Tony Stewart Wins at Sonoma with Luck and Determination [VIDEO, PHOTOS]

Tony Stewart broke an 84-race NASCAR winless streak with a little luck and a lot of determination in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

The Sprint Cup series raced on the winding 1.99-mile road course of Sonoma Raceway Sunday afternoon. There was some hard driving and side-by-side battles, but for the most part the drivers have shown that they have gotten much better at road racing with not a single car going of course out of control into the catch areas. There were eight different drivers that led the race and exchanged that lead 12 times during the race.

Tony Stewart had been battling a car that was not handling the best most of the race. On lap 87 of the 110 lap race he decided to pit because it was getting so bad he couldn’t hold anybody back from passing him. That would have pretty much eliminated his chance to win until luck smiled on Tony as a caution came out on lap 88. When all of the other drivers pitted, Tony was able to keep his #14 Chevrolet on the track and assume the lead of the race. He held that lead for four green flag laps when another caution was issued for a car stalled on the track.

Following that fourth and final caution period, Tony was able to shoot out to the lead on the re-start. He held the field behind him until the final lap. Denny Hamlin was able to get around Tony half-way through that last lap. However, Tony was determined to win the race. Going through the final turn of the track Denny went a little wide allowing Tony to diver to the inside and “body check” Denny’s car with his own to take the lead back to win the race.

Denny finished in second place with Joey Logano behind in third. Carl Edwards and Martin Truex Jr. claimed fourth and fifth places respectively. See the complete results for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 here.

Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch hold on to their respective first and second place positions in the point standings. Carl Edwards moves up a spot to third pushing Brad Keselowski back a spot to fourth place. Joey Logano holds steady in fifth place for another week. See the complete NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings here.

Tony becomes the 11th driver on the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup season winners list. However, he has not yet locked in on the Chase Grid. In order to do that, Tony will need to get into and stay in the top 30 in the point standings. Right now he is in 32nd place, nine points out of the 30th place where he needs to be to make The Chase by way of his win. Check out the Chase Grid here.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup teams head back to Daytona International Speedway next to race under the lights Saturday night July 2nd in the Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola with race coverage transferring to the NBC television network.

By: Buck Stevens