Martin Truex Jr. cleaned up the field in the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, earning his fourth win of 2018, after starting from the pole and earning both stage victories, en-route to a dominating win that gave him back-to-back victories in the “Bluegrass State.”
“What a hell of a night this was,” Truex said. “We try to do this every single week but that just shows you how hard it is. We made it look easy last year, but it certainly wasn’t. Hats off to my guys for sticking with me all year. We’ve really been working hard on these race cars trying to figure them out.”
The 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion led 174 of the 267 laps, beating Ryan Blaney to the finish by 1.901 seconds. Brad Keselowski rebounded from an early pit-road speeding penalty to end his night in third. He was followed by series leader, Kyle Bush in fourth, with Kevin Harvick, finishing fifth.
Truex’s dominance was nearly identical to his 2017 details in that victory. The Furniture Row Racing driver swept all the stages the last two years at the speedway, winning the pole for both editions. He also posted similar laps-led totals, just shy of his 2018 mark, leading for 152 circuits a year ago.
Truex came into Kentucky focused on continuing to earn playoff points as the postseason creeps closer, helping to lead to his drive towards domination.
Now, Truex sits only one race behind Kyle Bush and Harvick on the 2018 win chart. Both hold five victories thus far, with seven races remaining until the playoffs begin.
This Sunday, the series goes to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the now lone trip to the “Magic Mile” for NASCAR’s top series.
Content Notice: Track Talk will not be featured this week. Stay Tuned to next week’s recap from New Hampshire Motor Speedway for an “expanded news and opinion edition of the podcast.
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