Last year, a last lap shove from Joey Logano robbed Martin Truex, Jr. of a trip to Martinsville Speedway’s victory lane.
On Sunday, Truex, Jr. didn’t let anyone get close enough to try to repeat that move.
Truex, Jr. led 464 of the 500 laps in the First Data 500, beating out William Byron by about three car lengths to score a dominant win at the half-mile raceway in the first round of the Round of 8 of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
“I’m just proud to win here,” Truex said. “This is a big, big race for anyone in this sport. Grandfather clock coming home with me, baby. I never would have thought it.”
En route to the win, Truex swept all three segments of the race, making a statement about his team’s title hopes by punching his ticket to the Championship 4 at Homestead.
It’s the seventh win of the season for the 2017 Cup Series champion, and the 26th of his series career. It also marks his first career win at Martinsville.
“I mean, honestly, more than anything I just wanted to win here so bad last year,” Truex, Jr. said. “It wasn’t really about getting to Miami because we got there anyway, but this track is so tough. It’s old school. It’s the heart of NASCAR and NASCAR has been coming here so long, the history here is amazing and I’m proud to be a part of that.”
But Byron didn’t make the finish as easy as it might have seemed. On the final restart, the 21-year-old stayed right on Truex’s back bumper, pressuring him for several laps. Over the closing laps, Truex was able to gap the field, but Byron closed again on the final lap as the leaders worked through lapped traffic.
But in the end, it was Truex, Jr. crossing under the checkered flag first.
Afterwards, Truex, Jr. said he didn’t think anyone had expected the dominance that the No. 19 Toyota showed on the day.
“This race track in general, you don’t see that. Hats off to my guys. Pit crew was stellar today, and we didn’t make many adjustments. We adjusted on it early and it came to life, and that was a lot of fun. I don’t know, maybe now I’ve got this place figured out, who knows. But just really proud of everybody, and after last year, we talked earlier, everybody wants to keep talking about last year, and I’m like, we’ve got work to do. I’m just proud of everybody for giving me a race car like that and being able to put it all together today when it counted.”
Byron, who matched his career best finish – a second place at Daytona International Speedway in July – said Truex, Jr. was “really strong.”
“I could work my brake bias a little bit in the car and gain a little bit and then I’d get to him and I’d heat them up a lot and kind of fall back. So, I don’t really know. He was super strong. Our car bounced a little bit on the short run, which was tough to kind of get around, but overall it was a really good day. This isn’t a place that I’ve loved coming to, and it just clicked this weekend. The things we did with the car going into qualifying and then obviously our race. So, I’m super excited, but second is not super fun either. So, we’ll try to get one spot better next time.”
Brad Keselowski followed in third, with Playoff contenders Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney finishing fourth and fifth, respectively.
After the race, a fracas broke out on pit road between Playoff driver Joey Logano and Hamlin and their crews. The incident stemmed from a run-in between the two with less than 50 laps to go. Contact between the two on the front stretch sent Logano into the wall. One lap later, Logano spun in turn one with a flat tire.
Logano and Hamlin were apparently discussing the incident after the race, when Logano apparently shoved Hamlin before attempting to walk away. That triggered an altercation between the two drivers and their teams, which was quickly broken up by team and race officials.
“I was frustrated about the situation, obviously,” said Logano. “I really wanted to go over there and talk to him and get his side of the story on what happened and he just said, ‘I ran you up in the wall, basically.’ He wasn’t as apologetic as I was looking for and that probably escalated the situation too much. I shouldn’t have shoved him. For all the kids watching that wasn’t the best thing to do, but I was frustrated, tempers are high. It’s the Playoffs, so that’s what happens.”
“I got close off of turn 4 and it looks like we got together and it looks like collateral damage,” Hamlin said. “He blew a tire. I mean, he would probably say, oh, short track racing.”
Another contentious moment came on lap 361, when contact between Kyle Busch and Aric Almirola as they raced inside the top 10 sent both spinning off turn four. Several others were gathered up in the melee, including Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Preece and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
Almirola and Johnson were unable to continue, while Kyle Busch finished 14th in the end.
Kurt Busch, Playoff contenders Kevin Harvick, Logano and Kyle Larson rounded out the top nine, while non-playoff driver Ryan Newman finished in 10th.
While it was a strong day for several of the points contenders, it was a rough one for Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott started the weekend with a fiery engine detonation in practice. That meant despite being second fast in qualifying, he would have to start at the back of the field for Sunday’s race.
After fighting his way into the top 10, Elliott suffered a broken rear axel on lap 178 that sent him to the garage. He returned some 55 laps down, finishing 36th.
“Just disappointing for a day like that,” Elliott said. “We know better and we can do better than that.”
Elliott now heads to Texas Motor Speedway next weekend 44 points below the cutline, putting him in a must-win situation if he hopes to make the Championship 4.
With Truex, Jr. locked in, Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Logano find themselves on the plus side, with Logano holding a 14 point advantage over the cutoff spot. Harvick, Blaney, Larson and Elliott are on the outside of the cutoff with two races remaining in the Round of 8.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Martinsville Speedway – Martinsville, VA
First Data 500 – October 27, 2019
1. (3) Martin Truex, Jr. (P), Toyota, 500.
2. (11) William Byron, Chevrolet, 500.
3. (15) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 500.
4. (1) Denny Hamlin (P), Toyota, 500.
5. (6) Ryan Blaney (P), Ford, 500.
6. (25) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 500.
7. (22) Kevin Harvick (P), Ford, 500.
8. (10) Joey Logano (P), Ford, 500.
9. (14) Kyle Larson (P), Chevrolet, 500.
10. (35) Ryan Newman, Ford, 500.
11. (17) David Ragan, Ford, 500.
12. (20) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 500.
13. (26) Darrell Wallace, Jr., Chevrolet, 500.
14. (13) Kyle Busch (P), Toyota, 500.
15. (16) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Ford, 500.
16. (12) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 500.
17. (18) Daniel Hemric #, Chevrolet, 500.
18. (36) Corey LaJoie, Ford, 500.
19. (21) Ryan Preece #, Chevrolet, 500.
20. (8) Erik Jones, Toyota, 499.
21. (28) Paul Menard, Ford, 499.
22. (23) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 499.
23. (5) Michael McDowell, Ford, 499.
24. (27) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 498.
25. (29) Matt Crafton(i), Ford, 495.
26. (30) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, 495.
27. (38) B.J. McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 494.
28. (32) J.J. Yeley(i), Chevrolet, 494.
29. (33) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 494.
30. (19) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 494.
31. (9) Daniel Suarez, Ford, 488.
32. (34) Garrett Smithley(i), Chevrolet, 487.
33. (31) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, Rear Gear, 452.
34. (37) Timmy Hill(i), Chevrolet, Transmission, 450.
35. (7) Clint Bowyer, Ford, Track Bar, 449.
36. (2) Chase Elliott (P), Chevrolet, 445.
37. (4) Aric Almirola, Ford, Accident, 363.
38. (24) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, Accident, 361.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 75.448 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 29 Mins, 9 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.373 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 11 for 69 laps.
Lead Changes: 3 among 3 drivers.
Lap Leaders: D. Hamlin (P) 1-30;M. Truex Jr (P) 31-253;K. Larson (P) 254-259;M. Truex Jr (P) 260-500.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Martin Truex Jr (P) 2 times for 464 laps; Denny Hamlin (P) 1 time for 30 laps; Kyle Larson (P) 1 time for 6 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 19,11,12,14,22,24,10,9,18,41
Stage #2 Top Ten: 19,42,12,22,10,24,18,11,20,2
Top 8 in Points: 1. Martin Truex, Jr.* – 4102 (7 Wins); 2. Denny Hamlin – 4082 (5 Wins); 3. Kyle Busch – 4075 (4 Wins); 4. Joey Logano – 4072 (2 Wins); 5. Kevin Harvick – 4058 (3 Wins); 6. Ryan Blaney – 4057 (1 Win); 7. Kyle Larson – 4048 (1 Win); 8. Chase Elliott – 4028 (3 Wins).
*Advances to the Championship 4
