PAIR OF TOP-10s
To start Sunday's race at Sonoma Raceway, both Chase Elliott and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were inside the top 10.
And that's where they would finish it, as well.
Earnhardt led the Hendrick Motorsports teammates to the checkered flag, earning a sixth-place result.
Elliott was just behind him in eighth.
"Just a solid day," the driver said. "Good execution on pit road. Guys called great strategy and got us a decent finish.”
PLENTY OF STRATEGIES IN PLAY
Jimmie Johnson started Sunday's race outside of the top 20, led it by the end of Stage 2 and finished just outside of the top 10 in 13th.
"I had no earthly idea what was going on," Johnson said after the race. "I passed so many cars. I don’t even know what strategy won."
With so many pit road strategies at play throughout the road course race, Johnson said he was proud of how the No. 48 team battled all afternoon long.
"It was very difficult to know what was going on from inside the car," he said. "I would assume that caused a lot of great viewing and entertainment that was fun to watch."
KAHNE MAKES CONTACT
Late in Sunday's event, Kasey Kahne raced his way back onto the lead lap and began working his way back through the field.
But when the white flag waved, contact from a competitor sent the No. 5 Windows 10 car toward the wall.
"It was a hard hit," Kahne recalled. "(The No. 15 car) went low down the front stretch and then just, I was going to his outside and he just turned right and just hit me, put me straight in the wall getting the white flag there."
Kahne said he battled the handling of his car early in the race, but the No. 5 team continued to work on it throughout the day.
"We got better and better," he said. "We were definitely much better at the end than we were at the start and passed some cars later on.”