'Sweet redemption' as Truex dominates Kentucky

Martin Truex Jr. has dominated Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races before. Then there was what he did Saturday night at Kentucky Speedway.

Truex grabbed his third win of the season in the Quaker State 400 by winning all three stages (his 12th and 13th of the season) and leading 152 of 267 laps. And while the record book will show Truex had to overcome an overtime restart on older tires, he was cruising to the victory by 16 seconds at the time of the final caution.

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Kurt Busch's blown engine with two laps to go set up the sprint to the finish. While Truex stayed out, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch and many others chose fresh tires. It didn't matter, as Truex shot away on the restart.

The No. 78 then crossed the overtime line and was headed toward the white flag when the caution came out again for a crash off Turn 4.

"I thought we were dead," said Truex with a laugh about those who pitted behind him. "I thought we were done. This is just completely unbelievable, I'm so excited to win here. Felt like we had a shot last year and it got away from us on fuel mileage, just wanted to win here so, so bad after that.

"Sweet redemption. ... Man, that was a whole lot of fun."

Kyle Larson finished second with Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch rounding out the top five.

"I sped on pit road there early," said Larson, who started 40th after failing to get through inspection in time for qualifying on Friday. "At the end of that first stage, so it felt very similar to Texas earlier this year. Didn't get to qualify, had a pit road penalty at the end of the first stage. Went from the back to the front and then we had scuffs on one run and got the balance off pretty bad, but were able to put stickers on and charge back to the front. The Target Chevy was good.

"Truex though, never got to see him that last run he was upwards of 15 seconds ahead of us. That was pretty crazy. He has definitely been the fastest car all year. So, got some work to do, but if we can keep chasing him, I think we can beat him."

Busch started on the pole and was looking to become the first driver in NASCAR history to win both an Xfinity Series race – which he won Saturday afternoon – and a Cup race on the same day.

Erik Jones finished sixth, Jamie McMurray finished seventh, and Joey Logano finished eighth. Kevin Harvick and Ryan Blaney completed the top 10.

With the victory, Truex again added to his playoff tally.

The Furniture Row Racing driver now has 28 playoff points and would be the number one seed in the post-season. The next highest driver would be Jimmie Johnson at 16 playoff points.

"Worried every lap waiting for a caution, especially at the end," Truex said of the final laps. "You're counting them down, the last 30 [laps], the last 20, the last 10 and then you get inside of five [laps to go] and you're like, oh my god, there's no way there's not going to be a caution.

"Sure enough there was, but fortunately able to hold them off. This thing was so stout tonight and a good push from Larson helped us a bunch."

The race featured nine lead changes among four drivers and nine caution flags.