Kyle Busch wins Truck Race, Daniel Suarez Gets First Cup Win at Sonoma

It was a wild weekend of twists and turns on the road course of Sonoma Raceway out in California. For starters, the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series made its first trip to Sonoma Raceway since Boris Said took the checkered flag there in 1998. Kyle Busch held off Zane Smith in the final two laps to collect his 62nd career truck series victory in the No. 51 Yahoo! Toyota Tundra for his team. This also extends his streak of having a win in the series to 10 years.

Busch led 45 laps in the 75-lap event named the DoorDash 250, while the race had five leaders with ten lead changes, including a nearly 13-minute long red flag in the closing stages of the race.

“Just continuing to work on the truck and make it better,” Busch said in his post-race interview.

“This Tundra TRD Pro was awesome today and really proud to drive it. We had a struggle at Charlotte a couple of weeks ago but today was really good.”

Carson Hocevar, who was injured in a last-lap wreck at Gateway, did win the pole for the race but had to start in the back because of a wreck after qualifying. Hocevar did start the race but would later pit and swap out with Daniel Suarez. While they went two laps down during the driver swap, Suarez was able to wheel the No. 42 Chevrolet Silverado to a sixth-place finish.

“I was hoping for long runs so I could make up some ground,” Suarez said after the race. “But I think we did a very good job and very thankful we were able to get some stage points and finish in the top-six. That was a pretty decent day. I wish we could have won, the truck was capable of winning the race.”

Speaking of Daniel Suarez, one day later he drove in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Sonoma, which led to the biggest moment of his racing career. Suarez finally earned his first career NASCAR Cup Series win, holding off Chris Buescher, Michael McDowell, and Kevin Harvick in the closing laps. Suarez also became the first Mexican-born driver to win a Cup Series race, as well as the fifth international-born driver to win.

“It’s a crazy day. I have so many thoughts in my head right now,” Suárez said, emotional in his post-race interview. “I mean, it’s been a rough road. It’s been a rough journey in the Cup Series. These guys believe in me. Trackhouse Racing, Justin Marks, Ty Norris. Everyone that helped me to get to this point. A lot of people in Mexico: Jay Morales, Carlos Slim. My family, they never gave up on me. A lot of people did, but they didn’t. Just very happy we were able to make it work.”

Suarez got his first Cup Series win in his 195th start and gives Trackhouse its third win in team history and of the season, with teammate Ross Chastain earning the team’s other two wins. This also puts the 2016 Xfinity Series Champion in the playoffs currently.

In other notes, Hendrick Motorsports became the first team in the Cup Series to lead over 100,000 miles. The Cup Series is off next weekend and then head to Nashville Superspeedway on June 26th, with NBC kicking off its coverage for 2022.