Kyle Busch tried to make it interesting, but he couldn’t get the deal done in the end. Instead, his teammate Martin Truex Jr. drove to his fourth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season and the 23rd of his career.

Truex, ties Busch for most trips to victory lane this year but his dominance in Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 shouldn’t go unnoticed. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver took over the lead on Lap 25 and would lead 59 of the final 66 laps en route to his second straight win at the Sonoma Raceway.

It was his third Sonoma win overall as he becomes the first driver since Jeff Gordon to win two straight. Gordon, won three consecutive years in 1997, 1998 and again in 1999.

Truex, joins Gordon as the only two drivers to win at least two straight years on the 2.52-mile California road course.

Last year, Truex led 62 laps in his victory as he led a race-high 59 more on Sunday afternoon in wine country.

Busch, brought his No. 18 Toyota home runner-up for his fourth straight top five on the season and his fifth straight top 10 in Sonoma. Out of those five top 10’s at Sonoma, four of which resulted in a top five.

Busch, was the only one within 30 seconds of Truex in the end. He crossed the finish line 1.79-seconds behind Truex.

Third place Ryan Blaney was 32.79 seconds out in his No. 12 Ford. It was Blaney’s first career top five finish at Sonoma and his first on the season since Bristol (8 races). Matt DiBenedetto earned a career best fourth place finish in his No. 95 Toyota while Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five in his No. 11 Toyota. Both DiBenedetto and Hamlin were 37 seconds behind.

The race saw just two cautions all day, both for stage breaks.

Here are my main takeaways.

Toyota’s 2nd To None

It was a flat out domination by the Toyota camp on Sunday. The win by Truex was their fifth win in the last eight years. But, it wasn’t just his win on Sunday, it was the fact that we saw four Toyota drivers finish in the top five, three of which belonging to the Joe Gibbs Racing camp.

If you throw in Erik Jones’ eighth place run, you get five Toyota’s in the top eight overall.

JGR/Penske Can’t Be Stopped

It appears that despite a wild card race like Sonoma, no one is going to stop the “Big 2” this year. JGR earned their 11th win of the season already. As I stated above, they had all four cars in the top eight of the finishing order.

Penske, has won four of the remaining five races and finished third with Blaney on Sunday. That was their best result as it was a struggling day for them despite that. Brad Keselowski finished 18th while Joey Logano was 23rd.

So, on a road course, JGR and Penske still finish 1-2-3 including five of the top eight finishers overall. They hold the top six spots in the points standings too.

SHR Rebounds For Respectable Day

I wrote entering this weekend that this could be the time that Stewart-Haas Racing got to victory lane. They’ve been shut out this season but have been strong at Sonoma in the past. Unfortunately, it took until the end of the race for them to show up.

None of the four drivers qualified well and half of them had problems at the start of the race. Clint Bowyer had an unscheduled pit stop for a tire problem. Aric Almirola spun not long after.

Kevin Harvick was never in the top 20 in any of the speed charts and struggled to move forward.

Towards the end, Daniel Suarez had an uncontrolled tire penalty on his last pit stop. He was their best hope.

But, when the dust settled, three of the four finished in the top 11 though.

Harvick, brought his No. 4 Ford home sixth for his 11th top 10 finish of the season. Almirola, rebounded to a ninth place run in his No. 10 Ford for his ninth top 10 of 2019. He finished eighth in this race last year.

Bowyer, fell to 11th in the end but still better than where he could have been. It was just his second finish outside of the top 10 at Sonoma since 2011.

Suarez would finish 17th.

Larson Finally Gets Sonoma Top 10

For the third straight year, Kyle Larson earned the pole for the Cup Series race in Sonoma. But, despite a top five starting spot in all his previous starts on the road course, the California native had never finished in the top 10 before. What’s even more bizarre is, Larson has three consecutive poles at Sonoma and he’s only led 11 combined laps in all three years.

But, on Sunday, he finally came away with a top 10.

HMS Struggles To Close

Early on, it was looking like this would be a really good day for the Hendrick Motorsports camp. William Byron and Chase Elliott would run 1-2 early and combined to lead the first 24 laps overall.

Jimmie Johnson and Alex Bowman charged up and showed that HMS could get all four drivers in the top 10 on Sunday.

Instead, none of the four did.

Johnson, led the charge for them with a 12th place finish. He was fifth in the closing laps but fell seven spots for his 11th straight top 13 result in Sonoma.

Bowman, would only come home 14th in his No. 88 Chevrolet. He finished ninth last year. Byron, despite winning the first stage only finished 19th.

Then there’s Elliott who had engine issues on Lap 61 and would finish with a DNF in 37th.

All the momentum that they had a few weeks ago is now gone.

Toyota/Save Mart 350 Results

1. 19 Truex Jr.
2. 18 KyBusch
3. 12 Blaney
4. 95 DiBenedetto
5. 11 Hamlin
6.  4 Harvick
7.  6 Newman
8. 20 Jones
9. 10 Almirola
10. 42 Larson
11. 14 Bowyer
12. 48 Johnson
13.  1 KuBusch
14. 88 Bowman
15.  8 Hemric R
16. 37 Buescher
17. 41 Suarez
18.  2 Keselowski
19. 24 Byron
20. 38 Ragan
21. 17 Stenhouse Jr.
22. 21 Menard
23. 22 Logano
24.  3 ADillon
25. 34 McDowell -1
26. 43 Wallace Jr. -1
27. 13 TDillon -1
28. 36 Tifft R -1
29. 47 Preece R -1
30. 96 Kligerman -1
31. 00 Cassill -1
32. 32 LaJoie -1
33. 15 Chastain -1
34. 77 Haley -2
35. 27 Sorenson-2
36. 52 Ware OUT
37.  9 Elliott OUT
38. 51 Yeley OUT