Martin Truex Jr. wins NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway
Martin Truex Jr. dominated the final stage to win Monday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway and end a 54-race winless streak.
The win for the former Cup champion gave the Truex family two NASCAR wins in three days. Ryan Truex, Martin’s younger brother, won Saturday’s Xfinity Series race at Dover. The Cup race was rescheduled from Sunday to Monday after weather forced a postponement.
Ross Chastain chased Truex over the closing miles but couldn’t challenge for the lead. Truex led the final 11 laps and 68 of the final 69 laps.
Joey Logano brought out a caution with 14 laps to go when he lost control of his car and hit the outside wall. Truex led Chastain by about a second before the Logano crash. The leaders pitted, and Truex took two tires, while Chastain got four.
Truex, who won for the 32nd times in the Cup Series, held the lead despite the tire disadvantage. Chastain was second, Ryan Blaney third, William Byron fourth and Denny Hamlin fifth. The finish was Chastain’s best of the year.
The win was Truex’s fourth at Dover. He bounced back from a Lap 124 pit stop issue that dropped him to 20th.
“We felt like we’ve been close a bunch of times,” Truex said. “We gave some away, that’s for sure. It was a great call by James (crew chief James Smalls) to take two and got a pretty good restart. We knew we could do this. We’ve led and dominated races. It just wouldn’t all come together.”
Chastain, who has often been criticized for rough driving, was the central character in a Lap 81 crash. He bumped the slower car of Brennan Poole, sending Poole up the track and into the path of Kyle Larson. Poole later said Chastain “probably needs his butt whooped.” Poole parked for the day. Larson returned to the track many laps down after repairs.
Chastain won the second stage, finishing in front of Byron, Blaney, Truex Jr. and Hamlin.
Byron was a dominant force in winning the first stage. He was followed by Hamlin, Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Chastain.
Stage 1 winner: William Byron
Stage 2 winner: Ross Chastain
Who had a good race: Martin Truex Jr. battled for the lead in the final stage and stayed out front despite a late-race caution that bunched the field. … William Byron had one of the day’s fastest cars in the first two stages and led a race-high 193 laps. … Ross Chastain moved into challenging position in the closing miles but couldn’t pass Truex. Chastain led 98 laps.
Who had a bad race: Noah Gragson crashed on the backstretch 29 laps into the race and couldn’t reach the minimum speed to stay on track. … Daniel Suarez lost control on Lap 36 and slapped the outside wall. He parked for the day. … Kyle Larson ran well during the first stage, but his car was badly damaged on Lap 81 when Ross Chastain hit Brennan Poole, sending Poole into Larson’s path. … Joey Logano made numerous pit stops during the afternoon as he battled tire problems and finally parked with 14 laps to go after he hit the outside wall.
Next: The Cup Series moves on to Kansas Speedway for a May 7 race at 3 p.m. ET.
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Martin Truex Jr. wins NASCAR Cup Series race at Dover Motor Speedway originally appeared on NBCSports.com
