- In Monday’s rain-delayed Crayon 301, Martin Truex Jr. dominated the New Hampshire race to record his 34th career Cup victory.
- The win was and his third this season, two of which have come in Monday events.
- Truex led five times for 254 of the 301 laps.
Martin Truex Jr. was 12 years old when he first visited New Hampshire Motor Speedway with his family. They sat in turn one while his mother bottle-fed his younger brother Ryan, who was about 4 months old.
At that time, Truex’s father raced in NASCAR’s Busch North Series, which sometimes competed with NASCAR’s Busch Series, and as soon as he was old enough, he was in the one-mile track’s garage.
“This is the first place I saw Cup cars and Busch cars and the drivers walking around,” Truex says.
It was a Busch North/Busch series combination race when Dale Earnhardt’s Busch Series entry was parked nose-to-nose with the car driven by Truex’s father. The boy stood in awe and watched Earnhardt work on his car’s carburetor.
“Some of my most fond early memories of racing was coming up here,” Truex says. “We always had to go home (before the Cup race) because after Dad raced, we’d leave, but I remember watching them practice and just being around the cars, watching them push them around the garage through tech. For a young kid that only watched it on TV, that was pretty awesome. Thinking my dad was hanging out with them was pretty cool.”
The elder Truex knew in 2000 it was time to step out of the car and focus on his son’s career when in the younger Truex’s rookie season in the Busch North Series, he won in only his second time at the one-mile track. He recalls being “shocked” that day.
“He really paved the way for me,” Truex says. “He’s like, ‘You’re too good. I need to give you my cars, the best equipment I have and put everything behind you.’”
Truex initially objected, but his father insisted. When they returned to Loudon later that year for the NASCAR Busch North Series July event the son was the team’s No. 1 driver.
“He gave me his car and his engine, and I came here and sat on the pole and led every lap and won the race,” recalls Truex. “It’s crazy to think that was 23 years ago.”
Since moving into NASCAR’s Cup Series, Truex has desperately wanted to win at New Hampshire. Throughout his career, no matter how well his car performed in the race, it seemed victory eluded him until this year.
In Monday’s rain-delayed Crayon 301, Truex dominated the New Hampshire race to record his 34th career Cup victory and his third victory this season, two of which have come in Monday events.
Truex, who led five times for 254 laps, said he didn’t even know if he would get to race one day when he traveled to New Hampshire to watch his dad race. Now, he doesn’t know if he will return in 2024. It’s a decision he knows he has to make soon, but he admits he doesn’t make big decisions quickly.
Crew chief James Small says no matter what Truex decides he and the team will support him.
“We’re just a close-knit group and we’re just a bunch of mates going racing,” Small says.
Busch Exits Early
After starting in the rear due to unapproved adjustments for Monday’s rain-delayed Crayon 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch found himself sidelined after just 71 laps.
Busch’s Chevrolet hit the wall on the final lap of Stage 1, which ended on lap 70.
“I’ve been lacking right-rear grip the whole time we’ve been here,” Busch says. “Just couldn’t get the right-rear feel in the race track. It was getting late in the run, and I was trying a different line and it was just too high. I couldn’t give it wheel and have the right-rear stick with the lateral grip that you need.”
It was the fourth race Busch has failed to finish this season. He crashed out of the Daytona 500 and the May Kansas race, and his Chevrolet suffered suspension issues at the Bristol dirt event.
Harvick Let’s Down His Guard; Plans Other Business Ventures
With Kevin Harvick’s final season as a NASCAR Cup driver half over, the California native says he now feels comfortable in letting down his guard.
“You don’t have to hide what you think about really anything just because of the fact that next year is different,” Harvick says. “For years, I didn’t want everybody to really know what I thought … or know too much about you, because you can put yourself in a position where people know your weaknesses or strong points. The less you say, the less they know. That’s not really relevant this year, and it’s been fun to kind of just let your guard down and say what you think.”
Harvick’s business plans following the season finale in November are already in progress. He’s opened an E-Z-GO cart dealership in Mooresville, North Carolina. Harvick has been going through the “new look” for KHI and KHI Management, and preparing several late models and super late models that drivers under the KHI Management umbrella will race next year. Races on the agenda include the Snowball Derby in Pensacola, Florida, the Slinger Nationals in Slinger, Wisconsin, and the late model races at the Nashville Fairgrounds in Tennessee.
“Dale (Earnhardt) Jr. warned me of this, that I would be busier when I got out of the car than I was in the car.” Harvick said. “In the car, I already had an excuse to not do things. Out of the car, you have no excuse to not do anything. So, I’m learning that quickly, but I will have control of my schedule after I get done with the first half of FOX as far as what I do on the weekends. During the week, I have to week. My wife would kill me if I didn’t work. If I was home every day, I’d be a big problem. We would have way too many projects going on.”
Harvick, who finished fourth in Monday’s rain-delayed Crayon 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, also co-owns the CARS Tour with Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon and Justin Marks.
“I’m starting to realize the impact you can make for the racers and the sport in general to help progress it in a great direction,” Harvick says. “That’s been kind of a learning curve of the impact you can have on things.”
Allmendinger: Playing Field Never Level
Despite people’s belief that the current NASCAR Cup car levels the playing field, A.J. Allmendinger says a level playing field is a fallacy.
“The good teams are still really good,” Allmendinger says with a laugh. “I think the biggest thing was last year no team had any parts. You couldn’t develop anything. Literally, you were just trying to get the car to the race track. It’s never level, the good teams are still going to shine.”
Allmendinger finished 19th in Monday’s rain-delayed Crayon 301 NASCAR Cup race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
Results
NASCAR Cup Series Race - Crayon 301
New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Loudon, New Hampshire
- (2) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 301.
- (4) Joey Logano, Ford, 301.
- (15) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 301.
- (13) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 301.
- (9) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 301.
- (6) Tyler Reddick, Toyota, 301.
- (20) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 301.
- (8) Bubba Wallace, Toyota, 301.
- (11) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 301.
- (27) Chase Briscoe, Ford, 301.
- (30) Erik Jones, Chevrolet, 301.
- (18) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 301.
- (17) Michael McDowell, Ford, 301.
- (25) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 301.
- (26) Chris Buescher, Ford, 301.
- (12) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet, 301.
- (19) Justin Haley, Chevrolet, 301.
- (16) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet, 301.
- (14) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 301.
- (28) Harrison Burton, Ford, 301.
- (23) Todd Gilliland, Ford, 301.
- (5) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 301.
- (31) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet, 301.
- (7) William Byron, Chevrolet, 301.
- (22) Austin Cindric, Ford, 301.
- (35) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 301.
- (36) Ty Gibbs #, Toyota, 301.
- (21) Ryan Preece, Ford, 300.
- (1) Christopher Bell, Toyota, 299.
- (33) Ryan Newman, Ford, 299.
- (32) BJ McLeod, Chevrolet, 295.
- (29) Noah Gragson #, Chevrolet, Accident, 268.
- (24) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet, 176.
- (3) Aric Almirola, Ford, Accident, 168.
- (34) Cole Custer(i), Ford, Accident, 130.
- (10) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet, Accident, 71.
Average Speed of Race Winner: 101.572 mph.
Time of Race: 3 Hrs, 8 Mins, 7 Secs. Margin of Victory: .396 Seconds.
Caution Flags: 8 for 41 laps.
Lead Changes: 13 among 9 drivers.
Lap Leaders: C. Bell 1;M. Truex Jr. 2-30;R. Stenhouse Jr. 31-33;W. Byron 34-42;M. Truex Jr. 43-164;A. Almirola 165-168;K. Larson 169-174;M. Truex Jr. 175-236;J. Logano 237-238;K. Harvick 239-244;A. Dillon 245-256;M. Truex Jr. 257-273;K. Harvick 274-277;M. Truex Jr. 278-301.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led): Martin Truex Jr. 5 times for 254 laps; Austin Dillon 1 time for 12 laps; Kevin Harvick 2 times for 10 laps; William Byron 1 time for 9 laps; Kyle Larson 1 time for 6 laps; Aric Almirola 1 time for 4 laps; Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 1 time for 3 laps; Joey Logano 1 time for 2 laps; Christopher Bell 1 time for 1 lap.
Stage #1 Top Ten: 19,24,45,10,12,20,11,99,22,34
Stage #2 Top Ten: 19,5,22,12,11,4,48,6,45,20
