Truex holds off Kenseth for Watkins Glen win

With Matt Kenseth hot on his heels and a tank that was supposedly several laps short on fuel, Martin Truex Jr. won the I Love New York 355 at Watkins Glen, picking up his fourth victory of 2017 and denying Kenseth a much-needed victory and automatic berth in the playoffs.

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Playing the fuel strategy game and hoping for a late-race caution that never came, Truex allowed Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski to get by in order to save fuel, knowing both drivers were short. It was a double-whammy for Keselowski, who was penalized for driving through too many pit boxes. That left a nail-biting chase between Kenseth and Truex, the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points leader whose team estimated he was two laps short on fuel. But Kenseth couldn't catch Truex, who crossed the finish line four tenths of a second ahead.

Just enough fuel!@MartinTruex_JRholds off fellow@ToyotaRacingdriver@MattKensethto win at@WGI!#NASCARonNBCSN#ILoveNY355pic.twitter.com/xmaiogZIdd— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC)August 6, 2017

"That's so stressful to just let guys go by for the lead, I'd never had to do that before," Truex told NBC Sports. "But I've got so much trust in Cole [Pearn], he was telling me what to do. He knew based on our lap times how fast we were going and what we needed to do.

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"I've wanted to win here a long, long time. This is a special place; I think back in the '90s, watching my dad run here, coming here as a kid and spending time in the garage, just walking around and wishing someday to race here, let alone win. This is a big one for our team."

Truex led a race-high 24 laps.

Kenseth admitted he was also in fuel-save mode until the last laps.

"We really needed the win," he said. "Honestly, I don’t even think about the playoffs. I more think about coming here for however many, 15, 17, 18 years, whatever it’s been, and not really having a win or an opportunity to win and never even really been that great here.

"Man, when it’s that close and you see him saving and you’re saving and then you go after him there on that last lap, it’s disappointing not to get it. Especially when I saw him miss Turn 6, I was like, ‘Man, I’m going to have a shot,’ and he was so fast I still couldn’t get to him getting into [Turn] 7.”

Coming in third in a career-best finish was rookie Daniel Suarez, who earned his first stage win of 2017 after holding off a hard-charging Truex in the second stage. Denny Hamlin and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top five.

Kurt Busch was sixth, followed by brother Kyle, who led all 20 laps in the first stage before a loose wheel dropped him to the back of the field in the second stage. He passed 23 cars to put himself back in the top 10 – until contact with Brad Keselowski in the early laps of the final stage.

Before that last caution, trouble for@KyleBuschand@Keselowski! Will we see retaliation? Tune into@NBCSN!#NASCARonNBCSN#ILoveNY355pic.twitter.com/TlNTSxfOTu— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC)August 6, 2017

Both drivers were able to make their way back through the field; Keselowski flat-spotted his tires in the incident and had to pit, which put him in position to take the race lead when the leaders pitted during a yellow for Landon Cassill on lap 51. 

Blaney, AJ Allmendinger and Erik Jones completed the top 10.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had high hopes for a good finish in his last race at Watkins Glen, dropped a cylinder in the first race and was forced to retire early.

"We had a problem with the valve train and we can't fix it," he said. "It's been a really difficult week. We've been way down on speed and we had a pretty good car at Sonoma, so I was kind of looking forward to coming here. But, the guys worked really hard. We changed this car inside and out twice this weekend. And, we had made it better and we were kind of hanging in there. I think we had a shot at maybe a top 20 at best. But man, we showed up and we were about four seconds off.

"We have to hold each other up and lift each other up. When it gets difficult like this. We're a pretty close group. I don't anticipate the challenges and adversity we are facing to be detrimental to our team going forward. We have to be able to deal with stuff like this. This is racing and you are going to have to go through these kind of days. It has been a difficult year, but I've have more challenging times for sure. I still feel like we will have some things to be proud of before the end of the season. It is just not going to be this weekend."