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Martin Truex Jr. has officially won the NASCAR Cup Series “Federated Auto Parts, Salute to First Responders” 400 at Richmond Raceway, scoring his first victory in the NASCAR playoffs, and advancing to the Round of 12.
One of this season’s short track aces broke his nearly 4 month losing streak last night at Richmond. In an impressive run from Truex Jr., he out competed his teammates at a very tire intense track. The entirety of Joe Gibbs Racing showed some incredible speed last night at Virginia’s .75 mile short track, with Denny Hamlin leading a majority of the race, Kyle Busch near the front all evening, and Martin Truex Jr. using strategy and speed to plow through the field, and past his teammates to score a victory right in the nick of time. You may have noticed that Christopher Bell was not mentioned. Bell had no less speed than his JGR counterparts, but had trouble retaining his track position. For that reason Christopher Bell’s performance was better than most, but not outstanding.
A team that mostly struggled tonight was Hendrick Motorsports. Un-like Hendrick Motorsports the team did not dominate the race here at Richmond. Fan favorite Chase Elliott led several laps of this race, though as he battled with Denny Hamlin pit cycles began. When Elliott pitted, he made contact with the No. 42 of Ross Chastain, and believed he overshot his pit-box. The fact of the matter was that he didn’t overshoot his pit-box, the pit crew had begun to service his race car. Chase Elliott unaware on the circumstances put the car in reverse and broke the jack which was underneath the car, and damaged his race vehicle’s rocker panels. This damage was not detrimental to his race, but the extra long pit stop that the team sustained put him a lap down, and for much of the remainder of the race he would battle stay one the lead lap (as the number of lead lap cars kept decreasing). One of Hendrick Motorsports’ best race teams last night was Kyle Larson, who ran in the top-10 for most of the night. That might seem like a bad evening for the often dominating driver, but it is actually quite remarkable considering how poorly he usually runs here at Richmond Raceway. Alex Bowman and William Byron were in similar boats during this race. Battling to advance to the next round of the playoffs the teams have shown struggle. Last week in good playoff position both drivers were involved in the same accident damaging their cars. William Byron would completely wreck out of the race later, but neither teams finished where they would have liked to. Here at Richmond the usually very decent drivers struggled to make any significant movement all night. This makes the NASCAR Cup Series event next weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway a big race for the Hendrick Motorsports teams.
A condition that has persisted for one of our playoff drivers is that off Michael McDowell. As he unexpectedly won the “Daytona” 500 earlier this season, McDowell was locked into the NASCAR Playoffs, not it appears his luck has run out. Last weekend McDowell drove through the field on fresh tires early in the race, only to get loose and wreck out of the race from the top-10. Now at Richmond he kept his car in one piece, but faced multiple speeding penalties on pit road, putting the decently paced driver nearly five laps down by the end of the 400 lap race.
Chip Ganassi Racing drivers Kurt Busch and Ross Chastain had two very different races last evening. Busch, barely had a race after cutting a tire and wrecking out part way through stage one. Ross Chastain on the other hand for a third week in a row battled at the front of the field all night, and led laps, finishing 7th. While Chastain sits in his first true full time NASCAR Cup Series season, in the past few weeks he has shown veteran moves, out competing many playoff drivers. A statement that can one again be made following last evenings race is this: Trackhouse Racing is likely very happy with their decision to bring Ross Chastain to the team next season.
Richard Childress Racing’s Tyler Reddick continued to struggle during this race, making his playoff outlooks very bleak. The young driver barely made his first playoff appearance this season, measured on point alone. After two very difficult weeks for the No. 8 team, a must win scenario has been generated for the upcoming Bristol Night Race.
Denny Hamlin won both stages of this race.
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| NASCAR (Click to enlarge) |
RETWEET to congratulate @MartinTruex_Jr on his WIN at @RichmondRaceway!
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 12, 2021
His fourth win of the season puts him through to the Round of 12 in the #NASCARPlayoffs. pic.twitter.com/VO9ibZC8Ui
A rough pit stop for the No. 9 team of Chase Elliott.
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) September 12, 2021
Take a look at what happened. #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/uE0WUcpgqV
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