June 6, 2021 | By Lee Spencer

Raise a glass: Kyle Larson gets home track win at Sonoma

Kyle Larson was 0-6 at his home track—Sonoma Raceway—until Sunday.

Larson, who never really considered himself a road racing ace, continued to elevate his game behind the wheel of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. His performance in the 2021 Toyota/SaveMart 350 was sheer domination.

For the second week in a row, Larson won all stages en route to the win—the fourth-consecutive victory for Hendrick Motorsports.

“To get back-to-back wins in the Cup Series is something I’ve always dreamed of doing and to get it done feels great,” Larson said. “To win last week on Memorial Day weekend, four in a row now, if you count my dirt racing too.

“And we’ve got a big week of racing coming up. I look forward to all that and just look forward to keeping the streak going.”

Chase Elliott finished .614-seconds behind his teammate. Martin Truex Jr., Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, Alex Bowman and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top 10.

“There were spots on the track where I thought I was a tick better, and there were spots on the track he was better,” Elliott said. “Then there were spots I thought we were fairly even. Needed to have a tick more to get after it.

Proud of our team. I thought we were solid. Just need a little bit.”

Elliott and Truex have dominated road courses over the last few years. Truex won three of the last seven races at Sonoma and the 2017 Cup event at Watkins Glen. Elliott picked up the torch at the Glen—winning the last two events on the bucolic circuit—as well as the last two Charlotte Roval races, the inaugural Daytona Road Course and last month’s Circuit of the Americas debut.

But behind the wheel of Hendrick equipment, Larson has just blossomed.

"I've always qualified really well on the road courses, but I haven't been the best racer," Larson said. "Then today starting from the pole, I was like, Man, I just hope it's not like it always is. It wasn't. I knew we had a car capable of winning after that first competition caution.

"Yeah, so to get a win and know that I can race, I feel like I learned a lot here this week about how to kind of pass people on road courses. I think that's really going to benefit me going forward. We were able to beat the two best road course racers of the last six years or longer it seems today. Definitely means a lot. For sure helps our confidence on this 5 car."

Sure, Larson has had fast cars at Sonoma in the past. He earned three consecutive poles from 2017-2019 but led just 11 circuits and could never close the deal. From his front-row start on Sunday, Larson led 57 of 92 laps for his third win of the season.

It’s not like Larson wasn’t challenged by the competition. Elliott led 13 circuits in the final stage but Larson continued to pressure his teammate before passing the No. 9 Chevrolet in Turn 7 with 33 laps remaining.

Over the last 29 laps, four cautions provided the leaders ample opportunity to take a shot at the No. 5 Chevrolet. Corey LaJoie and Chastain made contact in the hairpin and collected Bowman, Kevin Harvick, Christopher Bell, William Byron and Erik Jones. Seven laps later, Cody Ware rumbled with Ryan Preece. Matt DiBenedetto, an innocent bystander, was sucked into melee. The race had barely returned to speed Bowman ran into Anthony Alfredo—forcing both he and Bell into the spin cycle and sending the race into overtime.

Entering Turn 1, Larson executed a solid launch and checked out.

“It was not easy,” Larson said. “Any road course isn’t easy, just trying to keep it on track is tough; especially when you’ve got two of the best behind you on the last restart, Chase and Martin. I felt like I did a good job at the one before and stretched it out a little bit and didn’t want to give him another try at it, but he kept the pressure on.

“Martin was strong too, but what a car. This HendrickCars.com Chevy, thank you Mr. Hendrick. The is unbelievable. I thought I would be okay today, but I just didn’t know how I would race. I don’t think any of us really do with no practice. But our car was really good there and I can’t say enough about it.”

While Larson won the race, he might not bring home the hardware. After dinner with fellow NorCal resident Guy Fieri earlier in the weekend, Larson promised the trophy to the restauranteur should he win. But the celebration in front of his home crowd might make replacing his trophy a little less painful.

“It means a lot,” said the 28-year-old Elk Grove native of his win. “Northern California will always be home to me, even if I live way out on the East Coast now. Thanks to all the fans for coming out. I know there’s a lot of Sprint Car fans in the stands and around this race track. I got to see a lot of my friends here today. I’ve got my family here. This is unbelievable.”