NASCAR Cup Series: Martin Truex Jr. wins 2019 South Point 400

Martin Truex Jr. secured his series-high fifth victory of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series season by winning the playoff opener, the South Point 400, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. opened up the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs with a victory for the third time in the last four seasons by winning the 2019 South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This victory is his series-high fifth victory of the season, breaking a tie with teammates Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin.

Truex started this 267-lap race around the four-turn, 1.5-mile (2.414-kilometer) Las Vegas Motor Speedway oval in Las Vegas, Nevada in 24th place in his #19 Toyota, and he won it by 4.173 seconds over Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick in second in his #4 Ford.

Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski, who at one point was sitting in the pits with the hood up on his #2 Ford, rallied for a third place finish ahead of the race’s highest finishing Chevrolet driver, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott, in fourth in his #9 Chevrolet. Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney rounded out the top five by finishing in fifth in his #12 Ford.

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Rounding out the top 10 were Hendrick Motorsports teammates Alex Bowman and William Byron, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson, whose potential top five run went out the window with a late pit road penalty, Team Penske’s Joey Logano and Roush Fenway Racing’s Ryan Newman.

These five drivers finished in sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th place in their #88 Chevrolet, #24 Chevrolet, #42 Chevrolet, #22 Ford and #6 Ford, respectively. All 10 of the race’s top 10 finishers are playoff drivers. Byron overcame contact and a spin to finish in seventh. The highest finishing non-playoff driver of this race was Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson, who finished in 11th in his #48 Chevrolet.

The other six playoff drivers are Busch and Hamlin along with teammate Erik Jones, Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Aric Almirola and Clint Bowyer and Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kurt Busch.

Almirola finished in 13th place in his #10 Ford ahead of Hamlin in 15th in his #11 Toyota, Kyle Busch in 19th in his #18 Toyota, Bowyer, who started the race from the pole position, in 25th in his #14 Ford, Jones in 36th in his #20 Toyota and Kurt Busch in 39th in his #1 Chevrolet.

Kyle Busch went two laps down early on after hitting the way but worked his way back up to the lead lap before making contact with a backmarker car late in the race, which cost him what could have been a top five finish.

Kurt Busch was the only driver of the 39 drivers who competed in this race but failed to finish it after wrecking in the third and final stage. Of the 38 drivers who finished the race, 17 finished on the lead lap. The race featured only four caution flag periods, and only two due to on-track incidents; the other two took place as a result of the usual endings of stages one and two.

This race featured a total of 24 lead changes among 14 drivers. Truex led 32 laps while 13 other drivers led at least one. Those 13 drivers were Harvick, Elliott, Blaney, Byron, Larson, Logano, Almirola, Hamlin, JTG Daugherty Racing’s Chris Buescher, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Daniel Suarez, Leavine Family Racing’s Matt DiBenedetto, Front Row Motorsports’ Michael McDowell and Bowyer.

Logano, who led more laps than anybody else in the field with 105 laps led, won stage one while Truex won stage two. Truex became the fifth driver in five races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in the stage racing era to win the race after winning stage two.

Here are the full race results of the 2019 South Point 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

NOTE: Playoff drivers are listed in italics.

Race Results
1st – Martin Truex Jr.
2nd – Kevin Harvick
3rd – Brad Keselowski
4th – Chase Elliott
5th – Ryan Blaney
6th – Alex Bowman
7th – William Byron
8th – Kyle Larson
9th – Joey Logano
10th – Ryan Newman
11th – Jimmie Johnson
12th – Austin Dillon
13th – Aric Almirola
14th – Paul Menard
15th – Denny Hamlin
16th – Ty Dillon
17th – Daniel Hemric
18th – Chris Buescher
19th – Kyle Busch
20th – Daniel Suarez
21st – Matt DiBenedetto
22nd – David Ragan
23rd – Darrell Wallace Jr.
24th – Michael McDowell
25th – Clint Bowyer
26th – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
27th – Ryan Preece
28th – Corey LaJoie
29th – Landon Cassill
30th – Matt Tifft
31st – Ross Chastain
32nd – J.J. Yeley
33rd – B.J. McLeod
34th – Joe Nemechek
35th – Garrett Smithley
36th – Erik Jones
37th – Reed Sorenson
38th – Joey Gase
39th – Kurt Busch

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The 2019 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are scheduled to resume on Saturday, September 21 with the Federated Auto Parts 400 at Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia. This race is set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET.

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