Truex had been in the lead for a total of 768 laps in the nine races prior at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Despite winning the pole position last year, he had never achieved a higher placement than third.
On Monday, the race at the 1-mile oval in Loudon, N.H was delayed due to rain. Truex, driving his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, once again displayed his dominance by leading 254 out of 301 laps.
Truex had to put in effort to secure the win, despite facing three restarts within the last 23 laps. On the last restart, with only nine laps remaining, he swiftly overtook Joey Logano and managed to stay ahead, winning the race by a margin of 0.394 seconds.
Truex secured his third victory of the 2023 season, marking his 34th win throughout his 43-year-long Cup career.
“I cannot reword.”
“We pondered over it throughout the entire weekend and discussed it with Christopher (Bell) prior to the race. He mentioned, ‘You’ve accumulated more laps in this track than I’ve even competed in the Cup series.'”
Everyone did an incredible job. Our race car was outstanding today. I’m proud of the entire team for their flawless pit stops and the unbelievable performance of the race car.
In his last 10 races at New Hampshire, Truex has now led 1,022 laps.
Kyle Larson ended up third, Kevin Harvick fourth and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five.
The top-10 finishers included Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon, and Chase Briscoe.
Stage 1
Truex easily secured the victory in Stage 1, surpassing Byron. However, Kyle Busch forcefully collided with the wall during the last of the 70 laps, causing considerable harm to his No. 8 Chevrolet.
Reddick was third, Aric Almirola fourth and Ryan Blaney fifth.
A.J. Allmendinger experienced a spin-out right before a scheduled NASCAR race due to the intense rainfall on Sunday. Taking advantage of the situation, the majority of teams decided to make a pit stop and replace their tires. William Byron was the first to leave the pit road after opting for a two-tire change.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. stayed on the racetrack and took over the first position, but was quickly passed by Byron. Eventually, Truex took the lead from Byron after getting four fresh tires.
Stage 2
Truex regained the top position after a restart with 11 laps remaining out of a total of 115, and successfully fended off Larson to secure victory in Stage 2. Logano finished in third place, followed by Blaney in fourth and Hamlin in fifth.
After Erik Jones spun, there were various pit strategies employed, leading to Almirola taking the lead by opting for a two-tire pit stop. However, when the race restarted, Almirola crashed in Turn 1 because of a loose right-rear wheel.
Stage 3
During the break between Stages 2 and 3, several lead-lap cars pit with Harvick first off pit road. Truex remained on the track and in the lead to begin the final 116-lap stage.
Truex held a lead of approximately 1 second over Blaney with 75 laps remaining in the race, while Logano occupied the third position.
Blaney was the first to hit pit road with 65 laps remaining to kick off a final round of green flag pit stops for new tires and fuel to make it to the end of the race.
After completing the cycle of stops on lap 257, Truex regained the lead, holding a 3-second lead over Blaney and Larson in third place.
Noah Gragson forcefully hit the wall on Turn 2 during lap 271, resulting in the sixth caution of the race. The majority of drivers chose to make a pit stop and replaced two tires.
Blaney received a penalty for running over equipment during his pit stop and had to begin again from the back of the field. Harvick, on the other hand, remained on the track and took the lead during the restart with 24 laps remaining.
Truex, with a fresh pair of tires, swiftly passed Harvick on the restart and regained the top position.
Ty Gibbs caused the seventh caution by colliding with Bowman, leading to a restart with 16 laps left and Truex maintaining the lead.
A wreck by Christopher Bell set up another restart with nine laps to go with Truex leading Logano and Larson.
Leave a Reply