October 27, 2019 | By Lee Spencer

Truex enjoys statement win--and grandfather clock--at Martinsville

MARTINSVILLE, Va.—Martin Truex Jr. was masterful at Martinsville.

Although it took 28 attempts, Truex won two stages and led 464 laps en route to his first grandfather clock—the iconic trophy awarded to the victor of the First Data 500.

More importantly, Truex locked himself into the Championship 4 race at Homestead-Miami Speedway with his 26th-career win.

“I can't believe we just won Martinsville, man,” Truex said. “Miami is awesome, but we've wanted to win here for a long time. I’m so proud to win here. This is a big, big race for anyone in this sport. Grandfather clock coming home with me, baby. I would have never thought it.”

Denny Hamlin, who started on the pole, would have never imagined that his car would have gone away so quickly. But after the first caution for debris on Lap 28, Truex came out of the pits with the lead and really never looked back.

He held serve through the first stage on Lap 130, then relinquished the point to Kyle Larson when the No. 19 pitted on Lap 254 during the fourth caution for debris. Larson, who had dropped to 13th, remained on the track to gain position. When the race returned to green, Truex nudged the No. 42 Chevy out of the lead coming to the green and white checker and won Stage 2.

The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing team’s pit crew kept Truex in the lead out of the pits. Despite six additional cautions, Truex was in command to the finish.

“I don't think anyone expected that,” said Truex, who finished .373-seconds ahead of William Byron.“This racetrack in general, you don't see that. Hats off to my guys. Pit crew was stellar today, and we didn't make many adjustments.  We adjusted on it early and it came to life, and that was a lot of fun. 

“I don't know, maybe now i've got this place figured out, who knows.  But just really proud of everybody, and after last year, we talked earlier, everybody wants to keep talking about last year, and I'm like, we've got work to do.  I'm just proud of everybody for giving me a race car like that and being able to put it all together today when it counted.”

Brad Keselowski, Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Kurt Busch, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Larson and Ryan Newman rounded out the top 10.

Byron, who started 11th and advanced to second after the Lap 456 restart, was never able to challenge Truex once the race went green over the final 24 circuits. However, the 21-year-old racer scored his best result in four starts at the half-mile track and tied his career-best finish established at Daytona in July.

“He was really strong,” Byron said of Hamlin. “I could work my brake bias a little bit in the car and gain a little bit and then I’d get to him and I’d heat them up a lot and kind of fall back. So, I don’t really know. He was super strong. Our car bounced a little bit on the short run, which was tough to kind of get around, but overall it was a really good day.

“This isn’t a place that I’ve loved coming to, and it just clicked this weekend. The things we did with the car going into qualifying and then obviously our race. So, I’m super excited, but second is not super fun either. So, we’ll try to get one spot better next time.”

Truex’s triumph was overshadowed by the antics between Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin in post-race. Logano confronted Hamlin on pit road following an earlier altercation when the No. 11 Toyota slid up into the No. 22 Ford on the front stretch on the Lap 456 restart. Logano developed a tire run and spun in Turn 1 three laps later. He dropped to 19th but recovered to maintain fourth-place in the point standings.

Logano poked Hamlin on pit road and a fight between the Nos. 11 and 22 teams ensued.

“I got fenced down the straightaway and just went to talk about it,” Logano said. “I was a little frustrated by the situation and I went down to talk to him and didn’t really get the answers I was looking for.”

Hamlin, who collected his 15th top-five finish at Martinsville, wasn’t surprised the discussion turned ugly.

“We were having a discussion and everything was civil and then like Joey does, he gives a little push and runs away,” said Hamlin, who dropped to second in the standings. “That’s Joey. I mean he said ‘you want to go?’ I said, ‘yes, I’m here,’ but then he runs away.”

Hamlin and Logano weren’t the only Playoff drivers involved in a skirmish. Kyle Busch sent Aric Almirola around after the No. 10 Ford ran into the back of the No. 18 Toyota on Lap 361 while battling for seventh. Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Preece were also collected in the melee.

Busch continued and finished 14th, but Almirola ended up in the garage with a 37th-place result. He vowed to avenge the misdeed.

"We have 3 more weeks and I'm going to make it hell for him,” Almirola said.

Playoff contender Chase Elliott also had a rough outing when his axle broke after the third caution on Lap 178. Following a trip to the garage for major repairs, Elliott returned to the track on Lap 247. He finished 36th, 55 laps off the pace.

But Truex, who enjoyed a drama-free race, took over the points lead from Kyle Busch and extended his advantage to 20 points over Hamlin.

“We've never been in this position before,” Truex said. “Every time we've made the Final Four we've pointed our way in. We've never won in this round, so it's new territory. It's good territory to be in, but honestly we can't change who we are.  You can't just go from the regular season to we're going to change our mindset for the playoffs. You race every week the same, just there's more on the line as you go down the road here. 

“Obviously there's going to be a lot of effort put into our car for Homestead, which is probably already started, but now there will be a little bit of extra time for Cole (Pearn, crew chief) and the guys to work on their thoughts and their plan.  But we're going to go try to win the next two. Just like here, we've never won the next two tracks, and we want to, so here we go. We'll go see if we can do it. But if we don't, oh, well, it doesn't really matter.”