After many years of trying and plenty of heartbreaks in that timespan, Martin Truex Jr. finally won at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway with a dominant performance in Monday's Crayon 301. Truex led 254 of 301 laps to pick up his third win of 2023, the 34th of his Cup Series career and his first at The Magic Mile in Loudon.
After taking the lead from Christopher Bell in the opening laps, Truex seldom faced any serious challengers throughout the day and controlled the race from start to finish, sweeping both stages before cruising to the checkered flag despite late-race challenges from both Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano.
Truex's first New Hampshire win is a long-awaited one, as the Mayetta, N.J. native had dominated races here in the past without taking the checkered flag. Now, Truex's first New Hampshire win continues a long and special history at this track for him and his family.
Crayon 301 unofficial results
- #19 - Martin Truex Jr.
- #22 - Joey Logano
- #5 - Kyle Larson
- #4 - Kevin Harvick
- #6 - Brad Keselowski
- #45 - Tyler Reddick
- #11 - Denny Hamlin
- #23 - Bubba Wallace
- #3 - Austin Dillon
- #14 - Chase Briscoe
Truex's family history at New Hampshire dates back to the early 90s, when his father Martin Truex Sr. earned the biggest win of his career in a Busch North Series race at this track. Truex Jr. won twice here in the Busch North Series and later added an Xfinity Series win in 2005, but he had never been able to break through in Cup until today.
"I sat in Turn 1 with my mom. My little brother was drinking out of a bottle, so it was — we were young, 12, 13, maybe 14, whatever. But this is the first big track I ever came to with my dad and watched and the first time I ever seen Cup cars in person and Busch cars in person," Truex told NBC Sports. "It's been a special place for us.
"Being able to win K&N, being able to win the Busch Series, this one has been eluding me for a long, long time, so I'm just really, really happy, really thankful, and I can't say enough about my team, man. They're incredible. I'm lucky I get to drive these things."
Truex's win also swings the regular season points standings back in his favor, as he has taken the points lead back and now has a 17-point advantage over William Byron with six races remaining before the playoffs.
Pit Woe'd
Thanks to a combination of a softer tire compound and greater tire falloff combined, long stretches of green flag racing and the need to do things differently in order to have any chance of beating Truex, Monday's race featured a number of altering strategies throughout the field as drivers sought to gain the track position necessary to get to the front. But with that came the opportunity for unforced errors on pit road, which just so happened to take two of Truex's closest competitors out of a chance to challenge him.
After running second to Truex for much of the first half of the race, Aric Almirola and his team elected to take two right side tires under caution late in stage two, moving Almirola up to the lead for the restart. But in getting Almirola off pit road first, his crew did not completely fasten the right rear tire, which had immediate and disastrous consequences on the restart.
As he drove off into Turn 2, the right rear wheel of Almirola's car failed and came off, sending his car into the outside wall and ending not only one of Almirola's strongest runs of the entire season, but also perhaps one of his best chances to win a race and jump onto the playoff grid.
After that point and into the next long green flag run, Ryan Blaney looked as though he may have a car good enough to challenge Truex, as he was able to shadow Truex the best of anyone over a long green flag run. And when the caution came out with 31 laps to go, it looked as though Blaney's chance to battle Truex for the win had come. But then, an unforced error occurred when Blaney ran over his air hose as he was exiting his pit stall at the end of a two-tire stop.
That meant a pit road penalty for running over equipment, which buried Blaney in traffic and doomed him to a 22nd-place finish that marked a far cry from what his day could have had in store.
Bubble Battle
After Daniel Suarez and Michael McDowell parlayed top-five finishes at Atlanta into a three-point edge on Bubba Wallace for the final spot above the playoff cut line, it didn't seem possible for the battle for the final spot in the playoffs to get even narrower than it already was. But somehow it did, even with all three experiencing up-and-down days.
Wallace qualified inside the top 10, but brake issues early in the race and subsequent issues on pit road led to the No. 23 losing track position and almost going a lap down to Truex before a spin by Erik Jones wound up being his saving grace. Wallace was able to work his way back up into the top 10 from the middle of the race onward, and he would eventually finish eighth for his first top 10 since the Coca-Cola 600 back in May.
While Wallace was able to get a good finish by virtue of a fast car, it took a little more ingenuity on Daniel Suarez's part to keep pace. During the final long green flag run of the race, crew chief Travis Mack opted to leave Suarez out for as long as possible in hopes of catching a caution to improve Suarez's track position, and the gamble would pay off when a crash by Noah Gragson brought out the caution with 31 laps to go.
Suarez would go on to finish 16th, but he would finish just behind Michael McDowell, who rallied to 13th in the closing laps while also adding a stage point -- but not without angering Ryan Preece, who confronted McDowell on pit road after the race due to an on-track incident that wasn't immediately clear.
As a result of each of their days, Wallace (+2) and McDowell (+1) now hold a scant edge for the final two spots in the playoffs, with Suarez (-1) right on their heels at just a point out.
Race Results Rundown
- Brad Keselowski had a different voice atop the tower, as his brother Brian Keselowski (himself a talented racer-turned mechanic) filled in for usual spotter TJ Majors. Keselowski proceeded to finish fifth to pick up his fourth top five of the year, meaning that half of Keselowski's eight top-10 finishes this year have been top fives.
- Austin Dillon used an alternate strategy by running for as long as he could over the final green flag run, leading 12 laps -- the most he has all season -- before a late caution allowed him to cycle to the front of the field on only slightly older tires than the rest of the leaders. Dillon and crew chief Keith Rodden's call paid off with a ninth-place finish, their first top 10 since the Coca-Cola 600 in May.
- Speaking of top 10s, a 10th-place run gave Chase Briscoe his first since a fourth-place run at Talladega in April and his fifth overall this season. Briscoe's top 10 also marks his first since his team's crew chief change, and the first top 10 that Richard Boswell has ever had as a Cup crew chief.
- Erik Jones and his team employed a similar strategy to the one Daniel Suarez's team used, and it ended up paying off even more for the No. 43. Jones recovered from a mid-race spin to earn an 11th-place finish, his third finish of 11th or better in the last four races.
- Despite being spun in front of traffic by Ty Gibbs late in the race, Alex Bowman was able to hang on and earn a 14th-place finish, his best overall since the Coke 600. Bowman also earned some stage points by finishing seventh in Stage 2, but he remains 42 points back of the cut line after his issues at Chicago and Atlanta.
- Corey LaJoie's day went south in a hurry at the end of Stage 1, as he hit the wall in Turn 1 and damaged his car to the point that he was forced to go to the garage and make repairs. He would finish a full 125 laps down in 33rd, but the fact that he finished was significant: Now 20 races in, LaJoie remains the only driver to be running at the finish of every race this season.
Next Race
The NASCAR Cup Series continues its swing into the northeast with another favorite summertime trip to Pocono Raceway for the HighPoint.com 400. Coverage begins Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network.
