Alright, a little normalcy.
The Winner
Martin Truex Jr. Or is it Martin Truex, Jr.? I always see the comma. It makes it hard to write about him. He’s Truex from here on out.
Truex is one of the guys you expect to win a few. He’s a recent champion. He drives for one of the top teams in the sport. In a season in which the first four races were won by non-institutions, he’s an institution, which makes the playoff outlook a little calmer, at least for a week.
The Race
It was a busy one until the last few laps, when Truex pulled away. Not a lot of cautions, and not a crazy number of lead changes, but some good racing pretty much all day.
Notable Names
Joey Logano won the second stage, dealt with a vibration and a power steering issue briefly, and finished in second place, unable to hold onto Truex.
Denny Hamlin was third.
Brad Keselowski was fourth.
Chase Elliott looked like he might make something happen for a bit there, but he never hit the groove he had in last fall’s championship at Phoenix. Fifth place.
Kevin Harvick was a factor as usual, and finished sixth.
Kyle Larson came from the back of the lead lap a few times. Had to start from the rear after failing inspection, and then sped twice on pit road. Eventually, his car lost whatever it had going for it and he stopped climbing. Seventh place.
William Byron was eighth.
Christopher Bell was ninth.
Ryan Blaney got a stage win and rounded out the top ten.
Aric Almirola came in eleventh.
Alex Bowman spun early and ate some wall, but hung around to finish 13th.
Matt DiBenedetto was 14th.
Kurt Busch was 15th.
Bubba Wallace was in the top ten late, but gambled on tires and lost the bet, falling back to 16th by the end.
Austin Dillon was involved in the Bowman spin—came in 17th.
Erik Jones was 20th.
Chase Briscoe was 22nd.
Michael McDowell was 24th.
Kyle Busch had a late spin and finished 25th.
Ryan Newman was 28th.
Tyler Reddick sped on pit road during some final stage green-flag stops and ended up 29th.
Cole Custer was 31st.
Thoughts, Implications
Truex, as was said, was expected to win one eventually, so this doesn’t change the playoff picture much. Blaney’ll be happy to have that stage point come playoff time if he can get in. Five spots taken: Truex, Larson, Byron, Bell, McDowell. Eleven to come (assuming we don’t get 17 or more winners across the 26 regular season races).
What’s Next
Back to the Southeast. Atlanta this weekend. Bristol dirt race after that.
Videos, Fun Stuff:
A taste of the restart action:
Some beef developing between Cody Ware and Anthony Alfredo? (Ware’s behind Alfredo in this.)
Truex almost spun Logano coming at the green flag for the final stage:
