Truex wins at Fontana as Harvick sputters
FONTANA, Calif. – Martin Truex Jr., the defending Cup Series champion, rode his pole position to victory Sunday, winning the Auto Club 400 for his first victory of the 2018 season. Truex, who won eight races in 2017, led 125 of the 200 laps en route to the victory.
Truex becomes the first driver to ever win after winning the pole and sweeping every stage of the race.
“I knew we had a good race car, honestly after the first adjustment of the race and from there it was just managing my tires and being smart,” Truex said. “We had a little trouble getting beat out of the pits and that was tough and we fell back to fifth, and we had to work our way back up front, and I really had to take care of my front tires. And once we had some clean air, it was unbelievable.”
Truex became the first driver to win the pole and sweep every stage of a race since stage racing was implemented by NASCAR last season.
Kyle Larson finished second and Kyle Busch third. Truex and Busch gave Toyota two of the top three spots in the race. Kevin Harvick, favored to win his fourth race in a row coming in, made contact with Larson on lap 22, and ended up hitting the wall. He was never in contention after that and finished 35th out of 37 drivers.
HARVICK STREAKS IN TROUBLE:
Winner of three consecutive Cup races, Kevin Harvick was shooting for a higher spot in history with a fourth Sunday, but that march ended early in the race when he collided with Larson on the backstretch. They were running side by side when Harvick appeared to move down the track and into the side of Larson’s car. The impact sent Harvick’s car into the outside wall, causing heavy damage. Harvick lost two laps while his team made repairs in the pits, and his car’s speed was negatively impacted the rest of the race. Larson remained near the front much of the afternoon.
“I went down to side draft and he was coming up and just knocked the thing to the right and just spun out,” Harvick said. “I don’t know that that was his fault. I think that was my fault for coming down the racetrack and trying to side draft, and we touched. I tried to get a little too much there.”