Martin Truex, Jr. Wins Historic Race at Martinsville Speedway

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MARTINSVILLE, VA – RIS – Martin Truex won the NASCAR Cup race on Wednesday night on a historic night for NASCAR and Martinsville Speedway. It was the first race under the lights at historic Martinsville Speedway, which hosted its first NASCAR race in 1949, and it came on a day when NASCAR made a monumental announcement to ban the Confederate flag.

Truex won the second stage of the race and coasted on to victory.  His lead over Ryan Blaney was over four seconds. Truex was unstoppable over the race’s final 20 percent. Some damage earlier in the race forced his team to cut part of the right front fender off the car but it didn’t slow Truex down at all. He picked his way through lapped traffic over the final 100 green-flag laps and he beat Blaney to the line by over four seconds.

“We’ve been working a long-time on trying to figure this place out and just been chipping away at it,” said Truex, who drives the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry.

“The last couple years we’ve been really strong; 2018 was a heartbreaker at the end of the race there. Last year to get the win and this year, hats off to the guys.”

The win is Truex’s first of the season and the first for crew chief James Small. He replaced Cole Pearn as Truex’s crew chief as Pearn suddenly called it quits on NASCAR at the end of the 2019 season.

The historic track known as “The Paper Clip,” had a tradition of only running NASCAR Cup Series racing on Sunday for 70 years.  This race under the lights, on a Sunday of all things, may be a road map for the future of short track racing in the series.

Truex’s early-race pit penalty was a commitment line violation. As he dove to pit road from the lead on lap 115, he didn’t get to the pit road commitment line soon enough and had to start at the back of the field.  He recovered nicely.

Truex was the only driver at Joe Gibbs Racing who had a good night. His three teammates struggled mightily. Kyle Busch finished 19th, Erik Jones was 20th and Denny Hamlin was an inexplicable 24th.

While JGR struggled outside of Truex, every Team Penske driver had a great night. All three Penske drivers finished in a row behind Truex. Blaney was followed by Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski.

Blaney had one of the race’s fastest cars. He started first, fell a lap down early in the race, got his lap back, drove all the way back up to first and then seemed poised to contend for the win. But a pit penalty during a stop when a caution came out with 175 laps to go put Blaney in the back of the pack.

He drove his way to second but was three seconds back of Truex when he passed Keselowski with 44 laps to go.  After that Truex’s lead grew.

Bubba Wallace almost got a top 10 on Wednesday night. The most outspoken NASCAR driver over the last 10 days finished 11th after he was edged out by Jimmie Johnson at the finish line.

Wallace was mired in 15th for much of the final segment of the race. But he moved his way toward the top 10 at the end and had a car that was in the top half of the field the entire night.

“Our Black Lives Matter Chevrolet — that’s so good to say — was so good on the long runs,” Wallace said. “So we definitely didn’t need those cautions toward the end of the race.”

Wallace — the only black driver who races full-time in NASCAR — drove a car supporting Black Lives Matter on Wednesday. The car raced hours after NASCAR said it would prohibit fans from displaying the Confederate flag at races going forward.

Wallace had called for NASCAR to ban the flag in an interview with CNN on Monday night.

The NASCAR Cup Series’ next race, the Dixie Vodka 400, is Sunday (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Unofficial Results, Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500, Martinsville Speedway

Fin, St, Driver, Car, Laps, St1, St2, Tms Led, Laps Led, Playoff Pts, Pts, Status
1) 5, Martin Truex Jr., No. 19 SiriusXM Toyota, 500, 4, , 2, 132, 5, 47, Running
2) 1, Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Menards/Cardell Cabinetry Ford, 500, , 2, 2, 34, , 44, Running
3) 6, Brad Keselowski, No. 2 PPG Ford, 500, , , 1, 5, , 34, Running
4) 3, Joey Logano, No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, 500, 1, 3, 5, 234, 1, 51, Running
5) 11, Chase Elliott, No. 9 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, 500, 6, 8, 1, 1, , 40, Running
6) 8, Alex Bowman, No. 88 ChevyGoods.com/Adam's Polishes Chevrolet, 500, , 4, , , , 38, Running
7) 19, Matt DiBenedetto, No. 21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford, 500, 9, , , , , 32, Running
8) 15, William Byron, No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet, 500, 10, 7, , , , 34, Running
9) 9, Kurt Busch, No. 1 Monster Energy Chevrolet, 500, 7, 9, , , , 34, Running
10) 21, Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Ally Chevrolet, 500, 3, 1, 1, 70, 1, 45, Running
11) 23, Bubba Wallace, No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet, 500, 5, 6, , , , 37, Running
12) 16, Ryan Newman, No. 6 Koch Industries Ford, 500, , , , , , 25, Running
13) 24, Chris Buescher, No. 17 Fastenal Ford, 500, , , , , , 24, Running
14) 29, Michael McDowell, No. 34 The Pete Store Ford, 500, , , , , , 23, Running
15) 10, Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Hunt Brothers Pizza Ford, 499, 8, 5, , , , 31, Running
16) 14, Tyler Reddick #, No. 8 Cat Fleet Monitoring Chevrolet, 499, , 10, , , , 22, Running
17) 4, Clint Bowyer, No. 14 Rush Truck Centers Ford, 499, 2, , , , , 29, Running
18) 25, Corey LaJoie, No. 32 Keen Parts Ford, 499, , , 1, 5, , 19, Running
19) 7, Kyle Busch, No. 18 M&M's Fudge Brownie Toyota, 499, , , , , , 18, Running
20) 13, Erik Jones, No. 20 Genuine Parts Toyota, 497, , , , , , 17, Running
21) 17, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Kroger Chevrolet, 497, , , , , , 16, Running
22) 30, Ty Dillon, No. 13 GEICO Chevrolet, 497, , , , , , 15, Running
23) 20, Matt Kenseth, No. 42 Credit One Bank Chevrolet, 497, , , , , , 14, Running
24) 12, Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota, 497, , , , , , 13, Running
25) 18, John Hunter Nemechek #, No. 38 Fire Alarm Services Ford, 497, , , , , , 12, Running
26) 28, Ryan Preece, No. 37 Purina Chevrolet, 496, , , , , , 11, Running
27) 37, * Daniel Suarez, No. 96 CommScope Toyota, 494, , , , , , 10, Running
28) 32, Christopher Bell #, No. 95 Toyota Toyota, 494, , , , , , 9, Running
29) 27, Cole Custer #, No. 41 HaasTooling.com/Jacob Co. Ford, 494, , , , , , 8, Running
30) 31, Brennan Poole #, No. 15 Remember Everyone Deployed Chevrolet, 494, , , , , , 7, Running
31) 26, JJ Yeley(i), No. 27  Ford, 493, , , , , , 0, Running
32) 33, David Starr(i), No. 53 Heluva Ranch Chevrolet, 479, , , , , , 0, Running
33) 2, Aric Almirola, No. 10 Smithfield Ford, 476, , , 1, 19, , 4, Battery
34) 34, Quin Houff #, No. 00 Permatex Chevrolet, 474, , , , , , 3, Running
35) 36, Joey Gase(i), No. 51 Carolina SIM Works Chevrolet, 464, , , , , , 0, Running
36) 35, Garrett Smithley(i), No. 77 Formula One Imports Chevrolet, 450, , , , , , 0, Running
37) 22, Austin Dillon, No. 3 Symbicort Chevrolet, 399, , , , , , 1, Accident
38) 39, * Reed Sorenson, No. 7  Chevrolet, 295, , , , , , 1, Electrical
39) 38, * Timmy Hill(i), No. 66 James Carter Attorney At Law Toyota, 105, , , , , , 0, Fuel Pump
(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series, (#) Rookie

0.526 Mile Paved
Race Length: 500 Laps, 263. Miles
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 23 Mins, 56 Secs.
Average Speed: 77.378 MPH
Margin of Victory: 4.705 Seconds

Stage 1 Top 10: 22, 14, 48, 19, 43, 9, 1, 4, 21, 24
Stage 2 Top 10: 48, 12, 22, 88, 4, 43, 24, 9, 1, 8

Race Comments: Martin Truex Jr. won the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville Speedway, his 27th victory in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Prior to the start, the following vehicle(s) dropped to the rear of the field under penalty for the reasons indicated: No. 51 (failed pre-race inspection five times).

Caution Flags: 7 for 52 laps;
Laps: 6-12 (Debris from No. 3 [51]);
62-68 (Competition Caution [88]);
114-120 (No. 66 Stalled On Pit Road [12]);
132-140 (Stage 1 Conclusion [2]);
262-271 (Stage 2 Conclusion [21]);
327-332 (No. 20, 53 Incident Turn 2 [14]);
398-403 (No. 00 Incident Turn 2 [32]).

Lead Changes: 14 among 8 drivers;
R. Blaney 0;
A. Almirola 1-19;
J. Logano 20-62;
C. Elliott 63;
J. Logano 64-114;
M. Truex Jr. 115;
C. LaJoie 116-120;
J. Logano 121-201;
J. Johnson 202-271;
R. Blaney 272-283;
J. Logano 284-306;
R. Blaney 307-328;
J. Logano 329-364;
B. Keselowski 365-369;
M. Truex Jr. 370-500.

American Ethanol Green Flag Restart Award:  Joey Logano, No. 22
Sunoco Rookie of the Race:  Tyler Reddick, No. 8

Ron Fleshman with John Davison

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2020, Issue 6, Posted 12:05 AM, 06.11.2020