All day long, Clint Bowyer was one of the cars to beat on the road course at Sonoma.  And in the end, no one could beat him.  Bowyer drove the No. 15 car to Victory Lane Sunday afternoon, holding off Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart in a green-white-checkered finish.  Bowyer led a race-high 71 laps to pick up his first win of 2012.

For awhile, it looked like NASCAR officials had put the yellow flags away for the day.  The race was caution-free until Lap 82 (out of 110.)  Heck, there were only two cautions in the entire race, the second one leading to NASCAR’s version of overtime.  Both were for wrecks, which should be comforting to those fans who aren’t fans of the dreaded “debris cautions.”

The rest of the top five: Stewart, Busch, Brian Vickers and Jimmie Johnson. Matt Kenseth is still the overall points leader.

For fans of Junior Nation hoping for a repeat of last week, it didn’t come close to happening.  Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 23rd.  He wasn’t much of a factor all day.

Next week: it’s off to the 1.5 mile cookie-cutter at Kentucky Speedway.  I wonder if they’ve gotten the traffic issues taken care of after last year’s debacle.

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Clint Bowyer and the #15 5-Hour Energy Toyota