Kyle Busch completes his comeback at Sonoma

Kyle Busch took the lead late in Sunday's Sprint Cup race at the Sonoma, California road course to get his first win of the season and first since returning to competition from his leg injury suffered in a crash during the Xfinity Series race at Daytona in February. It was an excellent rebound from his 43rd-place finish at Michigan two weeks ago. Busch passed the #48 Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson following a restart with 7 laps left to bring the #18 Toyota to victory lane. Busch's brother Kurt, the winner at Michigan, finished behind Kyle, followed by another Toyota, the #15 of Clint Bowyer, in third.

David Gilliland brought out the first of five cautions on lap 23. Seven laps later, second-in-points Martin Truex Jr., one of the favorites to win this race (he did in 2013 driving for Michael Waltrip), going for his 15th top-ten in 16 races, was forced off the track by Waltrip's current driver David Ragan early in the race and hit a tire barrier. Truex's misfortune allowed points leader Kevin Harvick to widen the gap he had lost when he cut his tire at Michigan. The red flag was displayed to clean up the damage done by the #78 Chevrolet. Ragan and the #55 Toyota team found themselves under scrutiny again on lap 80 when he and the #19 Toyota of Carl Edwards wrecked in the esses, ending Edwards' day. In between those incidents was a set of staggered green-flag pit stops that saw Jimmie Johnson, leader of 45 of 110 total laps, have a 30-second lead over the rest of the leaders at one point. Johnson's teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the #88 Chevrolet wound up in second a couple of laps later nearly 10 seconds behind Kurt Busch, while Joey Logano made a daring move in the #22 Ford past the slow #51 Chevrolet of Justin Allgaier to enter pit road, a move Clint Bowyer also made under caution later. During these stops, the #47 Chevrolet of polesitter A.J. Allmendinger began having engine trouble, and Allmendinger finally had to go behind the wall for repairs.

During the caution for the Ragan/Edwards incident, the crew for the #24 Chevrolet of Jeff Gordon (competing at his home track for the last time) threw a spring rubber, and NASCAR penalized him by moving him to the end of the longest line, forcing Gordon to fight his way back up front. Prior to the last caution on lap 99 for Casey Mears' spin, Earnhardt, Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch were engaged in a battle within the top-ten, and all three forced the #42 Chevrolet of Kyle Larson back one position each as they fought it out. On the restart, Kyle Busch was leading Kurt, Bowyer and Johnson, and Gordon and Logano had found themselves in the top ten. Sam Hornish Jr. also snuck the #9 Ford into tenth place before he got the checkered flag.

This was Fox's 16th and final Sprint Cup points telecast of 2015. NBC and their cable partner NBC Sports Network will now take over at Daytona for the Coke Zero 400 next week, and take it all the way to the regular season finale at Richmond at September, and then through all ten Chase races up to the Championship Weekend in Homestead, Florida.

Race Results:

1. (11) 18-Kyle Busch - Toyota - 110 laps, led 17 laps
2. (2) 41-Kurt Busch - Chevrolet - 110 laps, led 42 laps
3. (6) 15-Clint Bowyer -Toyota - 110 laps, led 4 laps
4. (17) 4-Kevin Harvick - Chevrolet - 110 laps
5. (19) 22-Joey Logano - Ford - 110 laps
6. (13) 48-Jimmie Johnson - Chevrolet - 110 laps, led 45 laps
7. (20) 88-Dale Earnhardt Jr. - Chevrolet - 110 laps
8. (26) 5-Kasey Kahne - Chevrolet - 110 laps
9. (16) 31-Ryan Newman - Chevrolet - 110 laps
10. (24) 9-Sam Hornish Jr. - Ford - 110 laps