Sunday, March 14th, 2021
Phoenix Raceway, Phoenix, AZ
Martin Truex Jr. overcame an early-race brush with the wall and took the lead on the final restart with 25 laps remaining to earn his first victory of 2021 and first in 31 career starts at Phoenix Raceway.
Truex's No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota ultimately held off Joey Logano's No. 22 Penske Racing Ford by a convincing 1.698-seconds for the win in the Instacart 500. The 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion Truex took the race lead from the outside on a bold restart move - pulling away in the closing laps of a spirited race that featured 22 lead changes.
Truex, 40, of New Jersey, is now the fifth different winner in as many NASCAR Cup Series races this season joining Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell, William Byron and Kyle Larson who have also earned spots in the Playoffs.
"Just an awesome job by everybody, [crew chief] James [Small], all the pit crew guys fixing it, just really solid," said Truex, who now has 28 career wins. "At the beginning of the race I thought we were going to run 15th or so. Man, I just really can't believe it. I'm kind of speechless.
"This feels pretty amazing. Phoenix has been a tough one for us.
"I wish it was November and I was in the Final Four," he added with a smile, referring to the season championship finale at Phoenix Raceway later in the year. "Just so thankful and proud of everyone at JGR, everyone who makes this possible."
Statistically, Logano's Ford was the dominant car on the afternoon, leading a race best 143 of the 312 laps and winning Stage 2 - his first stage win of the year. His Penske Racing teammate Ryan Blaney won Stage 1 (also his first stage victory of 2021) and all three Penske Racing cars finished in the Top-10. In all, the Penske trio of Logano, Blaney and Keselowski combined to lead 197 laps - out front 63 percent of the day.
Logano started alongside Truex on the front row for the final restart and mounted a challenge for the lead, but he couldn't hold off Truex even with a more favorable inside starting position.
"I was surprised he was able to hang with me on that [final] start," a disappointed Logano conceded of Truex's winning move. "He had a good start too, but I had a good one on the bottom and I thought might have short-cut it on the dogleg and I thought, boy I might have him cleared. Then we went into that corner still door-to-door and when you're door-to-door the outside car has control.
"I'm pretty sure even if I beat him even on that start he was still going to hound me and probably get by me. They had the best car. We had a good car for sure, but once they tuned it in toward the second stage, it was the best car on the race track."
Truex's JGR teammate Denny Hamlin was third, followed by Logano's teammate Brad Keselowski and last November's Phoenix winner Chase Elliott in fifth.
Kevin Harvick, a nine-time Phoenix winner, was sixth, earning his fourth Top-10 finish in the season's opening five races. 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 round out the Top-10.
Even without the victory, it was an impressive showing for the three Hendrick Motorsports cars that rallied to a Top-10. Elliott, Larson and Byron all had to start from the rear of the field on Sunday with inspection issues. And the fourth Hendrick car, driven by Alex Bowman, was equally resilient with a 13th place finish despite hitting the wall and bringing out an early race caution flag.
Larson, in particular put on a lesson in resiliency. He rallied to race among the Top-10 - even lead a lap - a third of the way into the race - but was sent back to the rear of the lead lap cars twice after that because of pit road speeding violations.
ENTRY | # | DRIVER | HOMETOWN | DOB | AGE | MAKE | SPONSOR | TEAM | CREW CHIEF |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 10 | Aric Almirola | Tampa, FL | Mar 14, 1984 | 40 | Ford | Pit Boss Grills | Stewart-Haas Racing | Mike Bugarewicz |
2 | 2 | Brad Keselowski | Auburn Hills, MI | Feb 12, 1984 | 40 | Ford | Wurth | Team Penske | Jeremy Bullins |
3 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | Chesterfield, VA | Nov 18, 1980 | 43 | Toyota | Offerpad | Joe Gibbs Racing | Chris Gabehart |
4 | 22 | Joey Logano | Middleton, CT | May 24, 1990 | 34 | Ford | Shell Pennzoil | Team Penske | Paul Wolfe |
5 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | Bakersfield, CA | Dec 8, 1975 | 48 | Ford | Jimmy John's | Stewart-Haas Racing | Rodney Childers |
6 | 1 | Kurt Busch | Las Vegas, NV | Aug 4, 1978 | 46 | Chevrolet | Gearwrench | Chip Ganassi Racing | Matt McCall |
7 | 18 | Kyle Busch | Las Vegas, NV | May 2, 1985 | 39 | Toyota | STANLEY | Joe Gibbs Racing | Ben Beshore |
8 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr | Mayetta, NJ | Jun 29, 1980 | 44 | Toyota | Bass Pro Shops | Joe Gibbs Racing | James Small |
9 | 34 | Michael McDowell | Phoenix, AZ | Dec 21, 1984 | 39 | Ford | Love's Travel Stops | Front Row Motorsports | Drew Blickensderfer |
10 | 6 | Ryan Newman | South Bend, IN | Dec 8, 1977 | 46 | Ford | Guaranteed Rate | RFK Racing | Scott Graves |
11 | 3 | Austin Dillon | Lewisville, NC | Apr 27, 1990 | 34 | Chevrolet | Bass Pro Shops / Tracker Off Road | Richard Childress Racing | Justin Alexander |
12 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr | Olive Branch, MS | Oct 2, 1987 | 37 | Chevrolet | Kroger / Energizer | JTG Daugherty Racing | Brian Pattie |
13 | 66 | Timmy Hill | Port Tobacco, MD | Feb 25, 1993 | 31 | Toyota | LasVegas.net / Diamondback Surveying | MBM Motorsports | Clinton Cram |
14 | 5 | Kyle Larson | Sacremento, CA | Jul 31, 1992 | 32 | Chevrolet | HendrickCars.com | Hendrick Motorsports | Cliff Daniels |
15 | 48 | Alex Bowman | Tuscon, AZ | Apr 25, 1993 | 31 | Chevrolet | Ally / Best Friends | Hendrick Motorsports | Greg Ives |
16 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | High Point, NC | Dec 31, 1993 | 30 | Ford | Menards / Richmond Water Heaters | Team Penske | Todd Gordon |
17 | 7 | Corey Lajoie | Kannapolis, NC | Sep 25, 1991 | 33 | Chevrolet | Youtheory | Spire Motorsports | Ryan Sparks |
18 | 9 | Chase Elliott | Dawsonville, GA | Nov 28, 1995 | 28 | Chevrolet | UniFirst | Hendrick Motorsports | Alan Gustafson |
19 | 21 | Matt DiBenedetto | Grass Valley, CA | Jul 27, 1991 | 33 | Ford | Motorcraft / Quick Lane | Wood Brothers Racing | Greg Erwin |
20 | 17 | Chris Buescher | Prosper, TX | Oct 29, 1992 | 31 | Ford | Roush Performance | RFK Racing | Luke Lambert |
21 | 43 | Erik Jones | Byron, MI | May 30, 1996 | 28 | Chevrolet | Medallion Bank | Richard Petty Motorsports | Jerry Baxter |
22 | 78 | BJ McLeod | Wauchula, FL | Nov 17, 1983 | 40 | Ford | Surface Sunscreen | Live Fast Motorsports | Frank Kerr |
23 | 37 | Ryan Preece | Berlin, CT | Oct 25, 1990 | 33 | Chevrolet | Scott Brand | JTG Daugherty Racing | Trent Owens |
24 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | Monterrey, Mexico | Jan 7, 1992 | 32 | Chevrolet | CommScope | Trackhouse Racing | Travis Mack |
25 | 51 | Cody Ware | Greensboro, NC | Nov 7, 1995 | 28 | Chevrolet | Nurtec ODT | Rick Ware Racing | Mike Hillman Sr |
26 | 42 | Ross Chastain | Alva, FL | Dec 4, 1992 | 31 | Chevrolet | Chevrolet Accessories | Chip Ganassi Racing | Phil Surgen |
27 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | Mobile, AL | Oct 8, 1993 | 31 | Toyota | McDonalds | 23XI Racing | Mike Wheeler |
28 | 24 | William Byron | Charlotte, NC | Nov 29, 1997 | 26 | Chevrolet | Axalta | Hendrick Motorsports | Rudy Fugle |
29 | 41 | Cole Custer | Ladera Ranch, CA | Jan 23, 1998 | 26 | Ford | HaasTooling.com | Stewart-Haas Racing | Davin Restivo |
30 | 53 | Garrett Smithley | Ligonier, PA | Apr 27, 1992 | 32 | Chevrolet | Turf Sellers | Rick Ware Racing | Billy Plourde |
31 | 52 | Josh Bilicki | Menomonee Falls, WI | Jun 3, 1995 | 29 | Ford | Junction Fuels | Rick Ware Racing | Peter Sospenzo |
32 | 8 | Tyler Reddick | Corning, CA | Jan 11, 1996 | 28 | Chevrolet | Quartz Hill Records | Richard Childress Racing | Randall Burnett |
33 | 00 | Quin Houff | Weyers Cave, VA | Sep 15, 1997 | 27 | Chevrolet | Mount-N-Lock | StarCom Racing | George Church |
34 | 77 | Justin Haley | Winamac, IN | Apr 28, 1999 | 25 | Chevrolet | General Formulations | Spire Motorsports | Kevin Bellicourt |
35 | 20 | Christopher Bell | Norman, OK | Dec 16, 1994 | 29 | Toyota | Rheem | Joe Gibbs Racing | Adam Stevens |
36 | 15 | James Davison | Melbourne, Australia | Aug 28, 1986 | 38 | Chevrolet | Smart Sanitizer | Rick Ware Racing | Pat Tryson |
37 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | Mitchell, IN | Dec 15, 1994 | 29 | Ford | HighPoint.com | Stewart-Haas Racing | Johnny Klausmeier |
38 | 38 | Anthony Alfredo | Ridgefield, CT | Mar 1, 1999 | 25 | Ford | MDS Trucking | Front Row Motorsports | Seth Barbour |