Sonoma Raceway was one of four tracks Kevin Harvick had never won a Monster Energy Cup series race at. By the end day on Sunday, the list was down to three.

Harvick collected the checkered flag and won the Toyota Save / Mart 350 at Sonoma. It was his first win of the season and his 36th career win in the series.

He had started the weekend off on Saturday where he qualified in the 12th position for the race. Once qualifying was done, Harvick competed in the K&N Pro Series West race to get some extra laps around this 1.99-mile road course. He led for 23 laps and scored the win.

On Sunday, the early stages of the race were a struggle for him. He was not able to finish inside the top 10 at the end of the first stage and second stage. When the laps were winding down, Harvick and the team took a gamble. On lap 70, Harvick and the team decided to come down pit road to get four new tires and fill the car up with fuel.

Having the four new tires, Harvick was able to make up time on the leaders on the track. By the time there was only 22 laps left in the race, race leader Brad Keselowski came down pit road thus surrendering the lead to Harvick. With an eight second lead over second place, Harvick was able to be on cruise control and picked up the win for the Stewart-Hass Racing team.

Harvick was excited to score his first win at Sonoma after many years of trying.

Bowyer content with second place finish

In the early stages of the race, trouble was finding Clint Bowyer.

After being in altercations with drivers on track, it resulted in the car being torn up and the team using loads of Bear Bond in order to keep the car in one piece.

By the time the final stage began, Bowyer was sitting outside the top 30 and the team had no new tires to put on due to multiple trips down pit lane. Bowyer was going to leave Sonoma with a disappointing finish.

One of the key moments for Bowyer was when the final 56 laps of the race did not see the yellow flag be displayed. Bowyer was on a different strategy compared to those ahead of him and was able to make up the spots when other teams had to pit for their final time. With only few laps left, Bowyer founded himself in second place but knew he would not catch race winner Harvick due to having old tires.

Bowyer admits the short runs are a weak point in his driving style and was very glad to see the final 56 laps go green until the end of the race. He knows he needs a win badly if he and the team want to have a chance at winning the title. However, he was also glad to finish second today after everything happened to him and was happy his teammate won as well.
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