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Martin Truex Jr. takes first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Phoenix Raceway
Martin Truex Jr. overcame wall contact early in the race and took the lead in the final restart with 25 laps to go for his first victory of 2021 and the first in 31 career starts at Phoenix Raceway.
Truex’s # 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota finally stood up to Joey Logano’s # 22 Ford Penske Racing by a convincing 1.698 seconds for the Instacart 500 victory. ‘a lively race that featured 22 head changes.
Truex, 40, of New Jersey, is now the fifth different winner in as many NASCAR Cup Series races this season, joining Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell, William Byron and Kyle Larson who have also earned playoff spots.
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“Just a great job from everyone, (team leader) James (small), all the guys on the pit crew fixing it, really solid,” said Truex, who now has 28. career victories. “At the start of the race I thought we were going to run around 15th. Man, I really can’t believe it. I am a little speechless.
“It’s pretty amazing. Phoenix was difficult for us.
“I wish it was November and that I was in the last four,” he added with a smile, referring to the championship final of the season at Phoenix Raceway later in the year. . “I’m so grateful and proud of everyone at JGR, of everyone who makes this possible.”
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Statistically, Logano’s Ford was the dominant car this afternoon, leading a best 143 of 312 laps and winning Stage 2 – its first stage victory of the year. His Penske teammate Ryan Blaney won Stage 1 (also his first stage victory in 2021) and all three Penske Racing cars finished in the top 10. In total, the Penske trio of Logano, Blaney and Keselowski led 197 laps – ahead 63 percent of the day.
Logano started alongside Truex on the front row for the final restart and threw a challenge for the header, but he couldn’t hold Truex back even with a more favorable inside starting position.
“I was surprised that he was able to hang on to this (final) start,” conceded a Logano disappointed with Truex’s victory. “He had a good start too, but I had a good one on the bottom and I thought I could have shortened it on the dogleg and I thought, boy, I could have erased it. Then we went to this corner still door to door and when you are door to door the outside car is in control.
“I’m pretty sure even if I beat him even on this start, he was still going to pester me and probably get away with it.” They had the best car. We had a good car for sure, but once they got it tuned to stage two it was the best car on the race track.
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Truex’s JGR teammate Denny Hamlin was third, followed by Logano’s teammate Brad Keselowski and Phoenix winner last November, Chase Elliott, fifth.
Nine-time Phoenix winner Kevin Harvick was sixth, earning his fourth top 10 in the first five races of the season. Last week’s Las Vegas winner Kyle Larson finished seventh, Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron eighth followed by JGR driver Christopher Bell and Blaney to complete the top 10.
Even without the win, it was an impressive performance for the three Hendrick Motorsports cars that rallied in the top 10. Elliott, Larson and Byron all had to start from behind the field on Sunday. And the fourth Hendrick car, driven by Alex Bowman, was just as resilient with a 13th place despite hitting the wall and pulling out a warning flag early in the race.
RELATED: Early Problems for Alex Bowman in Phoenix
Larson, in particular, taught a lesson in resilience. He rallied to run in the top 10 – even leading a lap – a third of the race, but was sent back to the rear of the lap’s leading cars twice due to pit-road speed violations.
Hamlin, Keselowski and Logano – all still chasing their first wins in 2021 – are 1-2-3 in the championship standings, with Hamlin holding a 39 point advantage over Keselowski as the series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Folds of Honor QuikTrip for next weekend. 500 (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
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