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Martin Truex Jr. overcame a shock at the start of the race with the wall and took the lead in the final restart with 25 laps left to take his first victory in 2021 and his first in 31 starts in his career at Phoenix Raceway.
Truex number 19, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, ultimately held Joey Logano’s Penske Racing Ford number 22 for a convincing 1,698 seconds to win the Instacart 500. NASCAR Cup Series 2017 champion Truex took the lead from the outside race in a bold restart movement – starting in the final laps of an animated race that featured 22 leadership changes.
Truex, 40, from New Jersey, is now the fifth different winner in so many NASCAR Cup Series races this season, joining Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell, William Byron and Kyle Larson, who also won playoff places.
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“Just an incredible job from everyone, (team leader) James (Little), all the guys on the pit team fixing it, just solid,” said Truex, who now has 28 career wins. “At the beginning of the race, I thought we were going to run around 15th. Dude, I really can’t believe it. I’m kind of speechless.
“This is amazing. Phoenix has been difficult for us.
“I wish it was November and I was among the four finalists,” he added with a smile, referring to the end of the season’s championship at Phoenix Raceway at the end of the year. “Very grateful and proud of everyone at JGR, everyone who makes this possible.”
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Statistically, the Ford of Logano was the dominant car in the afternoon, leading the best race 143 of the 312 laps and winning Stage 2 – its first stage victory of the year. His teammate at Penske, Ryan Blaney, won Stage 1 (also his victory in the first stage of 2021) and all three Penske Racing cars finished in the top ten. percent of the day.
Logano started alongside Truex on the front row for the final restart and set up a challenge for the lead, but he was unable to hold Truex even with a more favorable starting position.
“I was surprised that he managed to accompany me on that (final) start,” admitted a disappointed Logano about Truex’s winning move. “He had a good start too, but I had a good start at the bottom and I thought I could have made a shortcut on the dogeg and I thought, man, I can have it cleaned up. So we enter that corner still from door to door and when you are door to door, the outside car has control.
“I’m sure that even if I beat him at that start, he would still chase me and probably outdo me. They had the best car. We had a good car, to be sure, but as soon as they adjusted it for the second stage, it was the best car on the track. “
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Truex’s JGR teammate Denny Hamlin was third, followed by Logano’s teammate Brad Keselowski and Phoenix’s winner last November, Chase Elliott, in fifth.
Kevin Harvick, a nine-time Phoenix winner, was sixth, taking his fourth place in the top 10 in the first five races of the season. Last week’s Las Vegas winner Kyle Larson was seventh, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron was eighth followed by JGR driver Christopher Bell and Blaney to close the top 10.
Even without the victory, it was an impressive display for the three Hendrick Motorsports cars that made it into the top 10. Elliott, Larson and Byron had to start at the rear of the field on Sunday. And Hendrick’s fourth car, driven by Alex Bowman, was equally tough with 13th place, despite hitting the wall and bringing a caution flag at the start of the race.
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Larson, in particular, taught a class on resilience. He got together to race in the top 10 – even leading a lap – a third of the way to the race, but was sent back to the back of the cars back from the front twice after that because of speed violations in the boxes.
Hamlin, Keselowski and Logano – all still looking for their first wins in 2021 – are 1-2-3 in the championship standings, with Hamlin holding a 39 point lead over Keselowski as the series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Folds of Honor QuikTrip next weekend 500 (Sunday, 3 pm, Eastern Time, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR radio).
Note: The race that won Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota passed NASCAR post-race technical inspection. No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet (Kurt Busch), No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (Kyle Busch) and No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet (William Byron) all had a safe and secure wheel nut, while No. 2 The team Penske Ford (Brad Keselowski) and Chevrolet No. 99 of the Trackhouse Racing Team (Daniel Suarez) had two unsafe and secure nuts.
Contributing: NASCAR.com team reports