Kyle Busch drinks the wine at Sonoma
Kyle Busch won the 2015 Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday. This was his 30th career win and his second at Sonoma, which is known for being a complex road course that isn’t too friendly to inexperienced drivers. Busch’s older brother, Kurt Busch, came in second and Clint Bowyer came in third.
Busch took the lead spot from Jimmie Johnson, who led the most laps during the race (45), at the 106th lap (out of 110). Johnson’s loss of the lead spot can be credited with the fact that he stayed on the track during a yellow flag, which was raised after a left rear wheel assembly fell off of Casey Mears’ car on lap 99. Johnson had old tires on his car, which helped enable Busch’s successful pass, the latter who went into the pits during the yellow to get a fresh set of wheels put on his car.
Busch has only been back behind the wheel since May. At this year’s Dayton 500 in February, Busch was involved in a major multi-car crash, which led to him having a compound fracture in his right leg and a broken left foot.
Busch brakes with his left foot, and he admitted he was anxious to rest his foot as he devoured crispy M&M’s during the post-race press conference, “Man, I can’t say enough about M&M’s and their support – they’ve been behind me so much through the years, not just this year but through the years.” M&M is his primary sponsor, and like many NASCAR drivers, they find any excuse to name drop their sponsors. He even passed out packets of M&M’s to the press corps after the win.
He missed 11 races due to the accident and despite today’s success, it is unknown if he will make it to 30 in the Sprint standings which allows him to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. With today’s win, he’s 36th and 136 points behind Cole Whit who holds the 30th spot. Drivers gain points based on how they finish at races, how many laps they lead, and other factors (you can read about here). There are 10 races left in the season.
This was a special race for Busch. It was the first win for Crew Chief Adam Stevens. It was also the first time ever that the Busch brothers had a 1-2 win – one coming in first and the other second. “…I’m very proud of Kyle for what he’s done to get back in the car as soon as he did…and then to be competitive at a track with hard, hard braking and to use his left foot to drive to victory lane, I’m very proud of him,” said big brother Kurt Busch in an interview with NASCAR.com.
His wife, Samantha, flew in Sunday morning for the race. The couple recently had a son, Brexton, who stayed with family in the couple’s hometown of Charlottesville, North Carolina. “He didn’t want to fly six hours, so we let him stay at home this time.”
The next NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race is next weekend’s Coke Zero 400 at Daytona. The next major racing event at Sonoma Raceway is the NHRA Sonoma Nationals, July 31-August 2. racesonoma.com
