TRUEX DOMINATES RACE, SETS RECORD IN WIN
COCA-COLA 600 WON WITH DOMINATING PERFORMANCE
concord, n.c.» Martin Truex Jr. of Denver-based Furniture Row Racing led a Sprint Cup-record 588 of 600 miles and won the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night, racing away from his bad-luck past at NASCAR’s longest race.
Truex started from the pole, moved quickly out front and led all but eight of the 400 laps for his first win in 34 events since June 2015 at Pocono Raceway.
“There’s a lot of emotion right now. I’m not real sure it’s sunk in yet,” Truex said. “Real amazing weekend, the kind you dream about.
“The whole weekend was one of those fairytale weekends. But even leading at the end, I thought, ‘All right, when’s the caution going to hit?’ And it didn’t.”
Truex ran strong enough the past year to grab a bunch more checkered flags, but something always went awry. He led 141 laps at Texas, yet got strung up by poor pit strategy and finished sixth. Racing at Kansas this month, he was out front for 172 laps until a loose wheel knocked him back to 14th.
A year ago at Charlotte, Truex led the most laps at 131. But he fell to fifth when he pitted for fuel late and four cars, including winner Carl Edwards, stayed out. And then there was Truex’s 4-inch loss to Denny Hamlin in the season-opening Daytona 500 in February. Truex never let it get to him. “I had confidence. I had faith,” Truex said.
There were no black cats or cracked mirrors this time, just a dominating show by Truex to cap the biggest day in motorsports.
Kevin Harvick was second Sunday at Charlotte, followed by Jimmie Johnson, Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Kurt Busch.
Referring to Truex, Johnson said at times “it seemed like he was just playing with the rest of us. He wasn’t going to be denied.”
Truex’s victory finished the Memorial Day weekend’s mega-day of high-end racing that began with Lewis Hamilton’s victory at the
Monaco Grand Prix and continued with American rookie Alexander Rossi’s surprise triumph in the Indianapolis 500.
Truex took the surprise out of this one early and was barely touched by the field. He was passed by Johnson on a restart 55 laps from the end, but Truex went back in front a lap later and was not pushed again.
He bettered Jim Paschal’s mark of leading 335 laps to win at Charlotte in 1967.
Truex’s single-car Furniture Row Racing team outclassed the armada of multicar Sprint Cup powerhouses.
Johnson, a four-time Coca-Cola 600 winner, was on Truex’s door a handful of times on restarts, then would fade back.
“(Truex) was so fast and I would flat-foot it around (turns) one and two and have a nose on him, and then he would drive right back by me into (turns) three and four,” Johnson said, laughing. “He was just so fast. It was very impressive. I’m happy for him.”
Harvick, who won here in 2011 and 2013, was the best of the rest as he got by Johnson 44 laps from the end — yet never made a serious run at the top. Harvick said he was simply happy to even see Truex’s bumper late in the race after “swatting flies” in the middle of the pack for the first three quarters of the 600-mile race. Harvick made up ground in the final 150 miles but could never get close enough to challenge Truex.
“Once he got new tires (with 59 laps to go), it seemed like he was able to get out in front of us and we were never able to really make up ground,” Harvick said.
“We’re going to keep pushing hard and work toward that (season) championship goal,” said Truex, who now has four Sprint Cup victories on his career résumé.