Truex holds off Logano, wins 2nd Coca-Cola 600

[May 28, 2019]  Martin Truex Jr.'s bid to win NASCAR's longest race looked to be over when he slapped the wall just 73 laps into the 400-lap Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Sunday. But as it turned out, Truex's race was just beginning.

He not only recovered from his early wallburger, he went on to get the victory in one of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series' crown jewels.

"I thought we were done when we blew a tire and hit the wall," Truex said in his on-track interview after climbing out of his car. "Just kept fighting."

The victory was the Joe Gibbs Racing driver's second in the 600, third at CMS and third in the last five points races in the 2019 season.

"These mile-and-a-half (tracks) have been tough on us this year but we're starting to get it figured out now," Truex told the media afterward. "Just thanks for Cole (Pearn, his crew chief) and all the guys.

"The guys worked hard to fix it up."

Truex led for much of the fourth and final 100-lap stage, grabbed the lead for good on a restart with four laps to go and drove away Team Penske driver Joey Logano to get the 22nd victory of his career.

Logano finished second while fellow Joe Gibbs driver Kyle Busch was third.

"We just got through for a loop there the first ... two or three stages," said Logano, who was invisible the first half of the race. "Boy we were junk. But we kept adjusting on it and got it to where we were competitive at least. We weren't fast enough to win but circumstances could have played in the right way."

Logano came up three-tenths of a second short of giving team owner Roger Penske a Memorial Day weekend sweep as Penske driver Simon Pagenaud won the Indianapolis 500 earlier in the day (whose car donned the same No. 22 as Logano's).

"If you would have told me we'd finish second during the first two stages, I would have taken it."

Busch led 79 laps. But not the last one.

"Through much of the race we had a fast car," Busch said. "We were there. The 19 (Truex) was the fastest car. Not sure what they had different from us. We were just off a little bit. Otherwise I thought we had a race-winning car."

Fans shop for Indianapolis Motor Speedway merchandise before the 103rd Running of the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Mandatory Credit: Thomas J. Russo-USA TODAY Sports

Rounding out the top five were Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. of Roush Fenway Racing.

Truex appeared to be cruising to an easy victory but with 10 laps to go Brad Keselowski blew a tire and brought out the yellow flag. The leaders all pitted for tires but Ryan Newman came out first after taking only two tires while all the other leaders took four. That forced Truex to go four wide to get his final lead on the restart.

"What a race there at the end," Truex, who led 116 laps, said afterward.

The race began under bright sunlight and with ambient temperatures in the mid-90s. The heat and sun caused early race problems as a sizable number of cars suffered flat tires that sent them into outside walls.

Several of those wall bangers were contenders for good finishes. Among them were Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Truex, Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones. Truex and Hamlin recovered from their early scrapes but Jones, who wrecked early in the first stage, could not continue.

In all, the caution flag waved 16 times in the race.

Team Penske's Keselowski, who started the race 21st, won the first and second stages in a race that featured four 100-lap stages. Truex won Stage 3.

--Field Level Media

[© 2019 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2019 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.