Mondays are made for Martin Truex Jr. it seems. Truex staged a dominating performance leading a race high 254 of the 301 laps run to score the 34th win of his career and his first at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
It was his second Monday win of 2023, his first coming at Dover in May in another rain delayed race that broke a 54-race winless drought for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver. His first career win also came on a Monday at Dover in 2007; three of his 4 Dover wins have been on a Monday. And now his second win of 2023 comes on, you guessed it, a Monday.
“Just really an awesome job by everybody,” Truex said. “What a race car we had today. Just proud of the whole team. Pit stops were flawless. Race car was unbelievable.
“We had some challenges at times throughout the race and it was a handful at times, but we just kept our heads down, kept digging.”
The win was by no means an easy one. Truex had to survive three restarts in the final 25 laps including the final one with less than 9 to go holding off Joey Logano by .394 of a second.
Behind Logano, Kyle Larson, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five.
The domination by Truex included a sweep of both Stages and a hard charge by Logano in the closing laps.
“I thought I would have had something,” Logano said. “Right before that caution came out two cautions to the end when we had tires on it seemed like the 19 took a few laps to get going. I was running him down, I was like man, I’ve got a chance here. That caution came out right when I was thinking I could make a move on the outside into 3.
“And then it seemed like the cycles helped him get his pressures up to where he can refire and be pretty quick the last couple restarts.”
The final caution of the race, on lap 292, came out for Truex’s JGR teammate Christopher Bell, last year’s winner and this year’s polesitter spun into the turn 4 wall just as Truex was pulling away from the field.
“Jesus, man. C’mon people.” Truex said on his team radio. After being told it was his teammate, Truex quipped:
“We should have a company policy that says when one of your teammates is leading, don’t crash by yourself.”
Bell finished 29th.
Several drivers had forgettable days led by Kyle Busch. After spinning in Saturday’s qualifying, he was forced to start in the back of the field Monday. On lap 70 just as Stage 1 was ending, Busch’s Chevy got loose and hit the outside wall in Turn 4, ending his day early.
Then on a restart on lap 170, 2021 New Hampshire winner Aric Almirola had a loose wheel come off sending his Ford hard into the wall and out of the race.
Tyler Reddick was sixth, Denny Hamlin seventh with Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon and Chase Briscoe completing the top 10.
The win was an emotional one for Truex, a New Jersey native, who grew up watching his dad race at the same track.
“I sat in Turn 1 with my mom,” Truex said. “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. It’s been a special place for us.”
And now a year removed from a winless 2022, a year when there was talk of retirement, Truex has three wins, with a championship has his next goal.
“That’s it. That’s all that matters right now,” he said. “We’ve got to keep winning. Bonus points are huge for the Playoffs, and we racked them up today, so we’ve got to keep doing it.”
After a short week, NASCAR will head to Pocono Raceway next Sunday. Chase Elliott is the defending winner.
Re: sitting in grandstands with little brother drinking from bottle pic.twitter.com/E1yZ3B0w43
— Ryan Truex (@Ryan_Truex) July 17, 2023
Race Results (PDF)
Photos: NASCAR at New Hampshire Motor Speedway Monday July 17, 2023
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.