Martin Truex, Jr. Drives To Monday Cup Win At Loudon

Martin Truex, Jr. had led more than 900 laps at New Hampshire Motor Speedway without claiming any victory hardware in 29 previous starts at the 1.058-mile oval.

On Monday, Truex left no doubt in securing his first career NASCAR Cup Series win a the track, leading a dominating 254 of the 301 laps in the rain delayed event.

It marked Truex’s third victory of the season – and second in a rain-delayed Monday race. He survived three restarts in the final 24 laps and ultimately held off Joey Logano across the finish line by a slight .394-seconds.

Truex held the field at bay most of the day by more than a second in the first Monday afternoon race in the track’s 30-year history with the series.

Truex clearly had the car to beat – and no one could. His work not only earned the famed live lobster trophy, but also propelled him into the series points lead by 17 ahead of William Byron.

Asked if there was a track on the schedule where he wanted to win more than New Hampshire, Truex said, “I don’t think so.” His previous best finish was third place – three times. Five times he’d led more than 100 laps, including last year when he led a race high 172 laps, only to finish fourth.

“What we’ve been able to do here over the years was pretty remarkable and to not win was really getting frustrating,” Truex said. “(Crew chief) James (Small) and I have talked about it many times and talked with (teammate) Christopher (Bell) before the race and he said, ‘you’ve led more laps here than I’ve even run here in the Cup Series.’

“Just really awesome job by everybody. What a race car we had here today. Just proud of the whole team. Pit stops were flawless. The car was unbelievable. We had some challenges throughout the race and the car was a handful at times, but we put our heads down and just kept digging.”

Truex led 163 of the opening 185 laps taking both the Stage 1 and Stage 2 wins to triple his total on the season. In the opening stage, Byron was in hot pursuit. Later in the race Truex had to fend off Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson and Logano.

“When you’re at your home race track, second hurts more than anywhere else,” said Conneticuit native Logano. “There’s no place I want to win more than here and came up one spot short. That one stings but overall, still have to say it’s a good day. Just mad right now.”

Larson finished in third, with Kevin Harvick in fourth, and Brad Keselowski in fifth.

“We were fortunate we had fresher tires than most and were able to stay out and get most of that back,” Harvick said. “We’ve just got to be able to do what we need to do when it counts.”

Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon, and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top 10.

Byron, who led nine laps, finished 24th.

Dawsonville, Georgia’s Chase Elliott, who is still trying to claim a playoff position after missing six races this season, struggled much of the day. Elliott conceded after qualifying that he was not particularly optimistic about his chances this weekend.

Still, he rallied to a 12th place finish and remains ranked 23rd – now only 60 points out of 16th place in the standings with the top 16 drivers transferring to the 10-race playoff rounds that start in September.

Kyle Busch, who was second in the championship standings entering Monday’s race, had a short day on an overall disappointing visit to New Hampshire. He spun in qualifying and had to start at the rear of the field after repairs post-qualifying. Then he made contact with the wall as the field came to the caution flag for Stage 1 on Monday.

The Richard Childress Racing team looked at the car on pit road but decided it was too damaged for repair, leaving him last in the 36-car field and dropping him to fifth place in the championship standings, 74 points behind new leader Truex.

“I’ve been lacking right-rear grip the whole time we’ve been here,” said Busch. “Just couldn’t get the right-rear feel in the race track. You’re just going along trying to keep it under you as much as you can.

“Hate it for our No. 8 team. Our Chevy stuff was a little off this week, at least for us anyway. We’ll get back to it at Pocono.”

NASCAR Cup Series
New Hampshire Motor Speedway – Loudon, NH
Crayon 301 – July 16, 2023

1. (2) Martin Truex, Jr., Toyota, 301.
2. (4) Joey Logano, Ford, 301.
3. (15) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 301.
4. (13) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 301.
5. (9) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 301.
6. (6) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 301.
7. (20) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 301.
8. (8) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 301.
9. (11) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 301.
10. (27) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 301.
11. (30) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 301.
12. (18) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 301.
13. (17) Michael McDowell, Ford, 301.
14. (25) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 301.
15. (26) Chris Buescher, Ford, 301.
16. (12) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 301.
17. (19) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 301.
18. (16) Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Chevrolet, 301.
19. (14) A.J. Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 301.
20. (28) Harrison Burton, Ford, 301.
21. (23) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 301.
22. (5) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 301.
23. (31) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 301.
24. (7) William Byron, Chevrolet, 301.
25. (22) Austin Cindric, Ford, 301.
26. (35) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 301.
27. (36) Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 301.
28. (21) Ryan Preece, Ford, 300.
29. (1) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 299.
30. (33) Ryan Newman, Ford, 299.
31. (32) B.J. McLeod, Chevrolet, 295.
32. (29) Noah Gragson #, Chevrolet, Accident, 268.
33. (24) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 176.
34. (3) Aric Almirola, Ford, Accident, 168.
35. (34) Cole Custer(i), Ford, Accident, 130.
36. (10) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, Accident, 71.

Average Speed: 101.572 mph.

Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 8 Mins, 7 Secs. Margin of Victory: .396 Seconds.

Caution Flags: 8 for 41 laps.

Lead Changes: 13 among 9 drivers.

Lap Leaders: C. Bell 1;M. Truex Jr. 2-30;R. Stenhouse Jr. 31-33;W. Byron 34-42;M. Truex Jr. 43-164;A. Almirola 165-168;K. Larson 169-174;M. Truex Jr. 175-236;J. Logano 237-238;K. Harvick 239-244;A. Dillon 245-256;M. Truex Jr. 257-273;K. Harvick 274-277;M. Truex Jr. 278-301.

Leaders Summary: (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led) Martin Truex Jr. 5 times for 254 laps; Austin Dillon 1 time for 12 laps; Kevin Harvick 2 times for 10 laps; William Byron 1 time for 9 laps; Kyle Larson 1 time for 6 laps; Aric Almirola 1 time for 4 laps; Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 1 time for 3 laps; Joey Logano 1 time for 2 laps; Christopher Bell 1 time for 1 lap.

Stage #1 Top Ten: 19,24,45,10,12,20,11,99,22,34

Stage #2 Top Ten: 19,5,22,12,11,4,48,6,45,20

Playoff Standings: 1. William Byron – 650 (4 Wins); 2. Martin Truex, Jr. – 667 (3 Wins); 3. Kyle Busch – 593 (3 Wins); 4. Kyle Larson – 574 (2 Wins); 5. Christopher Bell – 605 (1 Win); 6. Denny Hamlin – 601 (1 Win); 7. Ross Chastain – 589 (1 Win); 8. Ryan Blaney – 581 (1 Win); 9. Joey Logano – 563 (1 Win); 10. Tyler Reddick – 516 (1 Win); 11. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. – 464 (1 Win); 12. Kevin Harvick – 568; 13. Brad Keselowski – 539; 14. Chris Buescher – 528; 15. Bubba Wallace – 433; 16. Michael McDowell – 432.

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series