LOS ANGELES — Martin Truex Jr. played bumper cars better than the rest of the record 27-car field at NASCAR’s first race of the season.
Truex Jr. took a methodical approach to the weekend, picking his moment before grabbing the lead 25 laps remaining and holding on to win The Clash at the L.A. Coliseum on Sunday night.
“To persevere and rise above, we found ourselves at the right spot at the end,” Truex Jr. said. “Sometime it works out our way, sometimes it don’t. Tonight it went our way.”
Truex Jr., who did not win a race in 2022, claims his first The Clash victory and received NASCAR’s first ever gold medal for the victory.
“I have a lot of fire in my belly to change what happened last season,” Truex Jr. said. “Last year was a pretty rough season for us so to come out here and kick it off this way, it’s just a good feeling to win a race.”
Truex Jr. qualified 22nd on Saturday and won Heat No. 2 to qualify on the starting line for the main event, then waited for his moment to claim the lead.
“Luckily, I got a good jump and was able to make it clear. You just try to get a good jump and try not to mess it up,” Truex Jr. said.
Eric Amirola qualified fifth on Saturday then won Heat No. 1 early Sunday to earn the pole position for the main event, but was under pressure from the start and fell all the way to 18th.
Denny Hamlin grabbed the lead from Amirola but was pinched by Bubba Wallace on the restart ahead of Lap 44 and fell all the way to 12th before finishing ninth.
Wallace was dominant for 39 laps but Ryan Preece squeezed past on Lap 84 and went on to pace an event-best 44 laps before Truex Jr. made his pass inside Turn 4.
“It was fun to race with (Preece) and he’s a great talent,” Truex Jr. “If he hadn’t of had issues it might have been a different story.”
Wallace, running second with seven laps remaining, was spun by Austin Dillon and finished 22nd as the last car running. Preece’s car was felled by electrical trouble and he finished seventh.
Dillon, who finished third last year, kept in line and benefitted from an event record 16 restarts to place second.
“I saved it three times, was working the brakes all night,” Dillon said. “I had a shot at Truex at the end, so that was nice.”
Kyle Busch, who finished second last year and qualified second this year, was spun by last year’s race winner Joey Logano with 64 laps to go and send to the back of the pack but battled all the way back to finish third.
“It was a battle all night long. You can’t count us out. You can’t bet against us,” Busch said. “Everyone would get bottled up and start bumper tagging and I’d just go around them on the outside.”
Alex Bowman was fourth and Kyle Larson took fifth. In all, there were four lead changes among six drivers.
William Byron was the only driver to lead a heat race from start to finish to top Heat No. 4. He ran as high as third but finished 10th.
Ty Gibbs, whose car caught fire yesterday during practice and was unable to qualify, made it to the main event via ‘Last Chance Qualifier No. 2’ but was only able to complete 81 laps before crashing out.
“I guess it’s called ‘The Clash’ for a reason. It (stinks),” Gibbs said.
Justin Haley, who had the top car in qualifying on Saturday, was running eighth when he was spun with 44 laps to go and finished 11th.
Stay connected with us on social media platform for instant update click here to join our Twitter, & Facebook
We are now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@TechiUpdate) and stay updated with the latest Technology headlines.
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
