What a poker face!

Martin Truex Jr. bluffs Kevin Harvick into an extra pit-stop and cruises into victory lane at the Toyota/Save Mart 350

Martin Truex Jr. captured the checkered flag at Sonoma Raceway for his third victory of the season after his crew chief Cole Pearn ordered a fake pit-stop to trick Kevin Harvick into giving up the race lead.

During the final stage, Pearn called for a green flag pit-stop on lap 73 for Truex's No. 78 Toyota in order to entice race leader Kevin Harvick into making the same call. The trick worked as Harvick pitted and Truex remained on the track to assume the lead.

"I knew the situation I was in," Truex said. "It worked out good. When he said pit then said stay out, I wasn’t sure what was going on, to be honest. I just did what he said."

Pearn claims making one pit-stop during the final stage was his plan all along, whether Harvick decided to pit or not.

"We knew we were going to do one stop – that was kind of our plan," Pearn said. "We just really needed them to pit earlier for it to work out. It was a bit of a gamble, but obviously, it paid off. It worked out great. It’s tough. Everybody is so good in this (series) that sometimes you have to do something different to pull one out."

Truex later pitted on lap 81, but took the lead for good after lap 91 when Harvick needed another pit-stop to acquire fresh tires. Pearn's one pit-stop strategy paid off when no caution flags fell during the final stage and Truex sped away with the win by crossing the finish line 10.5 seconds ahead of Harvick.

Harvick has dominated NASCAR this season and after the race Truex was clearly enjoying pulling a fast one over the No. 4 Ford.

"We feel great when beat him — not only him but his whole team," Truex said of Harvick. "They do an amazing job. They’re great competitors. They’re going to be tough all season long. Any time you can beat those guys, it feels good."

The win is the second career victory for Truex at Sonoma, his first coming back in 2013. On Sunday he broke the streak of nine straight different drivers winning at the road course.

Kevin Harvick finished runner-up and didn't appear to be upset about being tricked into the extra pit-stop after the race.

"We all make mistakes," Harvick said. "We all do things split-second that might be right after it all happens. But these guys do a great job. Everyone on our Mobil1 Ford has done a great job for the last five years."

Harvick continues to be the top driver in NASCAR this season. He has finished first or second place in eight out of the sixteen races so far this year.

Clint Bowyer followed up his win at Michigan with a strong third place finish at Sonoma. Like his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Harvick, he was bluffed into making an extra pit-stop that prevented him from challenging Truex at the end.

Chase Elliott crossed the finish line in fourth place, his first career top-five finish at a road course. Kyle Busch made a late charge to the front of the pack to finish in fifth place.

Kurt Busch, Erik Jones, Aric Almirola, Alex Bowman and Denny Hamlin round out the top 10.

A.J. Allmendinger was the winner of Stage One and seemed to be a strong contender for the checkered flag when he missed a shift and blew his engine halfway through Stage Two.

"I haven’t missed a shift on a road course in 10 years," Allmendinger said. "It was just me. I was trying to be so patient and so smooth. It was unexpected. It’s on me. I let everybody down here."

Denny Hamlin took the checkered green for winning Stage Two. Both he and Allmendinger receive a bonus point for the postseason for their stage wins.

Click here for full race results.

Kyle Busch remains the leader of the NASCAR drivers points standings. Kevin Harvick sits in second place 72 points behind Busch, while Joey Logano is third 112 points behind. Brad Keselowski stays in fourth place 142 points behind Busch.

You can see the updated Driver's Points Standings here.

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will head to the mid-west next week for the Overton's 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on July 1st.

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_{Photo credits: ZappaOMati CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons}

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_{Author: @chops316
Editor: @liberty-minded}

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