Toyota/Save Mart 350 Studs and Duds

(Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images for NASCAR)

First road race of the 2009 season and it was a thriller filled with double-file restarts, spins, off-roading, near misses with the turn four wall, and lots of beating and banging. Here are some of the guys who left wine country with their heads held high or there faces covered with grapes.

Studs

Kasey Kahne

Anytime you can get the King back into Victory Lane is a great moment for any driver. Kahne showed that although the Dodges may appear to be weaker then their Chevy and Toyota opponents they are by no means done for and with rumors swirling of a switch to Toyota leading the RPM charge that consisted of three cars in the top 10 was the best thing Kahne could have done for himself and his team.

Kahne pulled himself within three points of Juan Montoya and a spot in this year's Chase for the Cup with his performance on Sunday. As it stands right now Kahne is the only Dodge other than current fourth place Kurt Busch with a legitimate shot at making the Chase and contending for a title.

Infineon finish: Winner

Points: 13th, 1914 (450 behind Stewart, three behind 12th place Montoya)

Tony Stewart

Stewart continued his story book season with his eighth top five and 12th top 10 of the season on Sunday extending his lead over second place Jeff Gordon to 84 points and making him seemingly a lock for the Chase. The runner-up finish on Sunday improved Stewart's average finish at Sonoma to 9.27 with a perfect lap completion percentage.

Stewart is currently posting a season average finish of 8.44 and the last time he had a season average finish of lower than 10, he won his second Sprint Cup championship. Sunday also continued Stewart's current streak of finishing races improving it to 40 races without a DNF.

Infineon finish: Second

Points: First, 2364 (84 ahead of Gordon, 450 ahead of 13th place Kahne)

AJ Allmendinger

Allmendinger continued his season of improvement on Sunday when he was one of the three RPM cars in the top 10 with a seventh place finish in his No. 44 Best Buy Dodge. Allmendinger, who has been running at the finish of all 16 races this season, climbed two spots up the Sprint Cup standings and is within 200 points of a spot in the top 20.

Allmendinger has a growing following amongst the NASCAR fan community and should these type of finishes continue more sponsors are going to take notice of this young driver giving him more security in his ride in the No. 44 over at RPM through next season and beyond.

Infineon finish: Seventh

Points: 29th, 1447 (917 behind Stewart, 470 behind 12th place Montoya)

Elliott Sadler

Sadler has had quiet improvement at the road course races on the NASCAR schedule and he continued that with a 10th place performance on Sunday and used that to propel himself four spots in the point standings into 23rd.

While 347 points may be a bit too much for Sadler to overcome to earn a spot in the Chase he is only 70 points behind 20th place Earnhardt Jr. and a top 20 points performance would be a good momentum boost for this team going into 2010 and beyond.

Infineon finish: 10th

Points: 23rd, 1570 (794 behind Stewart, 347 behind 12th place Montoya)

Juan Montoya

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?