Joe Gibbs Toyota ace Truex wins NASCAR Dover race from back of grid – NASCAR

Martin Truex Jr stormed from the back of the NASCAR Cup Series field to take his second victory of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing in the rescheduled Dover race.

Truex was sent to the back ahead of the race after his Toyota machine failed pre-race inspection prior to yesterday’s abandoned race.

The 2017 champion made up 16 places in the first 20 laps and was running in 17th position when the competition caution flew on lap 40 of 400.

The #19 then rose to 10th place by the end of stage one, (won by reigning Cup champion Joey Logano) and was able to begin to challenge the leading gaggle of Logano, pole-sitter Chase Elliott and fellow back-row starter, Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports.

Bowman moved past Elliott into the lead with just 15 laps in stage two remaining and looked set to take his maiden Cup Series stage victory before a mistake on the final lap in traffic allowed Truex to nip through and take the segment victory.

After winning the race off pitroad at the beginning of the final stage, Truex was unbeaten thereafter, except for in the pitstop cycle, around mid-way through the 160-lapper.

He pulled away from Bowman to take victory by 9.5s, having led 132 laps, the second-highest of the race behind Elliott’s 146.

Bowman took second place for the second consecutive race, finishing as the lead Chevrolet runner, just ahead of Chip Ganassi’s Kyle Larson.

Kevin Harvick led a solitary lap for Stewart-Haas Ford, coming home in fourth as the highest-placed Blue Oval car.

Eliott, who started from a sixth career pole, dominated the opening stage of the race but was undone by a caution on lap 105 when Ricky Stenhouse Jr hit the wall in his Roush-Fenway Racing #17 Mustang entry.

Logano and William Bryon each took only two tyres at the resulting stops, enough to jump ahead of Elliott, who suffered from a slow stop.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver was then unable to challenge at the front, finishing sixth, 17 seconds behind winner Truex.

Erik Jones ran strongly for JGR, and took seventh, ahead of Logano, William Byron and Clint Bowyer.

Kyle Busch maintained his record of finishing every Cup race this season inside the top 10, by finishing 10th for JGR, thus equalling the all-time series record in the process.

Race result