NASCAR Cup Series: Martin Truex Jr. dominates 2019 First Data 500

Martin Truex Jr. dominated the First Data 500 at Martinsville Speedway to secure a berth in the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

After going more than a decade without a short track win, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. secured his third victory in the last four short track races in the opening race of the round of 8 of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs at Martinsville Speedway, the First Data 500.

Truex’s victory, which was his series-high seventh victory of the season, secured him a berth in the Championship 4 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in three weeks.

Truex started this 500-lap race around the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) Martinsville Speedway oval in Ridgeway, Virginia in third place in his #19 Toyota, and he won it by 0.373 seconds over Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, who tied his career-high finish with a second place result in his #24 Chevrolet.

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Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski, who won the race at the track in March, finished in third place in his #2 Ford ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin in fourth in his #11 Toyota. Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney finished in fifth in his #12 Ford.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kurt Busch, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Kevin Harvick, Team Penske’s Joey Logano, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Kyle Larson and Roush Fenway Racing’s Ryan Newman rounded out the top 10 by finishing in sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th place in their #1 Chevrolet, #4 Ford, #22 Ford, #42 Chevrolet and #6 Ford, respectively.

Logano’s eighth place finish came after he rebounded from contact with Hamlin, which caused one of his tires to go down and sent him spinning. This ultimately led to an off-track altercation involving the two drivers and several crew members from both sides.

The race only featured three lead changes among three drivers, and Truex led 464 of its 500 laps along with both stage one and stage two. Hamlin led 30 laps after starting from the pole position. Larson led the other six laps as a result of a gamble to stay out on the track at the end of stage two, which netted him nine points with a second place finish in the stage.

The race at the track in March looked similar. It featured three lead changes among three drivers, with Keselowski leading 446 laps, Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott leading 49 and Logano leading the other five. Keselowski won both stage one and stage two in this race.

The race featured 11 caution flag periods, including nine that took place as a result of things other than the planned cautions to end stage one and stage two. Six of these nine caution flag periods took place during the race’s third and final stage. Of the 38 drivers who started the race, 33 finished it and 19 finished on the lead lap.

Here are the full race results of the 2019 First Data 500 at Martinsville Speedway.

NOTE: Round of 8 playoff drivers are listed in italics.

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

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The second of three races in the round of 8 of the 2019 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs is the AAA Texas 500. This race is scheduled to take place on Sunday, November 3, and it is set to be broadcast live from Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Network.

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