NASCAR: Martin Truex Jr. win ends pursuit of historic streak
By Asher Fair
Martin Truex Jr. became the first driver to win multiple races in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season, ending the pursuit of a historic streak.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. entered this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway, the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500, having won two of the last three races at the track.
He made it three of the last four following a pass with 16 laps to go on teammate Denny Hamlin in Sunday’s rain-delayed 500-lap race around the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) oval in Ridgeway, Virginia.
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Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott passed Hamlin for second place a few laps later, and Truex held him off by 1.927 seconds to secure the victory. The win was Truex’s second of the 2021 season, as he also won the race at Phoenix Raceway in mid-March.
The win made him the first driver to win multiple races this season.
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Truex, who entered the 2020 season with at least four wins in four consecutive seasons, won just one race last season, with that being the June race at Martinsville Speedway. Last month, he became the fifth different winner in five races in 2021 by winning at Phoenix Raceway.
The race at Martinsville Speedway was the eighth race of the season, and entering this race, the series had seen seven different winners, something that hadn’t happened through seven races of a season since 2014. Prior to that, it hadn’t happened since 2003.
Had Elliott or Hamlin been able to take the checkered flag, this streak would have continued. However, Truex was able to end this streak, which very well could have gone on to make Cup Series history.
Not since 2003 had a season started with eight different winners in eight races, and that year, it started with nine different winners in nine races.
The all-time record is 10 different winners in the first 10 races of a season. And that record, which was set back in 2000, won’t be matched and won’t be broken this year.
Other winners this season include Front Row Motorsports’ Michael McDowell (Daytona 500), Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell (Daytona International Speedway road course), Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron (Homestead-Miami Speedway) and Kyle Larson (Las Vegas Motor Speedway), and Team Penske teammates Ryan Blaney (Atlanta Motor Speedway) and Joey Logano (Bristol Motor Speedway dirt).
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Richmond Raceway is scheduled to host the ninth race on the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, the Toyota Owners 400, on Sunday, April 18. This race is set to be broadcast live on Fox beginning at 3:00 p.m. ET. Will an eighth different winner emerge in this race? Will one of the one-race winners become the second two-race winner of the year? Will Truex, who has won two of the last three races at the track, win for a season-high third time in 2021?