Truex wins at Martinsville to earn spot in championship race
MARTINSVILLE, VA. >> Martin Truex Jr. was celebrating the victory that locked him into NASCAR’s title race when he heard the crowd roar, looked up at the big screen and saw two championship contenders jawing at each other on pit road.
“Oh, look, a fight,” the winner said.
Indeed, Denny Hamlin was knocked to the ground in a confrontation with Joey Logano in the most intense action of an otherwise lackluster playoff Sunday at Martinsville Speedway.
Truex earned a spot in NASCAR’s championship race for the third consecutive year by leading 464 of the 500 laps. He’s the first driver to claim one of the four spots in the Nov. 17 title race at Homestead-Miami Speedway while leading the most laps in a win since Kyle Petty led 484 laps in 1992 at Rockingham.
There were just three lead changes, and Truex controlled the event from the first round of pit stops, when he beat Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Hamlin back onto the track for the lead. He was hardly challenged at all and his Toyota coasted to his first career victory at NASCAR’s shortest track.
“We’re going to Homestead again and that was what we tried to accomplish this weekend,” Truex said. “We don’t have to worry about points anymore. We can just get to work on our Homestead car.”
Martinsville marked the first of three races in the round of eight of the playoffs, where the field will be trimmed to a winner-takeall final four for the finale. Truex is locked in, while Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Logano are above the cutline. Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson are the bottom four.
The next two rounds will be must-win situations for Elliott, NASCAR’s most popular driver, who suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure and finished 36th in the 38-car field. A victory earns a playoff driver an automatic berth into the final four.
For Truex, the win was redemption from a year ago at Martinsville when he raced Logano cleanly over the closing laps and Logano snatched the win away from Truex. Logano then won the championship.
“After last year, everybody wants to keep talking about last year, and I’m like ‘We’ve got work to do,’” said Truex, the 2017 champion who will race for the title for the fourth time in five years. He was runner-up to Logano last season.
As Truex celebrated, the crowd focus turned to pit road where Hamlin and Logano were having what appeared to be a civil conversation. Hamlin wagged his finger at Logano, then Logano placed his hand on Hamlin’s shoulder somewhat flippantly as he walked away. Hamlin chased after him, crew members got in the way and Hamlin was knocked to the ground.
Hamlin said after it was how Logano typically handles confrontation.
“It was a discussion. I understand him coming over and talking, standing there and having a discussion with him, everything was fine,” Hamlin said. “I think he didn’t get me agitated enough. So he said something and then pokes a little bit and then runs away trying to get me to come so he could hide behind his guys. He’s just not that tough. And he won’t stand face-to-face. That’s just his style.
“It was civil and then like Joey does, he does a little push and then runs away. He said, ‘Do you want to go?’ I said ‘Yes, I’m here’ and then he runs away.”
For good measure, Hamlin did an imitation of Logano picked up on the big screen that brought the crowd to its feet in approval.
Logano said the incident stemmed from ontrack contact when Hamlin shoved Logano into the wall and caused a cut tire.
Hamilton beats Ferrari front row to Mexico City win
MEXICO CITY >> Lewis Hamilton got the Mexican victory party he craved. He’ll have to wait another week for a sixth career championship.
The Mercedes driver overcame Ferrari’s frontrow start to win the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday, pushing him so close to the season championship that he’s all but guaranteed to win it next week at the U.S. Grand Prix in Texas.
“I don’t mind. I love racing,” Hamilton said after climbing out of his car with a wave to the massive crowds at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. “This is a race I’ve wanted to win for some time. It came together nicely.”
It came together because Hamilton overcame damage to his car floor from an opening-lap collision with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, and then managed an early tire change for a shocking
48 laps to drive away with a comfortable win over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
Only Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas’ third-place finish denied Hamilton the season championship by the slimmest of margins. Hamilton needed to beat Bottas by 14 points, but picked up
10 instead while earning his
10th win of the season and
83rd of his career.