Dramatic last-lap pass gives Tony Stewart crucial victory at Sonoma
June 26, 2016
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
SONOMA, Calif. – Is Tony Stewart having fun yet?
In
his last year of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing, Stewart came to
Sonoma Racing asserting on Friday he wasn’t having much fun driving a
Sprint Cup car.
That
all changed in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at the 1.99-mile road
course, where Stewart bulldozed Denny Hamlin into the outside wall in
Turn 11, executing a dramatic last-lap
pass for his first victory since June 2, 2013 at Dover.
In
the three years since that victory, a succession of injuries and a
personal tragedy have limited the three-time champion’s time in a Sprint
Cup car and limited Stewart’s effectiveness
when he was behind the wheel of the No. 14 Chevrolet he co-owns with
Gene Haas.
But
on Sunday, after a prescient pit call by crew chief Mike Bugarewicz put
Stewart in the lead for a restart on Lap 91 of 110. Stewart held the
top spot at the start/finish
line for the rest of the race, but that hardly describes the excitement
of the final lap.
For
the second straight circuit, Stewart wheel-hopped the No. 14 Chevrolet
into Turn 7, and Hamlin took full advantage, giving Stewart a bump and
charging past him. In hot pursuit
through the esses and Turn 10, Stewart caught Hamlin in the hairpin
(Turn 11) when Hamlin slipped and ran wide.
“I
made mistakes the last two laps,” acknowledged Stewart, who missed the
first eight races of the season after injuring his back in an ATV
accident during the offseason. “I
had just a little bit too much rear brake for Turn 7, and wheel-hopped
it two laps in a row. I felt a nudge when I got down there and he knew
where it was and he did the right thing doing it there.”
“But
if I could get to him, he knew what was coming. He told me (after the
race) he was proud of me. He knows what it means. We were teammates for a
long time (at Joe Gibbs Racing),
and we respect each other a lot."
Contact
from Stewart’s car sent Hamlin's No. 11 Toyota fish-tailing into the
outside wall, but Hamlin held the runner-up spot, crossing the stripe
.625 seconds behind the race
winner.
“I
take that, but I’m probably going to get the (crap) beat out of me,”
Stewart said on his radio, after notching his third victory at Sonoma,
his eighth on a road course and
the 49th of his career.
Though
disappointed at the outcome, Hamlin didn’t begrudge Stewart the
victory, given the circumstances. Stewart needed a win to qualify for
the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup,
and with Sunday’s result, Smoke is 32nd in the standings, nine points
away from the 30th position he needs to achieve to become
Chase-eligible.
In other words, Stewart is all but a lock to compete for a fourth title in NASCAR’s 10-race playoff.
“I
thought with two or three (laps) to go he pretty much had it, but he
made a couple mistakes and allowed us to get pretty close,” Hamlin said.
“And then we just both wheel-hopped
into 7, and I just let off my wheel-hop a little bit so I could get to
his rear bumper and get him out of the groove just a touch.
“It
was perfectly executed, but I was going through the esses knowing that I
needed to get the biggest gap that I could going into (Turn) 11, and
when he was two back or so going
into 11, I just ... I didn't run a low enough line in Turn 11 from
wheel-hopping in Turn 7. I got the rears hot, wheel-hopped it a little
bit again, got out of line, and obviously gave him the inside line.”
Third-place
finisher Joey Logano was trailing the action into the final corner,
hoping Hamlin and Stewart would take each other out.
“Going
into Turn 11, I was 100-percent sure that Denny was not going to win
just by watching it, and we were right there on the cusp of trying to
sneak one by,” Logano said.
Having opened up the inside lane in Turn 11, Hamlin shared Logano’s sense of inevitability.
“Once
I knew he had position, and we had a wall on the other side of us, then
I knew, pretty good chance, that we were going to go in the wall,”
Hamlin said. “I don't think he
was going to leave it to chance, a drag race coming off Turn 11. We
definitely had a car that should have won, but we were on the bad end of
the deal.”
Had
Stewart and Bugarewicz not chosen the perfect time to make a pit stop,
however, Stewart almost certainly would not have won the race. With
NASCAR officials scanning the track
after reports of debris between Turns 6 and 7, Stewart and his crew
chief decided to gamble and bring the car to the pits on Lap 86.
NASCAR
called the caution a lap later, and when all the rest of the contending
cars pitted under yellow on Lap 88, Stewart inherited a lead he would
hold—with the exception of
Hamlin’s brief interlude from Turns 7 to 11—for the rest of the race.
“It was just a chance that we took, a chance to get a win,” Bugarewicz said.
Polesitter
Carl Edwards finished fourth, followed by Martin Truex Jr., Kevin
Harvick and Kyle Busch. Ryan Newman, Kasey Kahne and Kurt Busch
completed the top 10. Harvick retained
the series lead by 35 points over second-place Kurt Busch.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Race - Toyota - Save Mart 350
Sonoma Raceway
Sonoma, California
Sunday, June 26, 2016
1. (10) Tony Stewart, Chevrolet, 110.
2. (6) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 110.
3. (7) Joey Logano, Ford, 110.
4. (1) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 110.
5. (3) Martin Truex Jr, Toyota, 110.
6. (25) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 110.
7. (8) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 110.
8. (17) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 110.
9. (19) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 110.
10. (4) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 110.
11. (13) Dale Earnhardt Jr, Chevrolet, 110.
12. (5) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 110.
13. (15) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 110.
14. (2) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 110.
15. (12) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 110.
16. (9) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 110.
17. (21) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 110.
18. (32) Greg Biffle, Ford, 110.
19. (11) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 110.
20. (23) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 110.
21. (16) Chase Elliott #, Chevrolet, 110.
22. (24) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 110.
23. (26) * Ryan Blaney #, Ford, 110.
24. (14) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 110.
25. (28) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 110.
26. (27) Ricky Stenhouse Jr, Ford, 110.
27. (29) Aric Almirola, Ford, 110.
28. (31) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 110.
29. (37) Landon Cassill, Ford, 110.
30. (36) Chris Buescher, Ford, 110.
31. (33) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 110.
32. (30) David Ragan, Toyota, 110.
33. (22) Brian Scott #, Ford, 110.
34. (35) * Cole Whitt, Toyota, 110.
35. (38) * Dylan Lupton(i), Toyota, 110.
36. (40) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 109.
37. (34) Patrick Carpentier, Ford, 108.
38. (39) * Josh Wise, Chevrolet, Engine, 97.
39. (20) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, Rear Gear, 91.
40. (18) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, Electrical, 5.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 80.966 mph.
Time of Race: 02 Hrs, 42 Mins, 13 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.625 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 4 for 10 laps.
Lead Changes: 12 among 8 drivers.
Lap
Leaders: C. Edwards 1-8; A. Allmendinger 9-24; P. Menard 25-27; K.
Harvick 28-30; C. Edwards 31-46; A. Allmendinger 47; Kyle Busch 48-49;
D. Hamlin 50-70; A. Allmendinger
71-72; D. Patrick 73-75; D. Hamlin 76-87; A. Allmendinger 88; T.
Stewart 89-110.
Leaders
Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): D. Hamlin 2 times for 33 laps;
C. Edwards 2 times for 24 laps; T. Stewart 1 time for 22 laps; A.
Allmendinger 4 times for 20
laps; D. Patrick 1 time for 3 laps; P. Menard 1 time for 3 laps; K.
Harvick 1 time for 3 laps; Kyle Busch 1 time for 2 laps.
Top
16 in Points: K. Harvick - 562; Kurt Busch - 527; C. Edwards - 510; B.
Keselowski - 506; J. Logano - 493; C. Elliott # - 473; J. Johnson - 469;
M. Truex Jr - 469; Kyle Busch
- 452; M. Kenseth - 430; D. Hamlin - 421; D. Earnhardt Jr - 413; R.
Newman - 402; A. Dillon - 400; J. Mcmurray - 398; K. Kahne - 385.
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