{"id":25054,"date":"2019-05-07T18:19:27","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T22:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/?p=25054"},"modified":"2019-05-07T18:19:46","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T22:19:46","slug":"martin-truex-jr-takes-gander-rv-400-monster-energy-nascar-cup-series-race-for-his-third-career-dover-international-speedway-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/2019\/05\/martin-truex-jr-takes-gander-rv-400-monster-energy-nascar-cup-series-race-for-his-third-career-dover-international-speedway-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Truex Jr. takes \u201cGander RV 400\u201d Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race for his third career Dover International Speedway victory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Martin Truex Jr. takes \u201cGander RV 400\u201d Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race for his third career Dover International Speedway victory<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DOVER, Del. (May 6, 2019) \u2013 <\/strong>It was another magic Monday for Martin Truex Jr. at Dover International Speedway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Almost 12 years ago, the Mayetta, N.J., native won his first career NASCAR Cup Series race at the Monster Mile in an event that was postponed one day because of weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s \u201cGander RV 400\u201d Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, following another weather postponement, Truex earned his 21st career NASCAR Cup Series win, and received a golden Monster Trophy for his efforts as part of Dover International Speedway\u2019s 50th anniversary celebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re two for two on Mondays here,\u201d Truex said. \u201cI saw the trophy in the driver\u2019s meeting yesterday and I said that\u2019s pretty awesome,\u201d Truex said. \u201cThat golden one is special. It\u2019s pretty awesome to win on the 50th anniversary of Dover International Speedway.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truex, driving the No. 19 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, beat runner-up Alex Bowman to the checkered flag by 9.501 seconds, completing the 400 laps with an average speed of 127.242 mph across 3:08:37. It\u2019s Truex\u2019s third NASCAR Cup Series win at Dover and he\u2019s the 17th driver to earn three or more Monster Mile wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis track is a big reason why I got where I\u2019m at,\u201d said Truex, who ran several Busch North Series (now the K&N Pro Series East) races at the Monster Mile while making his way up through the stock car ranks. \u201cWithout tracks like this, I wouldn\u2019t have been able to put myself in position to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truex\u2019s challenge was even more daunting after starting in the rear of the field at the race\u2019s start due to a weekend inspection failure and he hadn\u2019t made it to the top 10 by the end of the first stage (won by Joey Logano) at Lap 120. His first lap led was the final one of the second stage after he edged Bowman back to the stripe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there, Truex won the scramble off pit road, and controlled the race, taking the lead for the final time when Daniel Suarez was forced to pit on Lap 348. In all, Truex led 132 laps, just shy of Chase Elliott\u2019s race-high 145.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStarting in the back was a challenge,\u201d said Cole Pearn, Truex\u2019s crew chief. \u201cWe had a really good car Saturday in practice. Martin did a great job getting through traffic. We were able to manage the race from that point on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s seventh victory in 11 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races this season and the second for Truex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big deal for us,\u201d team owner Joe Gibbs said. \u201cIn pro sports, these things can come and go pretty quick. The hardest thing to do is stay up there. Our guys have done a great job adjusting to this package. We\u2019re going to enjoy each one of these. The goal is to stay up there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was just the third out of Dover\u2019s 99 NASCAR Cup Series races to be postponed to a Monday due to weather. The previous Monday races came on May 19, 1975 (won by David Pearson) and Truex\u2019s first win on June 4, 2007.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bowman also started from the back following a weekend inspection failure before finishing second, followed by Kyle Larson in third, Kevin Harvick fourth and Elliott in fifth. Eleven cars finished on the lead lap in a race that featured 11 leaders, 15 lead changes and six caution flags for 31 laps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo come here to, in my opinion, the hardest race track we go to, and run like that from the back of all things, was pretty special,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cThis is the physically hardest race of the year for me for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Monster Mile\u2019s 50th Anniversary celebration continues on Oct. 4-6 with another NASCAR tripleheader weekend. The schedule features the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East race on Friday, Oct. 4, the NASCAR Xfinity Series playoff race on Saturday, Oct. 5 and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoff race on Sunday, Oct. 6. The Oct. 6, 2019, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoff race will be the 100th NASCAR Cup Series race in track history. Dover International Speedway will be the 10th track in the nation to host 100 NASCAR Cup Series races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep up to date on all 50th Anniversary announcements and schedules by visiting DoverSpeedway.com or calling (800) 441-RACE. You can also keep up with all track activities at Facebook.com\/DoverInternationalSpeedway, or on Twitter and Instagram at @MonsterMile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Martin Truex Jr. takes \u201cGander RV 400\u201d Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race for his third career Dover International Speedway victory DOVER, Del. (May 6, 2019) \u2013 It was another magic Monday for Martin Truex Jr. at Dover International Speedway. Almost 12 years ago, the Mayetta, N.J., native won his first career NASCAR Cup Series race […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,16,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nascar","category-touring-series-news","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25055,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25054\/revisions\/25055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newenglandracingnews.com\/16\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}