The NASCAR Cup Series ran its first-ever scheduled night race at Martinsville Speedway, the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500, on Wednesday night, and Martin Truex Jr. celebrated the historic moment with a trip to victory lane. Wednesday night’s win was Truex’s first of the 2020 season but his second-straight at Martinsville, as he won at the Virginia short track last fall.
“We’ve been working a long time at trying to figure this place out and just chipping away at it,” Truex said. “The last couple years, we’ve been really strong; 2018 was a heartbreaker at the end of the race there. Last year, to get the win, and this year, just hats off to the guys. We started the first run, and it pushed the right-front tire off and we were terrible. Really good adjustments from the guys, just want to thank all of them. SiriusXM, Bass Pro, Auto Owners and everybody that makes this possible – TRD.”
The win was the first for crew chief James Small, who replaced retiring crew chief Cole Pearn ahead of the start of the season.
“Congrats to James on his first win. He’s doing an awesome job and really proud of him. It’s a big day for us. I want to say hi to all the fans at home; we definitely misss you. This just doesn’t feel right, but exciting to win, for sure.”
Truex took the lead on lap 370 of the 500-lap race and ran up front the remaining distance, including maintaining his position on a seventh and final restart that followed a lap-397 caution. In all, He led 132 laps after overcoming a pit-road penalty after the first 130-lap stage of the race.
“We never quit on it; we never gave up on it, and we worked hard,” Truex said. “The first run of the race, when the track was green, we pushed the right-front tire off in 30 laps, and I was like, ‘Oh man, this is going to be a long night.’ From there on, we just kept making adjustments. We got up towards the front, and then, we had a pit-road penalty and had to go to the back. It was really, really difficult to get through the field. Once we got near the front, I was like, ‘Okay, we got something.’ Then, we made one more adjustment, and the thing took off. Just happy for all the guys. To have SiriusXM come on board for five races this year, proud of that and Bass Pro, Auto Owners, TRD, True Timber, Beechcraft – everybody that supports us and makes this car go around the track, I have to thank them. Obviously, everybody at JGR [Joe Gibbs Racing] working through a lot of weird things with the social distancing and the coronavirus and all that stuff going on. Really proud of the effort. I knew we were knocking on the door the last month; we just had to get things to go our way, and tonight, we made the right calls.”
The Team Penske trio of Ryan Blaney, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano took the second through fourth positions in the finishing order, and Chase Elliott rounded out the top-five.
Logano was the only Team Penske driver who seemed to have a trouble-free race. He led nearly half the event, running up front for 234 laps. Blaney and Keselowski, meanwhile, were a lap down by lap 60. After getting back on the lead lap and even running up front for several laps, Blaney wound up in the back of the lead lap because of a pit-road penalty during the sixth caution of the race on lap 326, because his crew went over the pit wall to soon.
“A big shout-out to [crew chief] Todd Gordon and everybody on this 12 team, because we were awful at the start of the race and went a lap down in the first 60 laps.,” Blaney said. “That’s bad. Luckily, we got the car a lot better. Even the first stop, and I got the lucky dog and really drove up through there and ran second the second stage. Then, we had a penalty on pit road, which sent us back again, so I was happy we were able to come back up through second. I would have loved to restart towards the front with Martin to see, if I didn’t have to pass all those cars, if I could have raced with him. He was pretty good. I’m proud of this Menards/Cardell Ford Mustang, just a couple solid runs, here, we’ve got to string together. We just need to break through. Hopefully, we can do that soon.”
Blaney started the race on the pole, and Aric Almirola, who started alongside on the front row, also fell off the lead lap early in the race. Other heavy hitters struggling in the race included Truex’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and reigning Cup Series champion Kyle Busch. They went two laps down fairly quickly and never managed to return to the lead lap. By the end of the race, Busch had gotten one of his laps down, but Hamlin finished an additional lap down.
Logano led 104 of the first 130 laps on his way to the stage-one win. Jimmie Johnson won the second stage that ended at lap 260 after taking the lead from Logano on lap 202. He led 70 laps by the time Blaney, and then, Logano passed him early in the 240-lap third and final stage.
Logano and Blaney both led laps and Keselowski joined his teammates inside the top-three just past lap 300. Keselowski also led a handful of laps before Keselowski took what would become his race-winning lead.
Alex Bowman, who also was among the drivers a lap down early in the race, finished sixth. Matt DiBenedetto finished seventh. Elliott and Bowman’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Johnson also were in the top-10 at the checkered flag in eighth and 10th to put all four HMS cars in the top-10 of the finishing order. Sandwiched between Byron and Johnson was Kurt Busch in ninth.
