No. 6 for Truex
Martin Truex Jr. picks up sixth victory and ensures NASCAR playoff advancement
Sunday’s Bank of America 500 drained emotion from winner Martin Truex Jr. and breath from Kyle Busch while providing conditions for a rally from Kevin Harvick.
By the end of a long afternoon, the Busch-Harvick script that had been written through round one of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs was flipped, and Truex again ruled a place that has become quite familiar to him — victory lane.
Entering the race, Busch was flying through the playoffs, riding with two consecutive wins, and Harvick was paddling along somewhere in the middle of the pack.
Harvick had a third, a 36th and a 17th — enough to keep him in playoff contention, but not enough to create dread among his competitors. The 2014 champion led zero laps in the previous two races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Dover International Speedway.
On Sunday, a lot changed. Busch got too aggressive early in the race and pounded the wall with the right rear of his car. Before you could say Interstate Batteries, Busch was two laps down and having a rather tense radio conversation with his crew chief. The 11 other playoff drivers were racing in the top 15 while Busch was limping along with the also-rans.
Before the race was over, Busch had caused three cautions, his damaged car a bull to handle. On pit road after the race, Busch’s Toyota looked like it had been driven through a car crusher, and he was prone on the ground beside his car, obviously overheated and exhausted. For several minutes, he was treated by medical personnel, an ice packet resting on his chest.
Busch eventually stood and walked into an ambulance under his own power after talking briefly with team owner Joe Gibbs. He was treated at the infield care center, and he later told NBC his CO was in double-figures but said he didn’t feel sick from the fumes, just the heat.
The race was run in oppressive humidity. Pole-sitter Denny Hamlin, who finished fourth, looked weak and unusually weary after the race, his face clearly marked by 500 miles of hard road.
The conditions hit Busch, normally one of NASCAR’s strongest drivers, hardest. After all, this is a driver who missed 11 races in 2015 while recovering from a broken leg and foot suffered during a crash in the Xfinity Series opener, only to come back and win five races and his first Cup title that season.
The damage to his car made his late-race ride more difficult, and he had alerted his team via radio that he would need medical attention after the checkered flag.
In an atmosphere in which drivers routinely are looked upon as superhuman and able to endure conditions beyond those faced by normal individuals, the scene on pit road was shocking. Photos usually show Busch bowing on track after a win or being showered with confetti in victory lane, not struggling to regain a sense of normalcy after a wacky race.
Busch finished 29th, six laps behind on a day when he probably should have parked his car long before race’s end.
Meanwhile, Harvick could look back on a race in which he won the first and second stages with ease and generally participated in a race of his own out front until Truex, this season’s top dog, showed his strength in the final stage and had little trou- ble winning for the sixth time this year.
A nearly flawless performance from Truex’s pit crew helped him through a series of late restarts.
Truex was moved to tears in victory lane, where he sent a message to his longtime girlfriend, Sherry Pollex, whose battle with cancer continues, via television: “I love you, babe.”
Harvick finished third and, despite the disappointment of failing to win with a strong car, put himself in better position to advance in the playoffs with next weekend’s unpredictable scramble at Talladega Superspeedway looming on the worksheet.