Martin Truex Jr. cruises to Cup victory at Sonoma

SONOMA, Calif. — Martin Truex Jr. couldn’t wait to get on track this weekend at Sonoma Raceway to see how much his Toyota had improved after the manufacturer failed to have a car finish in the top 15 at this track a year ago.

Truex showed how good his Toyota was, winning Sunday’s race for his second victory of the season, fourth at Sonoma and 33rd of his Cup career.

Truex took the lead with 14 laps left and cruised to the victory. He led 51 of the 110 laps.

“Great freaking car,” Truex radioed his team after the victory.

Kyle Busch finished second a week after winning at WWT Raceway. Joey Logano placed third. Chris Buescher was fourth. Chase Elliott, back after serving a one-race suspension last weekend, finished fifth.

STAGE 1 WINNER:  Denny Hamlin

STAGE 2 WINNER: Kyle Busch

WHO HAD A BAD RACE: After leading the first 32 laps and winning the first stage, Denny Hamlin’s race soured. He was on track when the caution came on on Lap 51 during the middle of a cycle of green flag stops, putting him deep in the field on the restart and then later crashed and finished last.

NEXT: The series is off next weekend. Cup returns June 25 at Nashville Superspeedway (7 p.m. ET on NBC)

SONOMA, Calif. — While Daniel Suarez celebrated his first career Cup win last year at Sonoma Raceway, Toyota left this road course with its worst Cup performance in more than a decade.

The road courses proved difficult for Toyota teams last year, but Sonoma was especially painful. No Toyota cars finished in the top 15. That hadn’t happened since the manufacturer’s inaugural Cup season in 2007.

An improved road course program, helped by Tyler Reddick’s move from Richard Childress Racing to 23XI Racing, sees five Toyotas starting in the top 10 for today’s