Martin Truex Jr. caps off weekend of family success at Dover

By Noah Nelson

It was a family affair for the Truex’s in Dover this weekend.

After watching younger brother Ryan capture his maiden victory in the Xfinity Series at Dover in the Joe Gibbs Racing #19, Martin Truex Jr. won for the first time in 54 races on Monday in the Cup Series
event.

It is Truex’s fourth win at his home track, with today being his third win on a Monday at Dover.
“We felt like we’ve been close a bunch of times,” Truex said. “We gave some away, that’s for
sure. It was a great call by James (crew chief James Smalls) to take two and got a pretty good
restart. We knew we could do this. We’ve led and dominated races. It just wouldn’t all come
together.”

Ross Chastain was once again a hot topic of discussion, as the Trackhouse Racing driver led 98
laps, won stage two, and finished second, but not without controversy.

On lap 81, as Chastain worked lapped traffic, he sent Brennan Poole spinning into turn one,
collecting Kyle Larson in the process. Larson, who was several miles per hour faster than his
competitors at the time of the incident, was immensely frustrated, as was Poole.

“I feel like I just got ran over,” Poole said. “As soon as he ran into me, I just kind of got shoved
into the corner, like way too deep, and then I was just immediately turned around. So, I think it
was the No. 1? (Chastain). Go figure. I mean, just a joke… 80-something laps into a race? No
reason. I was side-by-side with (Austin Dillon), just got to the outside and it’s not like I can go
anywhere or give him any more room than what I had. He just ran me over.

Poole went on to say that Chastain “probably needs his butt whooped.” It was Poole’s first cup
start since 2020, and he finished the day in 33rd.

Larson, who called Chastain an “idiot” on the radio for his early aggressiveness, went to the
garage for repairs after meeting minimum speed. He returned to the race, limping home to a
32nd-place finish, numerous laps down.

Chastain was extremely apologetic in his post-race comments, stating his intention to go to Rick
Ware Racing this week to meet with and apologize to the members of that team.

The race saw several early incidents take out multiple contenders in the first stage. Noah
Gragson was Miles the Monster’s first victim today, crashing on the backstretch and bringing out
the race’s second caution on lap 29, finishing 34th.

On the ensuing restart, Daniel Suarez got loose off of turn four and crashed with Ty Dillon and
B.J. McLeod. Suarez and Dillon were done for the day, finishing 35th and 36th respectively, tail
end of the field. McLeod made repairs and finished 29th.

Pole-sitter Kyle Busch also had contact in the incident, suffering damage to the front of his car.
Busch had been the leader for the initial start, but dropped to the rear to serve a pit-road speeding
penalty, which mired him in traffic and ultimately is what allowed him to be collected. Busch did
not recover, finishing 21st after a promising start to the day.

The race also saw a close call with Harrison Burton, who spun at the opening of pit road, coming
to a complete stop as green flag pit stops began. Dover’s notoriously narrow pit road got even
more treacherous as Burton re-fired his engine, but he was able to get back going without
incident. Burton would finish 20th.

Josh Berry, the super-substitute for Hendrick Motorsports, finished 10th in his first race driving
the #48 in place of an injured Alex Bowman. He previously drove the #9 in place of Chase
Elliott for five races this season, notching a best finish of 2nd at Richmond.

William Byron dominated early, leading a race-high 193 laps, as well as winning the opening
stage, but faltered late and settled for fourth after lacking speed on the long run for much of the
day.

Chastain and Truex Jr. then battled for much of the final stage, but a late caution for Joey Logano
looked to change everything. Logano, who had a miserable day, making numerous pit stops for
tire issues, lost it in turn three with 14 laps to go.

Pit stops were critical, with Truex Jr., Blaney, and Bell taking two tires, while the rest of the lead
lap cars (eight in total) took four.

Truex Jr. and Blaney battled side-by-side for a few laps, but Truex Jr. cleared Blaney with six to
go and didn’t look back, as Chastain’s new tires ran out of time to catch up.

Chastain’s result allows him to take the points lead from Christopher Bell as the series enters the
month of May.

Next week, the NASCAR Cup Series heads to the Kansas Speedway, where Bubba Wallace
looks to defend his victory from the fall and get his season back on track.
Results from the Wurth 400 at Dover Motor Speedway: