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| Toyota Racing |
Martin Truex Jr. has won the “Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief” 500 at Martinsville Speedway, becoming the first driver to score two victories in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season.
The “Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief” 500, originally scheduled for yesterday, Saturday April 10th, was started, but then postponed by rain. As the race was continued this afternoon, we saw drivers such as Ryan Blaney, and Denny Hamlin dominate. Ryan Blaney managed to win both stage 1 and 2 of the race, as he hugged the curbs at Martinsville like nobody else could. After these stage wins, Blaney truly looked like a contender for the win. During the stage break between stages 2 and 3, many of the more competitive cars headed to pit road, and the less competitive cars moved up towards the front. This shuffle was enough to set Ryan Blaney back, and challenge him on the restart. As stage 3 began, we saw caution after caution, which really upset the field, some of the faster cars were trapped further back than they would have liked to be. These cautions were mostly small incidents, until on lap 135 the No. 17 of Chris Buescher, and the No. 18 of Kyle Busch got together, and both had spun out, completely blocking the back straight-away. Cars were forced to slam on their brakes, some were lucky enough to succeed, while others had no choice but to driver right into the car in front of them. Ryan Preece and Daniel Suárez were able to roll away from this mess, but both cars became engulfed in flames shortly after attempting to do so. Luckily, nobody was seriously injured, though the red flag was displayed to allow crews to clean up debris. Following this wreck the Nos. 2, 34, 37, 48, 77, 99 would not return to the race.
After this lengthy red flag delay, the yellow flag was displayed, and pace laps continued, before an eventual restart. Denny Hamlin was able to secure the lead from Ryan Blaney, but Blaney was able to stay close behind. Ryan Blaney was never quite able to get past Hamlin, and after he received a pit penalty, and was forced to restart at the rear of the field, his chance of winning began to look slim. Following this penalty Denny Hamlin and his teammate Martin Truex Jr. then restarted on the front row, and for many laps battled side by side for the lead. Eventually, with 18 laps to go, Martin Truex Jr. sneaked under Hamlin and took the lead, opening the door for Chase Elliott to approach Denny Hamlin. Elliott and Hamlin battled for a few laps, but eventually Elliott was able to pass the No. 11, and secured a 2nd place finish just behind Martin Truex Jr.
This race saw some classic Martinsville action, filled with beating and banging, and plenty of cautions, but the race never failed to entertain.
Ryan Blaney won stages 1 and 2, and Martin Truex Jr. won stage 3 of this race.
The following are the complete race results:
1. Martin Truex Jr.- No. 19
2. Chase Elliott- No. 9
3. Denny Hamlin- No. 11
4. William Byron- No. 24
5. Kyle Larson- No. 5
6. Joey Logano- No. 22
7. Christopher Bell- No. 20
8. Tyler Reddick- No. 8
9. Kevin Harvick- No. 4
10. Kyle Busch- No. 18
11. Ryan Blaney- No. 12
12. Matt DiBenedetto- No. 21
13. Chris Buescher- No. 17
14. Austin Dillon- No. 3
15. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.- No. 47
16. Bubba Wallace- No. 23
17. Ross Chastain- No. 42
18. Cole Custer- No. 41
19. Ryan Newman- No. 6
20. Aric Almirola- No. 10
21. Kurt Busch- No. 1
22. James Davison- No. 15
23. Josh Bilicki- No. 52
24. Quin Houff- No. 00
25. J.J. Yeley- No. 53
26. Anthony Alfredo- No. 38
27. Chase Briscoe- No. 14
28. Cody Ware- No. 51
29. BJ McLeod- No. 78
30. Erik Jones- No. 43 - DNF
31. Michael McDowell- No. 34 - DNF
32. Daniel Suárez- No. 99 - DNF
33. Brad Keselowski- No. 2 - DNF
34. Alex Bowman- No. 48 - DNF
35. Justin Haley- No. 77 - DNF
36. Ryan Preece- No. 37 - DNF
37. Corey LaJoie- No. 7 - DNF
2️⃣9️⃣ 🏁 for the 1️⃣9️⃣@MartinTruex_Jr | @JoeGibbsRacing pic.twitter.com/72DhiLHWWL
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 12, 2021
Martinsville Parking Lot. What a mess. 👀 👀#NASCARonFS1 pic.twitter.com/Hpkk9fO5OD
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) April 11, 2021
"Just a mistake and something that should be avoided ... Proud of the effort just wish we could close one out."
— FOX: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) April 12, 2021
Ryan Blaney is understandably frustrated after a late pit road penalty at Martinsville. pic.twitter.com/WnSsuVqcqS
.@Daniel_SuarezG was able to safely climb from his car despite a large fire. pic.twitter.com/6KC04irWkZ
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 11, 2021
Martin's ville pic.twitter.com/OpzZXLE87a
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 12, 2021
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