Kyle Busch beats brother Kurt at Sonoma

Kyle Busch has come back from leg fractures to score his first win of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season and lead home brother Kurt at the Toyota-Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

It was the first time the brothers had taken a 1-2 result in the Sprint Cup and makes him the 11th different race winner of 2015.

It was only Kyle Busch’s fifth start of the season, after he crashed heavily in the second-tier XFinity race at Daytona at the start of the year. In that crash he broke one lower leg and had fractures in the other ankle.

The Toyota driver collected his fourth career win on a road course with a classy drive, all despite discomfort from his leg injuries.

After seeing his brother dominated he first half of the race, Kyle Busch was in the top 10 throughout as a wide range of strategies played out. Caution periods seemed to come around every pit window, as teams tried a mixture of two and three stops strategies.

The race appeared set to go the way of Jimmie Johnson, but a late caution when Casey Mears had his rear axle come apart set-up an exciting dash to the flag. Johnson decided to stay out, while just about every car behind came to pit road for fresh tyres.

Kyle Busch won the race off pit road and re-started from sixth place with seven laps to run. After getting in front of a spirited Clint Bowyer; he picked-off Matt Kenseth, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Jeff Gordon and Jamie McMurray, before taking the lead from Johnson all within two laps.

Kurt Busch got by Bowyer with two laps to run, but his younger brother was too far up the road and came home half-a-second in front.

There was plenty of action throughout the race with AJ Allmendinger running in the top three throughout the first half of the race. However, fuel pressure issues sent him to the garage on lap 64 of 110.

Martin Truex Jr.’s great run of top-10 finishes went out the window when he crashed into the tyre barriers after a side-by-side battle with David Ragan on lap 29. Ragan was then involved in an incident that ended both his and Carl Edwards’race.

Joey Logano took the award for the bravest move, when he swept in front of a spluttering Justin Algaier who had run out of fuel on the track. With the threat of a caution coming out for Algaier, Logano literally left inches as he dived between the slow car and the pit wall to avoid any threat of a yellow flag.

RESULTS: Toyota-Save Mart 350 – Sonoma Raceway 

POS.	CAR #	DRIVER	MANUFACTURER	STARTING POS.	LAPS	LAPS LED	FINAL STATUS	POINTS	BONUS POINTS
1	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	11	110	17	Running	47	4
2	41	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	2	110	43	Running	43	1
3	15	Clint Bowyer	Toyota	6	110	4	Running	42	1
4	4	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	17	110	0	Running	40	0
5	22	Joey Logano	Ford	19	110	0	Running	39	0
6	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	13	110	45	Running	40	2
7	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr	Chevrolet	20	110	0	Running	37	0
8	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	26	110	0	Running	36	0
9	31	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	16	110	0	Running	35	0
10	9	Sam Hornish Jr	Ford	24	110	0	Running	34	0
11	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	18	110	0	Running	33	0
12	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	7	110	0	Running	32	0
13	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	32	110	0	Running	31	0
14	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	25	110	0	Running	30	0
15	42	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	4	110	0	Running	29	0
16	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	5	110	0	Running	28	0
17	3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	37	110	0	Running	27	0
18	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	15	110	0	Running	26	0
19	2	Brad Keselowski	Ford	10	110	0	Running	25	0
20	17	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	Ford	40	110	0	Running	24	0
21	20	Matt Kenseth	Toyota	3	110	0	Running	23	0
22	35	Cole Whitt	Ford	29	110	0	Running	22	0
23	6	Trevor Bayne	Ford	31	110	0	Running	21	0
24	10	Danica Patrick	Chevrolet	21	110	0	Running	20	0
25	33	Alex Kennedy	Chevrolet	36	110	0	Running	19	0
26	32	Boris Said	Ford	33	110	0	Running	0	0
27	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	22	110	0	Running	17	0
28	98	Josh Wise	Chevrolet	38	109	0	Running	16	0
29	83	Matt DiBenedetto	Toyota	30	109	0	Running	15	0
30	34	Justin Marks	Ford	35	109	0	Running	0	0
31	7	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	41	109	0	Running	13	0
32	26	Jeb Burton	Toyota	43	109	0	Running	12	0
33	46	Michael Annett	Chevrolet	42	109	0	Running	11	0
34	95	Michael McDowell	Ford	23	109	0	Running	10	0
35	51	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	27	107	0	Running	9	0
36	40	Landon Cassill	Chevrolet	39	99	0	Running	0	0
37	47	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	1	98	1	Running	8	1
38	13	Casey Mears	Chevrolet	8	97	0	Rear Axle	6	0
39	55	David Ragan	Toyota	9	78	0	Accident	5	0
40	19	Carl Edwards	Toyota	14	78	0	Accident	4	0
41	23	J.J. Yeley	Toyota	34	71	0	Accident	0	0
42	78	Martin Truex Jr	Chevrolet	12	31	0	Accident	2	0
43	38	David Gilliland	Ford	28	20	0	Accident	1	0

 

STANDINGS 

POS	DRIVER	POINTS	BEHIND	STARTS	WINS	TOP 5	TOP 10	DNF
1	Kevin Harvick	616	Leader	16	2	11	14	0
2	Martin Truex Jr	563	-53	16	1	5	14	1
3	Joey Logano	559	-57	16	1	9	12	0
4	Jimmie Johnson	546	-70	16	4	9	11	0
5	Dale Earnhardt Jr	545	-71	16	1	8	10	1
6	Brad Keselowski	505	-111	16	1	3	9	1
7	Jamie McMurray	497	-119	16	0	2	7	1
8	Kasey Kahne	483	-133	16	0	2	6	1
9	Matt Kenseth	479	-137	16	1	5	9	1
10	Kurt Busch	469	-147	13	2	6	8	0
11	Jeff Gordon	462	-154	16	0	2	8	1
12	Paul Menard	452	-164	16	0	2	4	1
13	Denny Hamlin	438	-178	16	1	3	6	1
14	Ryan Newman	435	-181	16	0	4	9	1
15	Aric Almirola	431	-185	16	0	1	1	1
16	Clint Bowyer	430	-186	16	0	1	5	0
17	Carl Edwards	405	-211	16	1	1	2	1
18	Kyle Larson	390	-226	15	0	1	5	2
19	Danica Patrick	377	-239	16	0	0	2	0
20	Greg Biffle	368	-248	16	0	1	2	0
21	Casey Mears	345	-271	16	0	0	1	2
22	Austin Dillon	341	-275	16	0	0	1	2
23	AJ Allmendinger	329	-287	16	0	0	2	3
24	Sam Hornish Jr	307	-309	16	0	0	2	1
25	David Ragan	304	-312	16	0	1	1	2
26	Tony Stewart	301	-315	16	0	0	1	3
27	Ricky Stenhouse Jr	286	-330	16	0	1	1	1
28	Trevor Bayne	284	-332	16	0	0	1	1
29	David Gilliland	263	-353	16	0	0	0	2
30	Cole Whitt	261	-355	16	0	0	0	1
31	Justin Allgaier	260	-356	16	0	0	1	3
32	Brett Moffitt	215	-401	13	0	0	1	0
33	Alex Bowman	208	-408	15	0	0	0	2
34	Michael Annett	187	-429	16	0	0	0	1
35	Josh Wise	171	-445	15	0	0	1	3
36	Matt DiBenedetto	163	-453	13	0	0	0	0
37	Kyle Busch	125	-491	5	1	1	2	2
38	Michael McDowell	111	-505	8	0	0	0	0
39	Jeb Burton	97	-519	12	0	0	0	2
40	Alex Kennedy	67	-549	7	0	0	0	0
41	Bobby Labonte	38	-578	2	0	0	0	0
42	Brian Vickers	32	-584	2	0	0	0	0
43	Michael Waltrip	26	-590	2	0	0	0	0
44	Reed Sorenson	22	-594	2	0	0	0	0
45	Mike Wallace	8	-608	1	0	0	0	0
46	Ron Hornaday Jr	2	-614	1	0	0	0	1
47	Ryan Blaney	0	-616	6	0	1	1	3
48	Brian Scott	0	-616	4	0	0	0	2
49	Ty Dillon	0	-616	4	0	0	0	0
50	J.J. Yeley	0	-616	15	0	0	0	3
51	Regan Smith	0	-616	4	0	0	0	0
52	Chase Elliott	0	-616	3	0	0	0	0
53	Matt Crafton	0	-616	1	0	0	0	0
54	Johnny Sauter	0	-616	1	0	0	0	0
55	Chris Buescher	0	-616	5	0	0	0	0
56	Landon Cassill	0	-616	16	0	0	0	4
57	Boris Said	0	-616	1	0	0	0	0
58	Brendan Gaughan	0	-616	7	0	0	0	2
59	Justin Marks	0	-616	1	0	0	0	0
60	Mike Bliss	0	-616	8	0	0	0	0
61	Joe Nemechek	0	-616	1	0	0	0	0
62	Travis Kvapil	0	-616	1	0	0	0	0
63	Joey Gase	0	-616	2	0	0	0	1
64	Jeff Green	0	-616	1	0	0	0	0
65	Erik Jones	0	-616	1	0	0	0	0
66	Tanner Berryhill	0	-616	0	0	0	0	0