Defending Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. captured his fourth win of the season in the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky. Truex started from the pole and dominated the race by leading five times for a race-high of 174 laps.
“Thanks to everybody for their support and making all this possible – Toyota, TRD (Toyota Racing Development), Bass Pro Shops, 5-hour ENERGY, Furniture Row, Denver Mattress, Auto-Owners Insurance, of course, being our primary tonight and so many people that make this possible. I’m just the lucky guy who gets to drive the car. Pretty exciting night for us and two in a row at a race track is pretty cool,” Truex said.
Just like his win last season, Truex also swept the first two stages of the race. The victory marked the second in a row for Truex on the 1.5-mile track. In two years of stage racing in Kentucky, Truex has won each stage at the facility.
“You never know how these races are going to play out. You never know what is going to happen and we had such a strong Toyota tonight. They weren’t going to beat us,” Truex said.
Ryan Blaney finished second, Brad Keselowski third, Kyle Busch fourth and Kevin Harvick finished fifth.
“It’s not a win. It’s a positive, that’s for sure. I hate it. I thought we were in a good spot there restarting fourth and Martin struggled a little bit the first couple laps and I thought I could get by him, but just couldn’t quite get a run on him. His car came in and mine kind of faded a little bit and he won the race. That stunk. I thought we had a shot at it tonight, but I’m really proud of the gains we made all race though, to be honest with you,” Blaney said about his runner-up finish.
Busch holds the series points lead by 59 over Harvick. Truex Jr. is in third, 110 points back, Joey Logano fourth (-151) and Keselowski fifth (-169).
The next NASCAR Cup Series race is Sunday July 22 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.
Unofficial Race Results
Kentucky Speedway
Saturday, July 14th
1. Martin Truex Jr.
2. Ryan Blaney
3. Brad Keselowski
4. Kyle Busch
5. Kevin Harvick
6. Kurt Busch
7. Erik Jones
8. Aric Almirola
9. Kyle Larson
10. Joey Logano
11. Paul Menard
12. Clint Bowyer
13. Chase Elliott
14. Jimmie Johnson
15. Daniel Suarez
16. Denny Hamlin
17. Jamie McMurray
18. David Ragan
19. Matt Kenseth
20. William Byron
21. Ryan Newman
22. Austin Dillon
23. Chris Buescher
24. Michael McDowell
25. Kasey Kahne
26. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
27. Bubba Wallace
28. Ross Chastain
29. Ty Dillon
30. AJ Allmendinger
31. Corey LaJoie
32. BJ McLeod
33. Landon Cassill
34. Timmy Hill
35. Jesse Little
36. Garrett Smithley
37. Matt DiBenedetto
38. JJ Yeley
39. Alex Bowman
