NASCAR
Martin Truex Jr. Leads Race-High 51 Laps at Sonoma, Second Win of 2023
SONOMA, Calif. – From the early laps at Sonoma, Martin Truex Jr. clearly had one of the fastest cars. After being shut out of both stages, Truex turned on the jets in the final run. Even having to fight back on a restart could not keep Truex down for long. Truex and the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing crew are now the fourth multi-win team of 2023.
Thanks to no Stage cautions, the first half of Sonoma went by very quickly. The Stage wins were split between polesitter Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. Truex was on track to win Stage 2, but a late caution allowed Busch to stay out, with the 19 finishing seventh.
After Stage 2 Truex began to slowly pick off those ahead of him. By lap 69, the 19 took the lead again over Busch in turn 11 and began to drive away.
A cycle of green flag pit stops eventually gave Truex a four-second lead, until teammate Denny Hamlin spun out. The 11 clipped the turn 12 wall, spinning right at the start/finish line.
Much like the earlier caution, a few drivers staying out leapfrogged Truex on track. Despite restarting fourth though, Truex had the lead again in less than two laps. Busch easily got back to second as well, but had nothing to compete with the 19.
No other issues ever halted Truex’s march to victory, with the 19 taking the checkers three seconds ahead of Busch.
“Just a lot of hard work by everybody at Toyota, TRD, and JGR over the offseason made this happen,” Truex said. “We got to do some work with NASCAR to redesign some stuff, everybody did, and they did a good job there.”
“Just hats off to my team, James (Small, crew chief), Jazzy, and all of the guys. To be so bad here last year and come back to do this with the same car basically is really unbelievable. Just proud of them, we’re having a great year. I feel really good about our team. We couldn’t do it without all of our partners and fans. Man, just feels incredible to have a day like that, a run like that, and a team like I have. They’re doing everything right, and it’s a lot of fun to drive these cars.”
“This is why you go through years like we had last year. Just keep fighting, never give up on it, and always believe in each other. We haven’t changed anything on our team, other than parts and pieces. It’s just went through a lot of hard work, from a lot of people. Thanks to Coach and everybody. Our pit crew’s been really working hard, they did a great job today. It takes a total team effort these days, as close as everything is with these cars. You have to execute, and we were able to do that today.”
Now part of the 2023 multi-win club, Truex also etches his place in Sonoma history. MTJ is now the second-winningest driver all-time in wine country, with four triumphs. This only trails Jeff Gordon’s record five Sonoma trophies. 33 career victories also ties Truex for 26th most all-time wins with Fireball Roberts.
Behind Truex and Busch, the Sonoma top-10 were: Joey Logano, Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott, AJ Allmendinger, Michael McDowell, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and Ross Chastain.
16 races into the 2023 regular season, we still have 10 winners with Truex now becoming the fourth repeat victor. Take a look below at the current Playoff standings heading into the off week, with six postseason berths still up for grabs. When the season resumes in two weeks, 10 races will remain before the Playoffs.
After a well-deserved off week, the NASCAR Cup Series season continues in Nashville. The Ally 400 marks the third trip to Nashville Superspeedway, and a return to NASCAR on NBC. The Music City green flag will fly Sunday, June 25 at 7:00 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. Nashville has remained perfect for Hendrick; can Truex or another Toyota end this steak?
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credit to Sean Gardner/Getty Images for NASCAR
