Truex dominant at weather-delayed New Hampshire

Martin Truex Jr. finally earned what had been an elusive victory at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and did so Monday in dominating fashion.

Truex swept both stages and led 254 of 301 laps on his way to winning the Crayon 301. It is his third win of the season and first at New Hampshire in 30 career starts.

“What we've been able to do here over the years is pretty remarkable, and to not win was really getting frustrating,” Truex said. “James [Small] and I talked about it many times. We thought about it all weekend, talked about it with Christopher [Bell] before the race. He's like, 'man, you've led more laps here than I've even raced in Cup.' Just really an awesome job by everybody.

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“What a race car we had today. Just proud of the whole team. Pit stops were flawless. Race car was unbelievable. We had some challenges throughout the race and it was a handful at times, but we just kept our heads down, kept digging."

The No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the class of the field from the drop of the green flag. Truex took the lead for the first time on lap 2 and was hardly challenged for the top spot all afternoon.

There were two cautions inside the final 25 laps where the field at a shot at Truex. The first came with 22 laps to go for an incident on the backstretch between Alex Bowman, Ty Gibbs, and Erik Jones, and the final flew with 14 laps remaining when Christopher Bell spun and hit the wall in Turn 4.

Truex’s margin of victory over Joey Logano was .396 seconds. Kyle Larson finished third. Kevin Harvick finished fourth in his final New Hampshire race. Brad Keselowski completed the top five.

Tyler Reddick finished sixth, Denny Hamlin finished seventh, and Bubba Wallace finished eighth. Austin Dillon finished ninth and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top 10.

Ryan Blaney finished 22nd, having watched an opportunity to contend for a top-five finish disappear when he was called for running over equipment on pit road. The infraction – running over the air hose – happened under the caution with 31 laps to go when the team took two tires.

Bell, who started from the pole, finished 29th after leading the opening lap of the race, but then spending much of the afternoon fighting from behind after having to make a second pit stop at the end of the first stage. After coming off pit road third, Bell returned to his pit stall because the team was unsure the wheels were tight.

In the second stage, Bell finished 10th and climbed as high as fifth in the final stage. He was running eighth when he crashed.

Aric Almirola finished 34th after crashing from the race lead on lap 169. The right rear wheel was not tightened on Almirola’s car.

Kyle Busch was classified last after crashing in Turn 1 when losing control of his car while trying a new line.

There were 13 lead changes among nine drivers in Monday’s postponed event, and eight caution flags.