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Martin Truex Jr. dominates for win at Auto Club Speedway
Martin Truex Jr. has made it to victory lane after four long races.
The defending champion started first, won the first two stages and then passed Kyle Busch after the final set of pit stops to get his first win at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday. Truex led a race-high 125 of 200 laps as Busch was his closest pursuer throughout the race.
Yes, that first paragraph is sarcasm.
Kevin Harvick might have been the guy to beat on Sunday, but he crashed himself out in the first stage of the race while racing with Kyle Larson. Harvick took the blame for the incident after the race.
“I went down to side draft and he was coming up and we touched and it just knocked the thing to the right, just spun out. I don’t know that’s his fault. I think that’s my fault for coming down the race track right there and trying to side draft and then as we touched right there it just came back up the race track. Just trying to get a little too much right there.”
Harvick was going for his fourth-straight win after winning at Atlanta, Las Vegas and Phoenix.
Kyle Larson finished second ahead of Busch. By the time he passed Busch for second he had no chance to get to Truex, who was ahead by over five seconds. Sunday’s race was the first since 2013 that hadn’t gone over the scheduled 400 miles because of a late caution.
Only 10 cars finished on the lead lap thanks to Truex’s speed and the length of the final green flag run.
“I knew we had a really good race and honestly after the first adjustment of the race that thing came alive,” Truex said. “And from there it was just about managing my tires and being smart.”
Truex was plenty smart. He had the speed to beat everyone in the field straight-up, so it didn’t take any crazy strategy plays to get the lead. Every time the field cycled through pit stops Truex would assume his rightful spot at the front of the field.
Full results:
1. Martin Truex Jr.
2. Kyle Larson
3. Kyle Busch
4. Brad Keselowski
5. Joey Logano
6. Denny Hamlin
7. Erik Jones
8. Ryan Blaney
9. Jimmie Johnson
10. Austin Dillon
11. Clint Bowyer
12. Aric Almirola
13. Alex Bowman
14. Kurt Busch
15. William Byron
16. Chase Elliott
17. Jamie McMurray
18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
19. Paul Menard
20. Darrell Wallace Jr.
21. Ryan Newman
22. AJ Allmendinger
23. Daniel Suarez
24. Kasey Kahne
25. David Ragan
26. Michael McDowell
27. Ty Dillon
28. Cole Whitt
29. Ross Chastain
30. Chris Buescher
31. Matt DiBenedetto
32. Gray Gaulding
33. Timmy Hill
34. Reed Sorenson
35. Kevin Harvick
36. Jeffrey Earnhardt
37. Trevor Bayne
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter
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