SONOMA, Calif. — Clint Bowyer knew he could get to Victory Lane this season, his first with Michael Waltrip Racing.
He didn’t think it would be on a road course.
Bowyer picked up his first victory with his new team Sunday by holding off Kurt Busch on the winding 1.99-mile road course at Sonoma. Bowyer finished fourth in three previous races on this road course, but his background is on dirt tracks and this style of racing isn’t his strong suit.
“To have this dirt boy from Kansas at Victory Lane on a road course is big, trust me,” Bowyer said. “I saw Jeff Gordon, he’s sitting there on the wall, he’s won this race many times, he’s a champion of this sport and I just beat him. I passed Jeff Gordon, and you have no idea, a young racer from Kansas, you don’t forget stuff like that.”
Bowyer led 71 of the 112 laps, but defending race winner Busch, in an unsponsored car, was all over the bumper of Bowyer’s Toyota late until damaging his car late in the race.
The caution flag came out with four laps to go, and Busch worried the entire caution period whether his Chevrolet was ruined and that he wouldn’t be able to keep pace with Bowyer through the two-lap overtime sprint to the finish.
Bowyer raced side by side with Busch at the green flag, then cleared Busch and pulled away for the victory.
“Kurt raced me clean, he bumped me and roughed me up, but never did anything to jeopardize either one of us,” Bowyer said.
Bowyer, who left Richard Childress Racing at the end of last season to join Michael Waltrip Racing, had to walk to Victory Lane to celebrate with his new crew after his car ran out of gas.
“I’m super excited for everybody involved,” Bowyer said. “To switch teams like I did was a huge risk and a chance for me, and it was a chance to showcase my talents.”
It was a strong day all around for Michael Waltrip Racing , which got a fourth place finish from Brian Vickers, who was back to NASCAR after racing last weekend at Le Mans. Martin Truex Jr. led 15 laps, and was running in the top 10 until a late-race incident dropped him to 22nd.
“Everybody is just working together,” Bowyer said. “That’s something we are very proud of.”
Tony Stewart passed Busch on the final lap to claim second, but said it was because Busch’s car was struggling.
“Every time he would go in the corner, the rear end would shift, and it was running him to the outside of the track on entry and it was screwing his corner up,” Stewart said. “Kind of got it by default there to a certain degree. Once we got by there, we just were not close enough in that last lap to get to Clint.”
Busch wound up third. He was emotional after the race and said he was thrilled to compete for the victory in an underfunded, unsponsored Phoenix Racing car.
“It’s an amazing day, when you can do what we did,” Busch said. “I’m a little choked up because A: We were in position. B: I was very considerate to Bowyer, who was going for his first win with the new team. And then C: which is most important, I made a mistake, I got into those tires in turn 11.”
Busch, who has struggled with his temper on and off the track, saw a silver lining in his strong finish.
“If I can get my head on straight here, and after the race, then I could be able to race every weekend and go for victories,” Busch said.
Vickers was fourth for Michael Waltrip Racing, followed by Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Greg Biffle was seventh, followed by pole-sitter Marcos Ambrose, AJ Allmendinger and Joey Logano.
Ambrose led the first 11 laps before plummeting through the field, and said the setup on his Richard Petty Motorsports Ford was just off.
“We really missed it,” he said. “We were slow. It was just terrible. We had no speed in the car and we paid the price.”
Gordon led one time for 13 laps before running out of gas as he was headed in for a scheduled pit stop.
There were only two cautions - the fewest for a Sprint Cup Series race at the track - and so the race never shaped into the demolition derby most expected. Recent races on the 1.99-mile course had brought out road rage from drivers impatient to gain track position at a place with few passing zones.
It was never an issue on Sunday, though.
“I was happy about it,” Stewart said. “Not having all of those cautions made it fun because you could actually race guys one-on-one a lot today versus, you know, having to worry about getting those big packs and big groups and having to worry about whether you’re going to get run over or not.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who ended his four-year losing streak last week at Michigan, failed to meet his goal of grabbing his first career top 10 at Sonoma. He was 15th on the final restart, but was stacked in traffic and spun, dropping him to 23rd.
“We had a good car, we’ve had better cars here, and we struggled all weekend,” he said.
RACE STATISTICS AVERAGE SPEED OF WINNER 83.624 mph.
TIME OF RACE 2 hours, 39 minutes 55 sec.
VICTORY MARGIN 0.829 seconds.
CAUTION FLAGS 2 for 7 laps.
LEAD CHANGES 8 (5 drivers).
Victory lane TOYOTA/SAVE MART 350 At Sonoma, Calif.
Lap length: 1.99 miles (Start position in parentheses) 1. (6) Clint Bowyer Toyota 2. (24) Tony Stewart Chevy 3. (8) Kurt Busch Chevy 4. (21) Brian Vickers Toyota 5. (3) Jimmie Johnson Chevy
TOP 12 IN POINTS 1. Kenseth 596 2. Biffle 585 3. Earnhardt 582 4. Johnson 571 5. Stewart 533 6. Harvick 532 7. Bowyer 529 8. Hamlin 523 9. Truex Jr. 481 10. Keselowski 490 11. Edwards 479 12. Kyle Busch 459
Sports, Pages 13 on 06/25/2012