Truex Jr wins at Vegas

Busch bloodied in brawl

LAS VEGAS, March 13, (AP): Martin Truex Jr finished speaking to reporters after winning the NASCAR Cup race Sunday and retreated into a corner of the media center where a tablet awaited with the video cued up.

Truex had to see the Kyle BuschJoey Logano brawl, too.

Truex passed Brad Keselowski with two laps to go and avoided a last-lap wreck and ensuing fight that left Busch’s forehead bloodied in a wild finish.

CAR RACING

An aggressive Joey Logano got into Busch as they raced for third, sending Busch spinning down pit road at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

As Truex headed toward victory circle, Busch walked down pit road, turned right and threw a right hook at Logano’s face. Logano’s crew members brought Busch to the ground as NASCAR officials yelled for them to stop.

When they were separated and Busch got to his feet, he had a bloody gash above his right eye.

Busch, who had recovered from a speeding penalty that left him a lap down to get into contention, was escorted to the infield care center and quickly released as the track buzzed.

The fight overshadowed a dominating day for Truex and a tough-luck finish for Keselowski, who appeared to be pulling away after a restart and on his way to his second win in as many weeks when he ran into mechanical problems.

Truex passed him and held on to become the first driver to win all three segments in NASCAR Cup’s new stage racing.

Kyle Larson was second, followed by Chase Elliott, Logano and Keselowski.

Truex won the first two race stages and took re-took the lead with 39 laps to go after a lengthy cycle of greenflag pit stops. After a hard-charging Keselowski went in front, Danica Patrick blew an engine, bringing out a caution.

Keselowski, who started from the pole, just beat Truex out of pit road road after their four-tire stops. He chose the outside lane on the restart and shot ahead until his car slowed at the end of the 267-lap race.

That gave Toyota a win after Ford victories in the season’s first two races.

“I’ve been on the other side of those things plenty of times, so it definitely feels good to take advantage of somebody else’s issue for once,” Truex said.

Denny Hamlin was sixth, followed by Ryan Blaney, Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth and Clint Bowyer.

Jimmie Johnson was 11th, marking the first time since he became a fulltime driver in 2002 that he has failed to have a top-10 finish in the first three races.