Stock Car Racing Wiki

The Toyota/Save Mart 350 is a NASCAR Cup Series race held annually at Sonoma Raceway since 1989.

History[]

From 1989 to 1997 and since 2019, NASCAR uses the full Template:Convert road course, best known for sports car racing. Subtle changes to some of the turns accommodated the stock cars and increased passing widths. Ricky Rudd won the inaugural Cup race at Sonoma.

The 1991 Sonoma Cup race ended in a controversial fashion. With seven laps left in the race, Mark Martin tried to pass Tommy Kendall, subbing for an injured Kyle Petty. The two made contact, resulting in Martin crashing into the tire barrier on a pull-over site and Kendall cutting his tire. The lead went to Davey Allison. Then, with two laps left, pole-sitter Rudd passed Allison for the lead but Allison spun out from contact in the final turn. Rudd led to the white flag and was contending to win the race, his second Sonoma victory, and to advance his championship points to the lead. However, as he came around to take the win, Rudd was black-flagged just three feet from the finish line. Allison was declared the winner of the race with Rudd's controversial penalty while Rudd finished in second place.

The last Sonoma NASCAR race held at the previous road course passage was in 1997 on October 5 at a Truck Series event. There, Joe Ruttman won the race but controversy erupted when Rich Bickle blamed a loss of a top-ten finish on rookie Boris Said. Bickle cut down Said's tire and in reply Said waited for Bickle to come back around and crashed him. NASCAR, after a brief red flag for a massive crash in a wall of tires, disqualified Said and fined him $10,000 for his actions.

In 1998, the circuit for the NASCAR event was shorted from the full road course to a 1.95 mi modified road course with the addition of the Chute from turn 4 to turn 7, bypassing turns 5 and 6.

In 2001 the Chute was modified to such that the NASCAR circuit measured 1.99 mi long.

In 2019, the race returned to the full 2.52 mi road course layout to commemorate its 50th anniversary. This marked the return of the Carousel section after a 22-year hiatus.

The 2020 race was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Past Winners[]

Year Date Car number Driver Team Manufacturer Race distance Race time Average speed
(mph)
Report
Laps Miles (km)
2.52 miles layout
1989 June 11 26 Ricky Rudd King Racing Buick 74 186.48 2:27:03 76.088
1990 June 10 27 Rusty Wallace Blue Max Racing Pontiac 74 186.48 2:31:45 69.245
1991 June 9 28 Davey Allison Robert Yates Racing Ford 74 186.48 2:33:20 72.97
1992 June 7 4 Ernie Irvan Morgan-McClure Motorsports Chevrolet 74 186.48 2:17:26 81.413
1993 May 16 15 Geoffrey Bodine Bud Moore Engineering Ford 74 186.48 2:25:17 77.013
1994 May 15 28 Ernie Irvan Robert Yates Racing Ford 74 186.48 2:24:27 77.458
1995 May 7 3 Dale Earnhardt Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 74 186.48 2:38:18 70.681
1996 May 5 2 Rusty Wallace Penske Racing Ford 74 184.48 2:24:04 77.673
1997 May 5 6 Mark Martin Roush Racing Ford 74 184.48 2:27:38 75.788
1.949 miles Layout
1998 June 28 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 112 218.288 3:00:56 72.387
1999 June 27 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 112 218.288 3:06:06 70.378
1.99 miles Layout
2000 June 25 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 112 222.88 2:46:14 78.789
2 miles Layout
2001 June 24 20 Tony Stewart Joe Gibbs Racing Pontiac 112 224 2:57:06 75.889
1.99 miles Layout
2002 June 23 28 Ricky Rudd Robert Yates Racing Ford 110 218.9 2:42:08 81.007
2003 June 22 31 Robby Gordon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 110 218.9 2:57:55 73.821
2004 June 27 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 110 218.9 2:49:34 77.456
2005 June 26 20 Tony Stewart Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet 110 218.9 3:00:18 72.845
2006 June 25 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 110 218.9 2:57:36 73.953
2007 June 24 42 Juan Pablo Montoya Chip Ganassi Racing Dodge 110 218.9 2:56:11 74.547
2008 June 22 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 112 222.88 2:54:56 76.445
2009 June 24 9 Kasey Kahne Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge 113 224.87 3:10:00 71.012
2010 June 20 48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 110 218.9 2:56:38 74.357
2011 June 26 22 Kurt Busch Penske Racing Dodge 110 218.9 2:54:10 75.411
2012 June 24 15 Clint Bowyer Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 112 222.88 2:39:55 83.624
2013 June 23 56 Martin Truex, Jr. Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 110 218.9 2:51:20 76.568
2014 June 22 99 Carl Edwards Roush Fenway Racing Ford 110 218.9 2:51:30 76.583
2015 June 28 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 110 218.9 2:55:39 74.774
2016 June 26 14 Tony Stewart Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 110 218.9 2:42:13 80.966
2017 June 25 4 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 110 218.9 2:46:52 78.71
2018 June 24 78 Martin Truex, Jr. Furniture Row Racing Toyota 110 218.9 2:38:28 82.882
2.52 miles Layout
2019 June 23 19 Martin Truex, Jr. Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 90 226.8 2:42:09 83.922
2020 Not held
2021 June 6 5 Kyle Larson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 92 231.84 3:14:42 71.445
2022 June 12 99 Daniel Suárez Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet 110 218.9 2:48:22 78.008
2023 June 11 19 Martin Truex, Jr. Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 110 218.9 2:40:12 81.989
2024 June 9 5 Kyle Larson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 110 218.9 2:56:14 74.526

Multiple winners (drivers)[]

# Wins Driver Years Won
5 Jeff Gordon 1998-2000, 2004, 2006
4 Martin Truex, Jr. 2013, 2018-2019, 2023
3 Tony Stewart 2001, 2005, 2016
2 Ernie Irvan 1992, 1994
Rusty Wallace 1990, 1996
Ricky Rudd 1989, 2002
Kyle Busch 2008. 2015
Kyle Larson 2021, 2024

Multiple winners (teams)[]

# Wins Team Years Won
8 Hendrick Motorsports 1998–2000, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2021, 2024
6 Joe Gibbs Racing 2001, 2005, 2008, 2015, 2019, 2023
3 Robert Yates Racing 1991, 1994, 2002
2 Richard Childress Racing 1995, 2003
Penske Racing 1996, 2011
Michael Waltrip Racing 2012–2013
Roush Fenway Racing 1997, 2014
Stewart-Haas Racing 2016–2017

Manufacturer wins[]

# Wins Manufacturer Years Won
14 Chevrolet 1992, 1995, 1998–2000, 2003–2006, 2010, 2016, 2021–2022, 2024
8 Ford 1991, 1993–1994, 1996–1997, 2002, 2014, 2017
7 Toyota 2008, 2012–2013, 2015, 2018–2019, 2023
3 Dodge 2007, 2009, 2011
2 Pontiac 1990, 2001