CONCORD, N.C. - Martin Truex, Jr. was not going to be denied a trip to victory lane at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday night.
On the final restart with five laps to go, Truex was looking for the passing lane around leaders David Ragan and Ryan Newman, who had used strategy to get out front while others made four tire stops.
Truex drove his No. 78 Toyota to the inside line, taking the leaders four wide with Ragan, Newman and Kyle Busch down the backstretch. Truex then made the pass off of turn four with a huge shove from behind by Joey Logano. From there, Logano tried hard to challenge again for the lead.
But Truex was able to get away from the competition, and went on to record his second win in the Coca-Cola 600, the longest race on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series tour.
So what was Truex thinking on that final restart?
“I was thinking I was going wherever there was a hole because I wasn’t lifting. That’s kind of the way it works there. It seemed like the second half of the race for sure the bottom was really where you wanted to be. I had a hole in the bottom to get into (Turn) 3 and I knew that was my only shot. Just barely cleared the 22 (Joey Logano) off (Turn) 4 sideways. He was on my bumper and had me sideways and I hung onto it and luckily finished it from there.”
Truex led the most laps on the night – 116 – and gave Joe Gibbs Racing their fourth overall win in the Memorial Day Weekend classic. It also marked his 22nd career series victory.
It was far from an easy task. First, Truex made contact with the wall on lap 73 while leading when a right front tire went down. He and his crew worked to get the car back in racing trim, coming back to win the third segment of the race over Chase Elliott.
During the first half of the final segment, Truex, Jr. first battled with Elliott for the lead, with Truex holding point. After a lap 359 caution, Truex again moved to the lead, with Logano and Ryan Blaney in pursuit.
When Brad Keselowski spun onto pit road with a handful of laps left, the leaders hit pit road. Ragan chose to stay out, while Newman took two tires to get off pit road ahead of Truex and Kyle Busch.
In the end, it was Truex making a gutsy four-wide move, followed by an assist to push past Ragan off turn four that sent the 2017 Cup Series champ to victory lane.
“I don’t know how we did it honestly,” Truex said. “I blew that right-front tire earlier and hit the fence off (turn) 4. I thought man, that’s not good. I know this car is pretty banged up. We just fought back from it. We kept working on the car and kept adjusting on the car.
“What a rocket ship this Bass Pro Toyota was this weekend. I felt good about it in practice, but you just don’t know and these mile-and-a-halfs have been tough on us this year – kind of scratching and clawing trying to find something. Kansas a few weeks ago was really a reality check for us. It’s one of our best tracks and we really struggled there and knew we had to get to work. Just hats off to the guys for listening to my input and what I had to say.”
Logano finished in second, but that was almost as good as a win for the driver of the No. 22 Ford after battling handling issues over the course of the race.
“We had a rough start to this thing,” Logano said. “The guys did a good job fixing it up to where we were competitive at the end and had a shot to win, so that’s all you can ask for. I don’t know how we got from where we thought we were gonna be good in practice and then started the race really bad. I’m glad we made some good adjustments to get somewhat close.
“The Coke 600 is such a big deal to win, especially as a Coke driver you want to make it happen and we were close, but we’ll just have to wait again to next year and go at it. Like I said, if you told me we were gonna finish second early in the race, I would have taken it, but when you actually finish second and you see the lead that close you don’t want to take it.”
Kyle Busch led 79 laps on the night, battling on several occasions with his teammate Truex. After putting himself in the middle of the four-wide fight for the lead with five laps to go, Busch crossed the finish line in third.
“I don’t know. I thought that through much of the race we had a fast car,” said Busch. “We were there. We led some laps. We ran around – the 4 (Kevin Harvick) was fast, 19 (Truex, Jr.) was fast. The 19 was the fastest car. I’m not sure what they had different than us. Obviously we were just off a little bit. Otherwise, I felt like we had a race-winning car capable of at least running second. Overall, the red white and blue M&M’s Camry was fast. We brought it home where we should have – close anyways I think.”
The tire issues that set Truex back earlier in the night also caused issues for two of his teammates. A cut right front tire sent Erik Jones hard into the turn four wall on lap 22, severely damaging his car and ending his night.
Tire issues plagued teammate Denny Hamlin as well. The first problem occurred on lap 160, when a cut right front tire sending him into the wall. His JGR crew made repairs, and he raced his way back into the top ten. But more problems struck on lap 359, when another cut right front tire sent him into the wall. He would be able to continue, but spun on the final lap, making hard contact with the inside wall. He would limp home in 17th.
Another Joe Gibbs Racing affiliated driver, Matt DiBenedetto, also had a cut right front tire on lap 47 that sent him into the wall, ending his night.
The race was slowed 16 times by caution flags, but the biggest incident of the night came on lap 315, when the Chevy of Kyle Larson washed up the track off turn two, making contact with the Ford of Clint Bowyer. The contact sent both spinning, with Larson’s car making heavy contact with the inside wall before sliding back out into the middle of the track, gathering up Ty Dillon in the process. Austin Dillon was also gathered up in the incident. No one was injured in the melee.
“I just got in there and lost grip and slid up into Clint (Bowyer),” Larson said. “I got stuck in the middle and then just put myself in a bad spot and got sideways. So, it was an up and down day for us. I finally put myself in a good spot for about a lap and then screwed that up. So, that was all me. So, we’ll go wherever we race next week and try to do better.”
Logano finished in second, with Kyle Busch in third, Elliott in fourth and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. in fifth.
Chris Buescher, Alex Bowman, Jimmie Johnson, pole sitter William Byron and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top ten.
Following the end of second segment of the event, the race was halted for a 30 second moment of remembrance in honor of Memorial Day. The cars were brought to pit lane, and the engines were shut off while the crowd was asked to stand for 30 seconds of silence.
It’s the second time such a moment has been held during the running of the Coca-Cola 600, with the first coming in 2009, when rain postponed the event to Memorial Day Monday.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Charlotte Motor Speedway – Concord, NC
Coca-Cola 600 – May 26, 2019
1. (14) Martin Truex, Jr, Toyota, 400.
2. (7) Joey Logano, Ford, 400.
3. (3) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 400.
4. (12) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 400.
5. (9) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr, Ford, 400.
6. (22) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 400.
7. (13) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 400.
8. (15) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 400.
9. (1) William Byron, Chevrolet, 400.
10. (5) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 400.
11. (2) Aric Almirola, Ford, 400.
12. (30) Corey LaJoie, Ford, 400.
13. (19) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 400.
14. (17) Paul Menard, Ford, 400.
15. (31) David Ragan, Ford, 400.
16. (18) Ryan Newman, Ford, 400.
17. (20) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 400.
18. (6) Daniel Suarez, Ford, 399.
19. (21) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 398.
20. (26) Matt Tifft #, Ford, 398.
21. (10) Daniel Hemric #, Chevrolet, 398.
22. (23) Michael McDowell, Ford, 398.
23. (28) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 397.
24. (8) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 397.
25. (29) Darrell Wallace, Jr., Chevrolet, 396.
26. (34) Parker Kligerman(i), Toyota, 396.
27. (11) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 396.
28. (39) Quin Houff, Chevrolet, 396.
29. (36) B.J. McLeod(i), Chevrolet, 395.
30. (37) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 389.
31. (24) Ryan Preece #, Chevrolet, Suspension, 343.
32. (40) Joey Gase(i), Toyota, 334.
33. (25) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, Accident, 315.
34. (4) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, Accident, 315.
35. (33) Bayley Currey(i), Ford, Accident, 245.
36. (35) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, Suspension, 134.
37. (32) Landon Cassill(i), Chevrolet, Oil Cooler, 108.
38. (38) Cody Ware(i), Ford, Rear Gear, 51.
39. (27) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, Accident, 47.
40. (16) Erik Jones, Toyota, Accident, 22.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 124.074 mph.
Time of Race: 4 Hrs, 50 Mins, 9 Secs. Margin of Victory: 0.330 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 16 for 80 laps.
Lead Changes: 30 among 11 drivers.
Lap Leaders: W. Byron 1-24;K. Busch 25-49;W. Byron 50;K. Harvick 51-54;K. Busch 55-58;K. Harvick 59-62;M. Truex Jr 63-73;K. Harvick 74;D. Hemric # 75-81;B. Keselowski 82-90;K. Harvick 91-95;B. Keselowski 96-106;D. Hamlin 107-127;C. Elliott 128-130;M. Truex Jr 131;R. Blaney 132-133;B. Keselowski 134-162;W. Byron 163-167;B. Keselowski 168-189;A. Bowman 190-193;W. Byron 194;A. Bowman 195-198;B. Keselowski 199-203;K. Busch 204-252;M. Truex Jr 253-258;K. Busch 259;M. Truex Jr 260-303;C. Elliott 304-343;M. Truex Jr 344-392;D. Ragan 393-395;M. Truex Jr 396-400.
Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Martin Truex Jr 6 times for 116 laps; Kyle Busch 4 times for 79 laps; Brad Keselowski 5 times for 76 laps; Chase Elliott 2 times for 43 laps; William Byron 4 times for 31 laps; Denny Hamlin 1 time for 21 laps; Kevin Harvick 4 times for 14 laps; Alex Bowman 2 times for 8 laps; Daniel Hemric # 1 time for 7 laps; David Ragan 1 time for 3 laps; Ryan Blaney 1 time for 2 laps.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 2,11,18,9,4,24,22,48,19,12
Stage #2 Top Ten: 2,88,18,9,24,4,12,1,22,42
Stage #3 Top Ten: 19,18,9,12,1,88,17,22,42,11
Top 10 in Points: 1. Kyle Busch – 528 (3 Wins); 2. Joey Logano – 522 (1 Wins); 3. Chase Elliott – 478 (1 Win); 4. Kevin Harvick – 478; 5. Brad Keselowski – 459 (3 Wins); 6. Martin Truex, Jr. – 448 (3 Wins); 7. Denny Hamlin – 434 (2 Wins); 8. Kurt Busch – 406; 9. Ryan Blaney – 376; 10. Alex Bowman – 373.
