MARTINSVILLE, Va. – Martin Truex Jr. admits he was surprised by his success at Martinsville Speedway.
Truex won an exciting duel for the lead with teammate Denny Hamlin in the NASCAR Cup Series’ rain delay on Sunday night, winning the last four stops for the third time in the NASCAR Cup Series – the oldest and shortest in the series.
“This place has become a playground for us, I think,” Truex said in Victory Lane. “We did not have the best car all day, but we just kept going and never stopped.”
Truex, who repeatedly pushed Hamlin into the turns and tried unsuccessfully to get inside the right lane, finally made the pass by going 15 laps, below Hamlin from the second turn. He sailed away to a victory without another challenge, while Hamlin and Chase Elliott led the rest of the way for a second fight.
Truex becomes the first recurring winner in NASCAR’s top series this season.
The race was rained down to 42 laps on Saturday night and was completed as the second part of a double header that began with the completion of the Xfinity Series rain delay from Friday night.
Elliott, who won here last year on his way to winning the Series Championship, retained Hamlin for second place. Hamlin was third, followed by William Byron and Kyle Larson.
“It was a lot of fun there at the end while I was racing with Denny,” Truex said of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate. “We raced clean and were able to get to the top.”
The Gibbs team had all four of its riders finish in the top-10 as Christopher Bell finished seventh and Kyle Busch a tenth, and team owner Joe Gibbs was excited and relieved.
“I was just praying that Denny and Martin would not get together up front,” Gibbs said.
The result was not only disappointing for Hamlin, who had a dominant car and led 276 laps, but also for Ryan Blaney, who won the first two innings and led 157 laps, but dragged an air rifle out of his pit. went to the last stop and was sent back to 19th in the field.
Blaney finished 11th, but earlier he and Hamlin were dominant.
Blaney passes Hamlin to the lead on Lap 75 and sails to victory in Phase 1 of 130 laps, and Phase 2 plays the same. Hamlin was fast early in the run and led comfortably, but Blaney eventually ran him down to win that stage as well.
Hamlin’s third place was his best seventh top-five series in eight races.
“We had a very fast car for about 20 laps, and then it would just disappear,” Hamlin said. “We continue to run top-three every week. Every stage, every finish – we are there. We just need to get a little better. We hardly miss it. ‘
The race had several drastic changes in luck, perhaps nothing greater than for Joey Logano. He was in danger of being hampered at the end of the first inning, but gambled halfway through the race with others by staying on track to gain position when most of the leaders performed.
This worked because a short time later a warning flew in, which enabled him to put down the fresh tires that most other teams had and stay close to the front the rest of the way.
Logano finishes sixth.
Accident was the case for Alex Bowman, Brad Keselowski and several others due to a large pile at the rear that involved more than a dozen cars on Lap 387. Bowman became as tall as the second before getting caught up in the mess that ended his day, and Keselowski, a two-time winner in Martinsville, also had to name it a day after the wreck.
“It’s just part of the short-term deal,” Keselowski said.
The accident started when Kyle Busch and Chris Buescher came together from turn 2.
Daniel Suarez was also involved, driving around the oval to the entrance after turn 1, getting out of his car when it caught fire and walking away when it burst into flames.