Martin Truex Jr. shows even unforced errors can't keep him down in NASCAR playoff opener
JOLIET, Ill. — Brad Keselowski warned us about this.
More provocateur than prophet, Keselowski was outspoken Friday about the dominant performance of Toyotas in practice for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoff opener at Chicagoland Speedway. Not-so-subtly suggesting that Camrys have an unfair advantage, he predicted the sport was in for a “rude awakening.”
That was close. A better description of what race winner and playoff leader Martin Truex Jr. did here was put everybody else to sleep.
Much as he has most of the season, Truex had his Camry up front much of the day. He won with ease, finishing 7.17 seconds – a relative calendar page -- ahead of second-place Chase Elliott (in a Chevrolet) and 10.2 seconds in front of Kevin Harvick (in a Ford), in third. That Keselowski guy? He finished sixth.
Truex, in pursuit of his first Cup championship, rolled into the Chicagoland opener as the big bear in the playoff standings and left even bigger. The race win automatically puts him in the second round, even though his regular-season stage wins and four race victories - which padded his bonus points - already had smoothed his trail to that juncture.
More important is the perception that Sunday left. Truex and his team stumbled in the early part of the race. He was caught speeding on pit road and later had to make an extra pit stop after lug nuts were left off the car during a stop.
Truex didn’t lose a lap, however, putting him in position to charge to the front. He was relentless.
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“We kept our heads down and kept digging and fighting,” Truex said. "It’s important to come here and not let the pressure get to you and I think we did a good job of that."
Kyle Busch represented the opposite of Truex. Busch won the pole for the race and was the most combative driver in reaction to Keselowski’s remarks about Toyotas, telling Keselowski through Twitter to shut his piehole (or an abbreviation to that effect).
The stage was set for Busch to play stormtrooper, blitzing through the field, leading a ton of laps and winning easily. The day started that way, as he led 78 of 80 laps in the race’s first stage, basically embarrassing the rest of the field.
Then the wheels (almost literally) came off.
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Sixteen laps after the stage-one win, Busch drove onto pit road because of a loose wheel. Perhaps a bit too anxious to correct that mistake, members of his crew - a crew that Joe Gibbs Racing had swapped with that of Daniel Suarez in hopes of giving Busch an extra edge in the playoff run - jumped over the pit wall too soon, slapping Busch with a drive-through penalty.
Suddenly, he went from dynamite to dog, two laps down and virtually forgotten in the race for opening-round glory.
After finishing 15th, he said the team will have discussions about the pit crew before next week's race but stopped short of overt criticism.
No one would be surprised if new guys are wearing Busch’s team colors at New Hampshire Motor Speedway next weekend.
Meanwhile, Truex increased his season-leading total of laps led to 1,723 and rides into New Hampshire and Delaware for the next two races with absolutely no pressure.
He had a tough Toyota on Sunday. As Keselowski predicted.
Follow Hembree on Twitter @mikehembree
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