Martin Truex Jr. won the Federated Auto Parts 400 from Richmond Raceway on Saturday night to lock himself into the next round of the Playoffs.
Truex overtook his teammate Denny Hamlin during the
final pit cycle and was ahead by over eight seconds with 50 laps to go. After Truex’s tires began to wear out, Hamlin
was able to cut the lead down to just two seconds but ran out of laps at the
end of the race.
Truex started the race on the front row, but NASCAR
penalized him for jumping the start. The
penalty put Truex in a hole early in the race, but he said he knew his car was
fast enough to overcome the early penalty.
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| Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images |
The victory was Truex’s first since he won at
Darlington in May, and Truex said the Joe Gibbs Racing cars are picking up at
the right time.
“It’s been awhile,” Truex said. “We talked last week about how much speed we’ve
had in these things. Very happy to get
to do this and go to Bristol without any worries next week.”
Hamlin began the Playoffs last week with a victory,
and he followed it up at Richmond with a strong run.
Hamlin said he was hoping to go back-to-back coming
into the weekend.
“Just needed a couple more laps,” Hamlin said. “I really wish we got two in a row…a great
day for our team. It’s go-time now.”
Unofficial results:
1. Martin Truex Jr.
2. Denny Hamlin
3. Christopher Bell
4. Chase Elliott
5. Joey Logano
6. Kyle Larson
7. Ross Chastain
8. Kevin Harvick
9. Kyle Busch
10. Ryan Blaney
11. Austin Dillon
12. Alex Bowman
13. Brad Keselowski
14. Aric Almirola
15. Tyler Reddick
16. Chase Briscoe
17. Daniel Suarez
18. Matt DiBenedetto
19. William Byron
20. Ryan Newman
21. Erik Jones
22. Cole Custer
23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
24. Chris Buescher
25. Ryan Preece
26. Anthony Alfredo
27. Justin Haley
28. Michael McDowell
29. Corey LaJoie
30. BJ McLeod
31. Garrett Smithley
32. Bubba Wallace
33. Joey Gase
34. JJ Yeley
35. Quin Houff
36. Josh Bilicki
37. Kurt Busch
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| Sean Gardner/Getty Images |
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