ROANOKE, Va. – Three times in the winner’s circle at Martinsville Speedway is nice for Martin Truex, Jr.
The 40-year-old who races for Joe Gibbs captured the Blu-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 on Sunday in a race that was resumed from Saturday night due to weather.
Truex made the winning pass with 15 laps to go that got him in the lead, and he held on from there.
“His [Denny Hamlin] car really flipped the switch so at that point, I was like, ‘I know I can get by I just know I need to be patient,’” said Truex Jr.
“There’s no point in pushing with plenty of laps left and the 9 [Chase Elliott] was pretty far back. For some reason our car really turned on when the lights went down and it’s always good when our plan comes together and it works out the way you hoped it would.”
In the opening 42 laps of the race that were run on Saturday night, Denny Hamlin showed us that he had the car speed that could lead him to victory lane. When the race resumed on Sunday afternoon, Hamlin still had top speed and had just one challenger to worry about.
That challenger would be the driver of the 12-car, Ryan Blaney. He would pass Hamlin on lap 75 to take the lead and eventually a Stage 1 victory.
On lap 241, the caution flag came out after Cody Ware cut a tire. Another one came out on lap 251 when Ryan Newman and Matt DiBenedetto made contact in turn 2. Upon the restart, Ryan Blaney held the lead and would claim Stage 2.