Truex Cruises to Victory in California

Originally written for CLNS Media.

Martin Truex Jr. dominated the Auto Club 400 from Auto Club Speedway to pick up his first victory of the season.

Truex and his team dominated from the very beginning of the weekend.  Truex won the pole for Sunday’s race, and won both stages on his way to victory lane.  Truex led 125 laps on Sunday, returning to the dominant form of his 2017 Championship run.

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Truex said he knew they would have a shot at the victory after the team’s first pit stop.

“I knew we had a really good racecar after the first adjustment of the race; the car came alive,” Truex said.  “From there it was just about managing my tires and being smart.”

Truex and his team struggled on pit road throughout the day, and lost spots on most of the team’s pit stops.

Truex said his team was never worried because their car was so strong.

“We had a little trouble getting beat out of the pits and that was tough,” Truex said.  “Once we got some clean air, this thing was unbelievable.  We just had a good enough car to make it happen.”

Kyle Larson finished second on Sunday, but early contact with Kevin Harvick put that in jeopardy.  Harvick, who had won the past three races, made contact with Larson and spun coming off of Turn 2, ending his day.

Harvick said the accident was his fault, and Larson said he didn’t know what really happened.

“We were racing really hard,” Larson said.  “I don’t know if he was coming down to side-draft me or what, but we made contact and it spun his car to the right.”

Larson said he didn’t have anything for Truex.

“We could always get to third or fourth and then stall out…still a really good day,” Larson said.

Unofficial results:

1. Martin Truex Jr.

2. Kyle Larson

3. Kyle Busch

4. Brad Keselowski

5. Joey Logano

6. Denny Hamlin

7. Erik Jones

8. Ryan Blaney

9. Jimmie Johnson

10. Austin Dillon

11. Clint Bowyer

12. Aric Almirola

13. Alex Bowman

14. Kurt Busch

15. William Byron

16. Chase Elliott

17. Jamie McMurray

18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

19. Paul Menard

20. Darrell Wallace Jr.

21. Ryan Newman

22. AJ Allmendinger

23. Daniel Suarez

24. Kasey Kahne

25. David Ragan

26. Michael McDowell

27. Ty Dillon

28. Cole Whitt

29. Ross Chastain

30. Chris Buescher

31. Matt DiBenedetto

32. Gray Gaulding

33. Timmy Hill

34. Reed Sorenson

35. Kevin Harvick

36. Jeffrey Earnhardt

37. Trevor Bayne

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