Martin Truex Jr. wins at Phoenix Raceway

 

Christian Petersen/Getty Images

     This evening Martin Truex Jr. won the “Instacart” 500 at Phoenix Raceway, scoring his 28th career victory in the NASCAR Cup Series.

In this race we saw consistent speed from Team Penske drivers Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, and Ryan Blaney; as each driver lead a handful of laps, and both Ryan Blaney and Joey Logano won a stage. Another team that really dominated during this race was Hendrick Motorsports. Three of the four Hendrick Motorsports cars (the No. 9, No. 5, and No. 24) were forced to start this race at the rear of the field due to inspection issues, though all three eventually worked their way back up to the front. After Kyle Larson recovered from this set back, he was twice penalized for speeding on pit road, which both required him to return to the rear of the field. Though these troubles plagued the 3 Hendrick Motorsports cars, they all worked very hard to run and finish within top-10. Today’s winner Martin Truex Jr. of course ran very well in 2nd half of this race, and eventually was able to pass Joey Logano, and take the lead on lap 223. Once Truex gained the lead position, he was essentially able to hold onto it for the remainder of the race.

One of the most notable cautions that occurred during this race was when on lap 90, the No. 51 of Cody Ware spun the No. 38 of Anthony Alfredo into the outside wall coming off of turn 2. This wreck was terminal for both cars involved.

Overall this race was fairly decent, consisting of quite a few cautions, though displaying some quite intense racing at times. 

Ryan Blaney won stage 1, Joey Logano won stage 2 and of course Martin Truex Jr. won stage 3 of this race.

The following are the complete race results: 

1. Martin Truex Jr.- No. 19
2. Joey Logano- No. 22
3. Denny Hamlin- No. 11
4. Brad Keselowski- No. 2
5. Chase Elliott- No. 9
6. Kevin Harvick- No. 4
7. Kyle Larson- No. 5
8. William Byron- No. 24
9. Christopher Bell- No. 20
10. Ryan Blaney- No. 12
11. Aric Almirola- No. 10
12. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.- No. 47
13. Alex Bowman- No. 48
14. Matt DiBenedetto- No. 21
15. Kurt Busch- No. 1
16. Bubba Wallace- No. 23
17. Austin Dillon- No. 3
18. Chris Buescher- No. 17
19. Ross Chastain- No. 42
20. Erik Jones- No. 43
21. Daniel Suárez- No. 99
22. Chase Briscoe- No. 14
23. Michael McDowell- No. 34
24. Justin Haley- No. 77
25. Kyle Busch- No. 18
26. Ryan Preece- No. 37
27. Corey LaJoie- No. 7
28. Ryan Newman- No. 6
29. Tyler Reddick- No. 8
30. BJ McLeod- No. 78
31. Cole Custer- No. 41
32. Quin Houff- No. 00
33. James Davison- No. 15
34. Garrett Smithley- No. 53
35. Josh Bilicki-No. 52 - DNF
36. Cody Ware- No. 51 - DNF
37. Anthony Alfredo- No. 38 - DNF
38. Timmy Hill- No. 66 - DNF

"A LOTTA help." https://t.co/0gXMoPxl0i pic.twitter.com/AGHLr8AHk9

— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) March 14, 2021

 

RETWEET to congratulate @MartinTruex_Jr on his desert dominance! pic.twitter.com/PMjFeMvw7l

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) March 14, 2021