Kyle Larson got a chance to do a little wine tasting in Victory Lane at Sonoma Raceway last Sunday afternoon.

The Elk Grove native took the lead with nine laps remaining and held off Michael McDowell and Chris Buescher to win the Toyota/Save Mart 350. It was the second career victory in Sonoma for Larson, who also won here in 2021 – the year he captured the NASCAR Cup Series championship.

“I had an awesome car today and it feels even more special winning close to home,” said Larson, who celebrated with a large glass of red wine. “I got to see friends all week and it’s beautiful out here. It’s always like a vacation.”

Larson had his No. 5 Chevrolet Camaro in the lead when he came in for fuel and four fresh tires with 29 laps remaining. He came out in ninth place more than 24 seconds off the lead and spent the rest of the race methodically running down the leaders, who had pitted 13 laps earlier.

“I didn’t know if I’d have time to catch the leaders,” Larson admitted. “I knew I’d be faster for the first 8-10 laps or so, but I didn’t know if things would even out once the tires came up to temp.”

He caught McDowell for fourth place with 22 laps left and passed Kyle Busch for third with 17 to go. Still rapidly closing in, Larson passed Chris Buescher and defending Sonoma champion Martin Truex, Jr. for the lead with nine laps remaining.

“My car was really good in the brake zones because I was on fresher tires, and I like being on offense and our strategy was very offense driven,” Larson said. “That made it fun because I was passing people and able to make less mistakes.”

“He was really good making up positions on the restarts when he needed to and maintaining lap times,” said Vallejo native Jeff Gordon, who co-owns Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports ride. “Those are the things great drivers do and he’s one of the greats.”

Busch and Ross Chastain were battling for fifth place on the final lap when their Chevys got tangled in Turn 4A. Busch’s No. 8 Camaro spun out and ended up finishing 12th while Chastain held on for fifth.

“A couple of guys there at the end of the race had better tires than we did, but we were going to have a good day,” Busch said afterward. “Unfortunately, one of those got into us on the last lap and ruined our day. It’s frustrating to not get the finish that we deserved.”

“I’m not sure what happened with the 8, either, I’ll be honest,” Chastain said. “I’m pretty confused about most things here, but he checked up down into 4A, I popped out to not hit him, and I locked up to not hit him, and I locked up (the brakes) getting in there to his right. So, definitely not trying to run into him.”

Truex, Jr. was running in second place only a few seconds behind Larson on the final lap before running out of gas coming around Turn 11. While the rest of the field passed him by, Truex needed a couple minutes to nurse his slow-moving car over the start/finish line in 27th place while Larson was doing victory burnouts.

“It stinks,” said Truex, who was trying to match Gordon as a five-time winner at Sonoma. “We worked hard all day to have a good finish and clearly in second, run out of gas in the last corner. It’s one of them years.”

It was the third victory of the season and the 26th career Cup victory for Larson, who received a playoff waiver from NASCAR earlier last week after missing the Coca-Cola 600 on May 26 due to competing in the rain-delayed Indianapolis 500 the same day.

The race featured eight cautions – one less than the Sonoma Raceway record. Denny Hamlin brought out the first yellow flag when the engine on his No. 11 Toyota Camry “detonated” after only two laps. Hamlin began the day leading the points standings but dropped to third behind Larson and Chase Elliott after finishing dead last Sunday.

Ty Gibbs hit the wall in Turn 1 on lap 17 and retired to the garage with a broken right toe link, finishing 37th. Austin Cindric, Joey Logano, Harrison Burton, Chase Briscoe and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. were involved in an accident coming around Turn 3A just before the end of Stage 1.

The biggest pileup of the day occurred on Lap 36 when Josh Berry got clipped by John Hunter Nemechek entering Turn 11, sending Berry caroming off the inside wall into Truex and Christopher Bell. Drivers William Byron, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones and Cam Waters were also involved.

The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Iowa this Father’s Day for the Iowa Corn 350.