 | 16 | 2 | 10 |
| 7 | Kurt Busch | 524 | -172 | 16 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | Denny Hamlin | 505 | -191 | 16 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | Kyle Larson | 472 | -224 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Aric Almirola | 471 | -225 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Ryan Blaney | 466 | -230 | 16 | 0 | 4 |
| 12 | Jimmie Johnson | 419 | -277 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 | Chase Elliott | 411 | -285 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 14 | Erik Jones | 376 | -320 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | Alex Bowman | 363 | -333 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | Ricky Stenhouse Jnr | 346 | -350 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | Paul Menard | 338 | -358 | 16 | 0 | 1 |
| 18 | Austin Dillon | 313 | -383 | 16 | 1 | 5 |
| 19 | Daniel Suarez | 290 | -406 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 20 | William Byron | 289 | -407 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 | Jamie McMurray | 284 | -412 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 22 | Ryan Newman | 276 | -420 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | AJ Allmendinger | 260 | -436 | 16 | 0 | 1 |
| 24 | Bubba Wallace | 255 | -441 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 25 | Chris Buescher | 246 | -450 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 26 | David Ragan | 240 | -456 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | Michael McDowell | 224 | -472 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 28 | Kasey Kahne | 219 | -477 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 29 | Ty Dillon | 198 | -498 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 30 | Matt DiBenedetto | 176 | -520 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 31 | Trevor Bayne | 155 | -541 | 12 | 0 | 0 |
| 32 | Gray Gaulding | 107 | -589 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 33 | Cole Whitt | 87 | -609 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 34 | Landon Cassill | 75 | -621 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 35 | DJ Kennington | 58 | -638 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 36 | Matt Kenseth | 49 | -647 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 37 | Corey LaJoie | 49 | -647 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| 38 | Jeffrey Earnhardt | 35 | -661 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 39 | Reed Sorenson | 31 | -665 | 7 | 0 | 0 |
| 40 | Brendan Gaughan | 24 | -672 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 41 | Harrison Rhodes | 23 | -673 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 42 | Mark Thompson | 15 | -681 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 43 | Chris Cook | 6 | -690 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 44 | Tomy Drissi | 5 | -691 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 45 | Derrike Cope | 4 | -692 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 46 | Danica Patrick | 2 | -694 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 47 | Cody Ware | 1 | -695 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 48 | Justin Marks | 0 | -696 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 49 | David Gilliland | 0 | -696 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 50 | Ross Chastain | 0 | -696 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| 51 | Parker Kligerman | 0 | -696 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 52 | Timothy Peters | 0 | -696 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 53 | Cole Custer | 0 | -696 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 54 | Joey Gase | 0 | -696 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 55 | JJ Yeley | 0 | -696 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 56 | Timmy Hill | 0 | -696 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 57 | Daniel Hemric | 0 | -696 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 58 | BJ Mcleod | 0 | -696 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 59 | Chad Finchum | 0 | -696 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
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