Truex makes Martinsville his personal ‘playground’
Martin Truex Jr. admits to being surprised by his success at Martinsville Speedway.
Truex won a stirring, lapslong duel for the lead with teammate Denny Hamlin in the rain-delayed NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday, winning for the third time in the last four stops at the 0.526mile oval — the oldest and shortest in the series.
“This place has become a playground for us I guess,” Truex said in victory lane. “We didn’t have the best car all day, but we just kept working on it and never quit on it.”
Truex, who nudged Hamlin repeatedly in the turns and tried to get to his inside on the straightaways without success, finally made the pass with 15 laps to go, ducking underneath Hamlin coming out of the second turn. He sailed off to victory without another challenge as Hamlin and Chase Elliott battled the rest of the way for second.
Truex became the first repeat winner in NASCAR’s top series this season.
The race was rained out after 42 laps Saturday night, and was completed as the second part of a doubleheader that started with the completion of the raindelayed Xfinity Series race from Friday night.
Elliott, who won here last fall on his way to winning the series championship, held off Hamlin for second. Hamlin was third, followed by William Byron and Kyle Larson.
“That was a lot of fun there at the end, racing with Denny,” Truex said about his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate. “We raced clean and we were able to come out on top.”
The Gibbs team had all four of its drivers finish in the top 10 as Christopher Bell took seventh and Kyle Busch 10th, leaving team owner Joe Gibbs excited, and relieved.
“I was just praying that Denny and Martin didn’t get together running up front,” Gibbs said.
The outcome was not only disappointing for Hamlin, who had a dominant car and led 276 laps, but also for Ryan Blaney, who won the first two stages and led 157 laps but dragged an air gun out of his pit after the final stop and was sent back to 19th in the field.
Blaney rallied to finish 11th, but earlier, he and Hamlin were dominant.
Blaney passed Hamlin for the lead on Lap 75 and cruised to victory in the 130-lap Stage 1, and Stage 2 played out much the same. Hamlin was fast early in the run, pulling comfortably ahead, but Blaney eventually ran him down to win that stage, too.
Hamlin’s third-place finish was his series best seventh top-five run in eight races.
“We had a really fast car for 20 laps or so, and then it would just kind of go away,” Hamlin said. “We just continue to run top-three every single week. Every stage, every finish — we’re right there. We just need to get a little better. We’re barely missing it.”
The race featured several drastic changes in fortunes, perhaps none bigger than for Joey Logano. He was in danger of being lapped at the end of the first stage, but gambled with others midway through the race by staying on the track to gain position when most of the leaders pitted.
It worked because another caution flew shortly thereafter, allowing him to pit for the fresh tires most other teams already had and stayed near the front the rest of the way.
Logano finished sixth.
Xfinity Series
Josh Berry has worked for several years as a coach for JR Motorsports, working with up-and-coming drivers and enjoying their success as their careers developed.
On Sunday, he showed he can do what he tells his pupils to do.
Berry passed star rookie Ty Gibbs with 28 laps to go at Martinsville and earned his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series victory in the completion of the race that started Friday night.
“It’s unbelievable, man. It really is,” Berry said, adding that his familiarity with the track from his short-track career was a source of confidence. “It’s really going to take a while to soak this in.”
That was true for Berry, and also for his boss, Dale Earnhardt Jr., who said on a postrace Zoom call that he was watching the race at home but, “with about 20 to go, I got to where I couldn’t watch it anymore. ... I’ve never been so nervous about a finish.”
Earnhardt said he peeked at the TV as the final laps wound down, and once he saw Berry take the white flag with a nice lead, “We cried some happy, happy tears.”
Berry, who has raced in five of the first seven races in the series on a part-time deal with JRM, gave himself enough cushion after getting by Gibbs to withstand challenges by Noah Gragson and Daniel Hemric, who ran out of time trying to navigate lapped traffic.
“I had a good gap that allowed me to be patient and not panic,” Berry said.
Berry, making his 13th career start over five seasons and eight years, became the second driver to gain his first Xfinity Series win on the 0.526-mile oval, joining Brett Bodine (1985). Berry’s best prior finish was seventh earlier this year at Las Vegas.