The Joe Gibbs Racing Race Report Presented by Interstate Batteries
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series – Toyota/Save Mart 350k
Date: June 22, 2008
Event: Toyota/Save Mart 350k (Round 16 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Location: Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. (12-turn, 1.99-mile road course)
Winner: Kyle Busch of Joe Gibbs Racing in a green-white-checkered finish (Toyota)
JGR Finish: Kyle Busch (Started 30th, Finished 1st / Running, completed 112 of 112 laps)
Tony Stewart (Started 39th, Finished 10th / Running, completed 112 of 112 laps)
Denny Hamlin (Started 13th, Finished 27th / Running, completed 112 of 112 laps)
Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota, led the three-car Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) contingent at the Infineon Raceway road course in Sonoma, Calif., by winning Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350k NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. It was Busch’s ninth career Sprint Cup Series victory, his series-high fifth of the season and his first Sprint Cup win on a road course.
Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Toyota for JGR, rallied twice from his 39th-place starting spot to finish 10th. Stewart had fought his way to second after a restart on lap 104, but was then punted two laps later in a chain-reaction crash in turn seven when Kevin Harvick overshot the corner and knocked Jamie McMurray’s Ford into Stewart’s Toyota. All three drivers spun, but Stewart quickly re-fired his engine and sped away in 19th. Even with four of the race’s last eight laps run under caution, which set-up a green-white-checkered finish, Stewart picked up nine positions to score his second straight top-10 finish, his eighth of the season and his 13th top-10 in 19 career Sprint Cup road course races.
Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota for JGR, finished 27th after getting caught up in an accident on lap 108.
Busch remains the lead JGR driver in the championship point race. He continues to be the series’ point leader, and extended his lead to 103 markers over second-place Jeff Burton. Hamlin and Stewart occupy the eighth and 11th slots, respectively. Hamlin dropped two positions while Stewart maintained his spot. Hamlin is 400 points behind Busch while Stewart sits 500 points arrears Busch.
David Gilliland finished 1.716 seconds behind Busch in the runner-up slot to score his best career Sprint Cup finish. Jeff Gordon followed in third, while Clint Bowyer and Casey Mears rounded out the top-five. Juan Pablo Montoya, Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Stewart comprised the remainder of the top-10.
There were six caution periods for 14 laps, with six drivers failing to finish the 112-lap race, which was extended two laps past its scheduled distance due to the green-white-checkered finish.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the June 29 LENOX Industrial Tools 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. The race begins at 2 p.m. EDT with live, high-definition coverage provided by TNT beginning with its pre-race show at 12:30 p.m. The race will also be broadcast live on SIRIUS Satellite Radio Channel 128.
