Truex secures Richmond win
RICHMOND, Va. — Martin Truex Jr. assumed the lead when Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch was penalized for speeding with about 50 laps to go and won the NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond Raceway on Saturday night.
The victory was the third for Truex in the last five races at Richmond. He got the lead when Busch was caught speeding entering pit road during green flag pit stops, causing him to relinquish a big lead and fall back to 10th.
Truex led a 1-2-3 finish for JGR — the sixth in its history — with Denny Hamlin finishing second and Christopher Bell third.
Truex won despite being black-flagged on the first lap for beating Hamlin, the pole-sitter, to the startfinish line for the start of the race.
“That was frustrating, I’m not going to lie, but I knew we had a good enough car to overcome it,” Truex said about the penalty.
Gragson holds on in Xfinity race
Noah Gragson held onto the lead after a restart with seven laps to go and held off Justin Haley on Saturday to win his second consecutive NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Richmond, Va.
Gragson, driving in the race with JR Motorsports owner Dale Earnhardt Jr., ended a 49-race winless streak last weekend at Darlington. His second victory of the season and fourth of his career gives him momentum into the playoffs.
Haley held on for second, followed by John Hunter Nemechek, Gragson teammate Justin Allgaier and Riley Herbst with just one race left before the 10-race playoffs begin.
“We turned a bad day, gambled on the strategy and made it OK,” said Haley, whose team opted not to pit when most of the leaders did late and was able to rally. “I think that’s a championship caliber effort that we put forth.”
Nemechek, a regular in the NASCAR truck series, was driving for Sam Hunt Racing, a team owned by VCU graduate and former racer Sam Hunt, a native of Midlothian, about 15 miles from the track.
“I don’t think we had enough of a car to win there, but we definitely made the most out of the day,” said Nemechek.