Truex, Johnson stay on course for title
Martinsville up next in playoffs Kids are still in:
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are down to eight drivers who will begin the next round of three races Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.
Here are five takeaways from the Hollywood Casino 400, a race won Sunday by Martin Truex Jr., eliminated four drivers and saw four former champions — Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick — advance along with Truex, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney and Denny Hamlin.
Champ stays alive:
Johnson, in pursuit of a record eighth championship, began the race in the eighth position, seven points ahead of the cutoff line and was in serious peril of elimination. Johnson survived a harrowing day in which he twice hit the wall and careened across the track and tore through the grass infield.
But Johnson managed an 11thplace finish and is tied for fourth in points, heading to two tracks where he rules: Martinsville and Texas Motor speedways.
Johnson won last fall’s playoff race on Martinsville’s paper-clip shaped oval, and his nine Grandfather Clocks won are more than those of any driver. Johnson has won a track-record seven times on the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speed- way, including six of the last 10 races there.
“It’s not a bad track for us,” Johnson said of Martinsville. “So hopefully we can repeat last year’s performance there. And then we have Texas coming up. We’re not where we want to be. But we’re staying alive, and I know this team so well, we can find something and we’re going to sure as hell try to get it.
“It’s not back to zero with all those stage points. For us to advance moving forward we’ve got to win. We’ve got to win one of these next few races coming up. It’s really simple. We’ve got to get some speed in our cars and we’ve got to win a race.”
Truex dominance:
Truex has yet to win at Martinsville or Texas, but he’ll have advantages in the next two weeks, besides his 52 points above the cutoff line shared by Johnson and Harvick.
Winning the pole at Kansas has guaranteed Truex his choice of pit position at Martinsville, where track position on the 0.526 mile layout is so important. “I’d say (pit position) is probably the biggest advantage of any track we go to,” Truex said of Martinsville. “We’ve already been working hard on Martinsville, and that’s certainly going to help us.”
And Truex might prove to be unbeatable in Texas. He’s won a NASCAR-record six times on 1.5mile tracks this season, including a record four in a row at Kentucky, Chicago, Charlotte and Kansas.
Truex also became the 12th driver in NASCAR’s modern era (1972 to present) to lead 2,000 or more laps in a single season. That puts him in elite company with Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Cale Yarborough, Darrell Waltrip, Rusty Wallace, Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Dale Jarrett, Jeff Gordon, Johnson and Harvick. Truex has led 2,068 laps with four races remaining.
Blaney, 23, and Elliott, 21, are still alive in the playoffs after impressive finishes at Kansas.
Blaney, who qualified third but was sent to the rear of the field when his No. 21 Ford failed postqualifying inspection, worked his way to a third-place finish and is seventh in points.
Elliott, still seeking his first career victory. finished a strong fourth and holds down the eighth spot, 13 points below cutoff.
Hamlin home:
Hamlin, of Chesterfield, Va., loves racing at home at Martinsville, where he has won five times, including the spring 2015 race. Hamlin, 36, still in pursuit of his first championship, finished fifth at Kansas and knows what it will take to win at Martinsville.
“The biggest thing we need to work on is short-run speed,” Hamlin said. “If we can do that, then we could contend, but we’re heading to a mighty good racetrack for us next week that hopefully we’re able to capitalize.”
Larson’s lament:
Kyle Larson was the biggest loser at Kansas. Larson, a four-time winner this season, entered the race 29 points above the cutoff line but was eliminated after a blown engine consigned him to 39th place.
Had Larson reached the final four, winner-take-all finale at Homestead, he might have been the one to beat, considering he finished second to Johnson there a year ago and fifth as a non-playoff driver in 2015.