April 13, 2019 | By Lee Spencer

Truex triumphs at Richmond for first Cup short track win

RICHMOND, Va.—Martin Truex Jr., finally slew a short track.

Truex led 186 laps en route to his first win at Richmond Raceway—or any track of less than a mile—in 81 attempts. He pulled off the feat in his 486th-career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup start.

Despite last dash charges by Clint Bowyer, then Joey Logano over the final four laps, Truex held off the No. 22 Team Penske Ford by .178-seconds at the finish of the Toyota Owners 400.

“Being out front was really the key,” Truex said. “Just trying to do all I could to not screw up and hold those guys off. But it was definitely, really, really difficult.”

Yet, well worth the wait. In his ninth race with Joe Gibbs Racing, Truex returned to Victory Lane for his 20th Cup win.

“I was struggling the last 40 laps,” Truex said. “I had no front turn. I was just real, real tight in that last run. You just had to hold them off. Being out front was important tonight. Thanks to the pit crew, they kept us out there. They had a tough year and a tough week last week. We beat up on them pretty good all week after Bristol and they had the best stop of the year tonight.

“Just really proud of everyone. Really, really happy to get our first win with Gibbs and definitely our first short track win is pretty awesome too.”

Logano held on for second-place followed by Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon and Kyle Busch, who scored his ninth-consecutive top 10 finish.

Harvick led the field to green on Saturday night and held the point for 30 laps until he was passed by Kyle Busch. After overnight rains, NASCAR called a competition caution on Lap 40. Busch maintained the lead for the stage win on Lap 100. Logano, Truex, Harvick, Bowyer, Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Chris Buescher, Paul Menard and Daniel Suarez completed the top 10.

The field pitted on Lap 106. Busch was first off of pit road followed by Logano, Truex, Harvick and Bowyer. After the Lap 111 restart, Kyle Larson made contact with Daniel Hemric. He was forced to pit on Lap 115 and dropped to 31st, three laps down. Twelve laps later, Larson plowed into Turn 1.

“Just having a blast this year,” said Larson, who finished 37th. “I’m going to the trailer. It’s destroyed.”

Kyle Busch led the lead lap cars onto pit road on Lap 131. Although he was the first car to exit, Busch was penalized for speeding and dropped to 25th for the restart. That handed the lead to Truex for the first time. He led 63 laps but Logano caught the No. 19 Toyota and passed Truex with six laps remaining in the second segment for his fourth stage win. Truex finished second followed by Harvick, Keselowski, Bowyer, Daniel Suarez and Kurt Busch.

Logano retained the lead off pit road for the start of Stage 3 on Lap 211. Keselowski passed Harvick for third on the restart. Kyle Busch returned to the top 10 by Lap 217. Logano had checked out when Michael McDowell spun in Turn 1 to trigger the fifth and final caution on Lap 242. Logano led Truex, Keselowski, Harvick, Bowyer and the rest of the lead lap cars to pit road. He implored his team to get the No. 22 Ford out of the pits and into clean air. Unfortunately, Truex won the race off of pit road. Logano was second.

“We had a car that was capable of winning for the third week straight and we didn’t win,” Logano said. “That part is frustrating. We need to clean up some mistakes on our end. We lost the lead there on a pit stop. We gotta get faster there. That is when we lost control of the race at that point and fell back to third.”

Once again, Keselowski got a great launch on the restart and passed Logano for second when the race restarted on Lap 253. Keselowski passed Truex for the lead on Lap 266 but his car went away after 28 laps. Truex regained the lead on Lap 294.

Logano was faster than Keselowski at that point in the race, but his Penske teammate made the bumper of the No. 2 Ford wide.

“It is hard to pass, but that is racing, that is how it is going to be,” Keselowski said. “I can’t see the whole picture, I am only in the car.”

With Keselowski holding up Logano, Bowyer was able to close in on the Penske Fords. On Lap 308, he passed Logano for third just prior to green-flag pit stops.  Keselowski led three laps after Truex pitted on Lap 319. The No. 19 Toyota cycled back to the lead on Lap 322 with Bowyer second and Logano third.

Truex held a 1.678-second lead with 60 laps remaining. Bowyer trailed Truex by two car lengths when Logano caught the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford with four laps to go.

“I was watching them race and thought that if I was just patient and saved my tires, I saw them coming off the corner sideways every time,” Logano added. “They were a little faster than me but I knew they were going to kill their stuff and they did.

“I got there, I was just a couple laps late getting there. I was able to get to the 19 but it just wasn’t enough.”

Despite passing Bowyer, Logano ran out of time to catch Truex.

“I’m really excited to win here at Richmond,” Truex said. “I’ve always really enjoyed this track. I’ve always loved coming here. The short track win – everybody kept asking me when it was going to happen. Tonight we didn’t have the best car, but we’ve lost here with the best car a bunch of times. We just fought, we battled.

“We’re just really excited. Everybody at JGR is doing a great job and with Toyota. Just a blessing to drive these race cars and have an awesome team. We’ve been chipping away at it and hopefully, we can get better from here on out.”

Kyle Busch leads the standings by 20 points over Logano.