Hamlin squeaks away with second Sonoma stage win

Denny Hamlin took his second stage win of the year by way of staying out when many of the leaders pitted with two laps remaining in the second stage of the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway.

Hamlin restarted the 20-lap stage 16th after leading the drivers who pitted during the stage break. Trailing him off pit road were polesitter Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher and Kevin Harvick.

Martin Truex, Jr snatched the lead from Chase Elliott on the Lap 25 restart head of teammate Kyle Busch and a pair of Team Penske Ford Mustangs of Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano. The top five held steady the next few laps as Clint Bowyer pitted on Lap 28 with a suspected loose wheel.

Truex stretched his lead out to 1.7 seconds over Elliott by Lap 30 with Busch and Blaney holding third and fourth while Matt DiBenedetto ran in fifth.

A few single car incidents scattered throughout the next few laps brought out local yellows starting with Aric Almirola spinning on Lap 31 in Turn 4. Ross Chastain looped it in Turn 4 on Lap 32 while Michael McDowell turned Paul Menard in Turn 11.

Truex chose to make a stop with two laps to go and brought Elliott and Busch in with him as teammate Hamlin took the lead.

Hamlin was clear ahead of second place Brad Keselowski and took his second stage win of the year without incident. Stage 1 winner William Byron ended up third ahead of Joey Logano in fourth and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr completed the top five.

Kyle Larson led the drivers who pitted in sixth ahead of Truex Jr in seventh, Chase Elliott in eighth, Kyle Busch in ninth and Bubba Wallace in tenth.