Truex Dominant in Martinsville Victory, Hamlin and Logano Fight on Pit Road

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Martin Truex Jr. won the First Data 500 from Martinsville Speedway on Sunday afternoon to lock himself into the Championship Round of the Playoffs.

Truex was dominant on Sunday, and led 464 of 500 laps.  Truex, who struggled on short tracks for the majority of his career, has now won three in the past two years.

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Truex said he and his team have been working to get better on short tracks.

“We’ve wanted to win here for a long time, and the guys have worked so hard,” Truex said.  “I’m just so excited and proud to drive this thing.”

The victory locks Truex into the Championship finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway where he will fight for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship.

Truex said he’s excited that his team can now focus on the race in three weeks.

“We don’t have to worry about points anymore, we can just get to work on our Homestead car,” Truex said.  “We’re going to Homestead again, so that was what we tried to accomplish this weekend.”

William Byron tried to chase Truex down in the closing laps, but the 21-year old driver wasn’t able to make a move on the 19 of Truex.

Byron said he would have used the bumper to try to pick up his first career victory if he had been close enough.

“I wouldn’t have raced him dirty, but I’m really hungry for my first win,” Byron said.  “He ran such a good race, I think he would have been able to drag the brake and do anything he could to keep me behind him anyways.”

After the race, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano got into a pit road altercation after the two made contact late in the race.  Logano pushed Hamlin, and that led to a fight between the two drivers and their crews.

Hamlin said the fight started with a typical move from Logano.

“Everything was civil, and then, like Joey does, he does the little push and runs away,” Hamlin said.  “That’s Joey, he’s scared.  He would probably say, ‘it’s short track racing.’”

Logano said he was frustrated that Hamlin did not apologize for the contact between the two Playoff drivers.

“I just wanted to see what he was going to say, and he really wasn’t apologetic at all,” Logano said.  “Maybe I shouldn’t have shoved him at the end; it maybe escalated it a little bit more.”

Unofficial results:

1. Martin Truex Jr.

2. William Byron

3. Brad Keselowski

4. Denny Hamlin

5. Ryan Blaney

6. Kurt Busch

7. Kevin Harvick

8. Joey Logano

9. Kyle Larson

10. Ryan Newman

11. David Ragan

12. Chris Buescher

13. Bubba Wallace

14. Kyle Busch

15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

16. Matt DiBenedetto

17. Daniel Hemric

18. Corey LaJoie

19. Ryan Preece

20. Erik Jones

21. Paul Menard

22. Austin Dillon

23. Michael McDowell

24. Ty Dillon

25. Matt Crafton

26. Landon Cassill

27. BJ McLeod

28. JJ Yeley

29. Ross Chastain

30. Alex Bowman

31. Daniel Suarez

32. Garrett Smithley

33. Reed Sorenson

34. Timmy Hill

35. Clint Bowyer

36. Chase Elliott

37. Aric Almirola

38. Jimmie Johnson

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Hamlin Wins at Kansas, Elliott Transfers to Round of 8

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Denny Hamlin won the Hollywood Casino 400 from Kansas Speedway on Sunday afternoon in the finale for the Round of 12 of the Playoffs.

Hamlin had a dominant car during the second half of Sunday’s race, and led a race-high 153 laps.  Hamlin held off challenges from Chase Elliott and Kyle Busch in the closing laps after multiple cautions sent the race into overtime.

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Hamlin was already locked into the next round of the Playoffs on points, but he said he was glad to pick up another win on the year.

“That car was awesome…to dominate that whole second half was great,” Hamlin said.  “We’ve been running really good, just cannot wait to get to Martinsville.”

Hamlin now heads to Martinsville Speedway next weekend, where he has had strong runs in the past.  A win next weekend would send Hamlin to the Championship Four at Homestead to battle for his first career Cup Series Championship.

Hamlin said he is taking everything one week at a time.

“It’s step-by-step, week-by-week,” Hamlin said.  “I’m not getting too far ahead of ourselves.  We concentrate every week as if it’s the most important one, and this win kind of shows that.”

Elliott came into the race in a must-win scenario to keep his Playoff hopes alive, and he was able to finish second and make it into the next round. 

Elliott said the strong finish was a testament to his team’s attitude as they struggled early in the race.

“We were really struggling there at one point in the race, and you have to stay fighting in these things,” Elliott said.  “Excited that we’ll get to fight another race.”

Brad Keselowski was on the losing end of the Playoff race, and missed the next round of the Playoffs by three points after struggling on the final restart.

Keselowski said he wasn’t able to make the moves he needed to in the closing laps.

“Couldn’t get nothing to go for me on the restart,” Keselowski said.  “I got sandwiched and somebody went three-wide…just all bad and I didn’t do a good enough job.”

Keselowski was joined by William Byron, Alex Bowman and Clint Bowyer as the four drivers eliminated from the Playoffs.

Unofficial results:

1. Denny Hamlin

2. Chase Elliott

3. Kyle Busch

4. Kurt Busch

5. William Byron

6. Martin Truex Jr.

7. Erik Jones

8. Clint Bowyer

9. Kevin Harvick

10. Jimmie Johnson

11. Alex Bowman

12. Ryan Preece

13. Chris Buescher

14. Kyle Larson

15. Matt DiBenedetto

16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

17. Joey Logano

18. Paul Menard

19. Brad Keselowski

20. Austin Dillon

21. Ryan Blaney

22. Ty Dillon

23. Aric Almirola

24. Michael McDowell

25. Matt Tifft

26. David Ragan

27. Ross Chastain

28. Corey LaJoie

29. Parker Kligerman

30. JJ Yeley

31. Daniel Hemric

32. Daniel Suarez

33. Reed Sorenson

34. Garrett Smithley

35. Bubba Wallace

36. Josh Bilicki

37. Landon Cassill

38. Joey Gase

39. Timmy Hill

40. Ryan Newman

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Blaney Wins Wild Talladega Race

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Ryan Blaney won the 1000Bulbs.com 500 from Talladega Superspeedway on Monday afternoon to lock himself into the next round of the Playoffs.

The first stage of the race was run on Sunday, but rain postponed the rest of the race until Monday afternoon.  After a calm first half of the race, the second brought chaos that shuffled the running order.

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Numerous big wrecks took out many of the front runners, and it set up for a two-lap sprint to the finish.  Blaney lined up first, and he quickly cleared Aric Almirola to take control on the restart.  He held onto the lead until the final turn, when Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin pushed their way to the front.

Blaney and Newman made contact in the trioval, and Blaney was able to beat Newman to the finish line by .007 seconds.

Blaney said he couldn’t block Newman’s run if he wanted a chance at the victory.

“There was no blocking the 6 [of Newman] and the 11 [of Hamlin], they were coming so fast,” Blaney said.  “I figured I’d give up the bottom and they were just going to leave me in the middle.”

Blaney said the push from Almirola was able to give him enough momentum to get past Newman at the end.

“I can’t thank Almirola enough for helping me out there at the end; he was a great pusher all day,” Blaney said.  “[Newman] kind of pushed me below the yellow line…I definitely wasn’t going to go below the line before we made contact.”

Newman said he didn’t want to think of all the things he could have done to gain the .007 seconds that stood between him and the victory.

“I could have pinched him some more, I probably could have took the air,” Newman said.  “I saw the guys spinning in the back and I was hoping there’d be a yellow but there wasn’t.”

“We overcame a lot of obstacles, had cars flying on top of us and all that stuff; just proud of the team.”

Unofficial results:

1. Ryan Blaney

2. Ryan Newman

3. Denny Hamlin

4. Aric Almirola

5. Michael McDowell

6. Austin Dillon

7. Corey LaJoie

8. Chase Elliott

9. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

10. Ty Dillon

11. Joey Logano

12. Ross Chastain

13. Matt Tifft

14. Landon Cassill

15. Parker Kligerman

16. Paul Menard

17. Kevin Harvick

18. Ryan Preece

19. Kyle Busch

20. Chris Buescher

21. Daniel Hemric

22. Reed Sorenson

23. Clint Bowyer

24. Bubba Wallace

25. Brad Keselowski

26. Martin Truex Jr.

27. Brendan Gaughan

28. Kurt Busch

29. David Ragan

30. Matt DiBenedetto

31. Blake Jones

32. Daniel Suarez

33. William Byron

34. Erik Jones

35. Austin Theriault

36. Joey Gase

37. Alex Bowman

38. Jimmie Johnson

39. Kyle Larson

40. Spencer Boyd

Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Larson Snaps Winless Streak with Dover Victory

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Kyle Larson won the Drydene 400 from Dover International Speedway on Sunday afternoon to snap a 75-race winless streak.

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Larson had a strong car throughout the entire weekend, and ran up front for most of the race after qualifying second.  After taking the lead following a pit stop in the final stage, Larson was able to work his way through lapped traffic on his way to victory lane.

Larson said this win was big for his team after going winless in 2018.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve won a points-paying race,” Larson said.  “We won the All-Star Race earlier this year…but we wanted to win a points race and we did it when it mattered.”

With the wild card of the Playoffs at Talladega next weekend, the victory locked Larson into the third round.

Larson said he was happy he won’t have to stress about Talladega next weekend.

“Everybody in the Playoff field is going to be stressing next week at Talladega, except for me,” Larson said.  “Last time I was at Talladega, I was on my lid…I could still end up on my lid next week but it’s not going to matter.”

Martin Truex Jr. finished second on Sunday.  Truex won Stage 2, but a pit road mistake by his crew cost him the lead to Larson. 

Truex said lapped traffic played a part in his ability to catch the leader.

“We were catching him at the end; we got close, but just unfortunate,” Truex said.  “Lost track position and just the whole third stage we were behind.”

“Good job by all the guys, good rebound by the pit crew, and just a solid day at Dover.  We had a shot at the win come up short; would have been nice to have that win and a free pass.”

Unofficial results:

1. Kyle Larson

2. Martin Truex Jr.

3. Alex Bowman

4. Kevin Harvick

5. Denny Hamlin

6. Kyle Busch

7. Matt DiBenedetto

8. Jimmie Johnson

9. Kurt Busch

10. Clint Bowyer

11. Brad Keselowski

12. Paul Menard

13. William Byron

14. Daniel Suarez

15. Erik Jones

16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

17. Aric Almirola

18. Austin Dillon

19. Ryan Preece

20. Bubba Wallace

21. Daniel Hemric

22. Ryan Newman

23. Ty Dillon

24. Michael McDowell

25. Matt Tifft

26. Landon Cassill

27. David Ragan

28. Corey LaJoie

29. BJ McLeod

30. Joe Nemechek

31. Ross Chastain

32. JJ Yeley

33. Garrett Smithley

34. Joey Logano

35. Ryan Blaney

36. Chris Buescher

37. Reed Sorenson

38. Chase Elliott

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