{"id":15515,"date":"2018-03-18T18:50:14","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T23:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=15515"},"modified":"2018-03-18T22:11:33","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T03:11:33","slug":"martin-truex-jr-answers-doubters-with-dominating-win-at-fontana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/03\/18\/martin-truex-jr-answers-doubters-with-dominating-win-at-fontana\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Truex Jr. answers doubters with dominating win at Fontana"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #78 Bass Pro Shops\/5-hour ENERGY Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway on March 18, 2018 in Fontana, California. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

FONTANA, Calif. \u2013 Martin Truex Jr.<\/strong> drove three things on Sunday afternoon at Auto Club Speedway.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #78 Bass Pro Shops\/5-hour ENERGY Toyota, takes the checkered flag to win the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway on March 18, 2018 in Fontana, California. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

First, he drove the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota to a dominating victory in the Auto Club 400, the fifth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> race of the season.<\/p>\n

Second, he drove a time machine, turning back the clock to 2017 when his mastery of stage racing propelled him to his first series championship.<\/p>\n

Truex\u2019s effort in Sunday\u2019s race was every bit as overwhelming as his most convincing triumphs of last season. He started from the pole, then swept the first two stages and the victory, leading 125 of 200 laps and beating runner-up Kyle Larson to the finish line by a whopping 11.685 seconds.<\/p>\n

Finally, Truex drove home a point, that those who doubted he could continue the excellent performance that led to the title just might be wrong.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #78 Bass Pro Shops\/5-hour ENERGY Toyota, celebrates with a burnout after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway on March 18, 2018 in Fontana, California. (Photo by Robert Laberge\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cPeople kept asking \u2018When are you going to win again? When are you going to win one of these stages?\u2019 said Truex, who went to Victory Lane eight times last year. \u201cWell, there you go.\u201d<\/p>\n

The victory was Truex\u2019s first at Fontana and the 16th of his career.<\/p>\n

Truex\u2019s form, however, wasn\u2019t the overriding question entering the race. Kevin Harvick entered the event riding a wave of three straight wins and was the heavy favorite to win a fourth, having dominated Saturday\u2019s practices in race trim.<\/p>\n

But Harvick\u2019s bid came to an abrupt end on Lap 38, when contact with Larson\u2019s No. 42 Chevrolet under extremely hard racing sent Harvick\u2019s No. 4 Ford into the outside backstretch wall, crippling the car. Larson recovered, but Harvick was consigned to a 35th-place finish, nine laps down.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #78 Bass Pro Shops\/5-hour ENERGY Toyota, places the winner’s decal on his car after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway on March 18, 2018 in Fontana, California. (Photo by Sarah Crabill\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

That left Toyota drivers Truex and Kyle Busch to battle for the lead throughout the middle portion of the race, with Truex prevailing in decisive fashion and Busch ultimately finishing third behind Larson, who fought a vibration in his Chevrolet and had to charge through the field on three occasions after precautionary pit stops.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of weird issues, vibrations, and different stuff that happened where we had to restart at the back and drive back forward,\u201d said Larson, who saw his streak of four straight Cup victories on two-mile tracks end with the runner-up finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed like we could always get to third or fourth and kind of stall out there. Still, a really good day. The 78 (Truex) was really good. I think the 4 (Harvick)\u2014he didn\u2019t get to race a lot, but he was probably the best car again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #78 Bass Pro Shops\/5-hour ENERGY Toyota, leads the field to green to start the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway on March 18, 2018 in Fontana, California. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Truex might dispute that, having picked up all seven available playoff points and taken over the series lead by nine points over Kyle Busch in second.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew we really had a good race car after the first adjustment of the race,\u201d Truex said. \u201cThe thing just came alive. From there it was just about managing my tires and being smart. We had a little trouble getting beat out of the pits, and that was tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point we fell back to fifth, and then we needed to work our way back up. I really just needed to take care of my front tires, and once we got some clean air, this thing was unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joey Logano (fifth Sunday) and Brad Keselowski (fourth) are third and fourth in points, respectively. Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney, Jimmie Johnson and Austin Dillon completed the top 10 in the Auto Club 400.<\/p>\n

Harvick dropped from first to eighth in the series standings.<\/p>\n

Media Center Interviews:<\/h3>\n

Martin Truex Jr. – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MENCS_ACS_TRUEX_031818.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Cole Pern and Barney Visser – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MENCS_ACS_VISSERGARONE_031818.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kyle Larson and Brad  Keselowski – <\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MENCS_ACS_LARSONKESELOWSKI_031818.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race – Auto Club 400<\/b><\/p>\n

Auto Club Speedway<\/b><\/p>\n

Fontana, California<\/b><\/p>\n

Sunday, March 18, 2018<\/b><\/p>\n

               1. (1) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 200.<\/p>\n

               2. (3) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 200.<\/p>\n

               3. (2) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 200.<\/p>\n

               4. (11) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 200.<\/p>\n

               5. (6) Joey Logano, Ford, 200.<\/p>\n

               6. (25) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 200.<\/p>\n

               7. (4) Erik Jones, Toyota, 200.<\/p>\n

               8. (8) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 200.<\/p>\n

               9. (33) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 200.<\/p>\n

               10. (5) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 200.<\/p>\n

               11. (26) Clint Bowyer, Ford, 199.<\/p>\n

               12. (27) Aric Almirola, Ford, 199.<\/p>\n

               13. (28) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet, 199.<\/p>\n

               14. (7) Kurt Busch, Ford, 199.<\/p>\n

               15. (29) William Byron #, Chevrolet, 199.<\/p>\n

               16. (31) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 199.<\/p>\n

               17. (15) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 199.<\/p>\n

               18. (16) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 199.<\/p>\n

               19. (14) Paul Menard, Ford, 199.<\/p>\n

               20. (19) Darrell Wallace Jr. #, Chevrolet, 199.<\/p>\n

               21. (9) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 199.<\/p>\n

               22. (32) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 199.<\/p>\n

               23. (30) Daniel Suarez, Toyota, 199.<\/p>\n

               24. (34) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 199.<\/p>\n

               25. (21) David Ragan, Ford, 199.<\/p>\n

               26. (22) Michael McDowell, Ford, 199.<\/p>\n

               27. (17) Ty Dillon, Chevrolet, 198.<\/p>\n

               28. (37) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 198.<\/p>\n

               29. (36) Ross Chastain(i), Chevrolet, 198.<\/p>\n

               30. (12) Chris Buescher, Chevrolet, 197.<\/p>\n

               31. (18) Matt DiBenedetto, Ford, 196.<\/p>\n

               32. (20) Gray Gaulding, Toyota, 194.<\/p>\n

               33. (35) Timmy Hill(i), Chevrolet, 193.<\/p>\n

               34. (24) * Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 193.<\/p>\n

               35. (10) Kevin Harvick, Ford, 191.<\/p>\n

               36. (23) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Chevrolet, 189.<\/p>\n

               37. (13) Trevor Bayne, Ford, Accident, 108.<\/p>\n

Average Speed of Race Winner:  147.526 mph.<\/p>\n

Time of Race:  2 Hrs., 42 Mins, 41 Secs. Margin of Victory:  11.685 Seconds.<\/p>\n

Caution Flags:  5 for 21 laps.<\/p>\n

Lead Changes:  16 among 7 drivers.<\/p>\n

Lap Leaders:   M. Truex Jr. 1-10; Kyle Busch 11-28; J. McMurray 29; Kyle Busch 30; M. Truex Jr. 31-63; J. Logano 64-72; M. Truex Jr. 73-89; Kyle Busch 90-93; M. Truex Jr. 94-123; Kyle Busch 124-130; K. Kahne 131; W. Byron # 132; Kyle Busch 133-160; M. Truex Jr. 161-163; D. Hamlin 164; Kyle Busch 165-168; M. Truex Jr. 169-200.<\/p>\n

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Lead, Laps Led):  M. Truex Jr. 6 times for 125 laps; Kyle Busch 6 times for 62 laps; J. Logano 1 time for 9 laps; W. Byron # 1 time for 1 lap; J. McMurray 1 time for 1 lap; D. Hamlin 1 time for 1 lap; K. Kahne 1 time for 1 lap.<\/p>\n

Stage #1 Top Ten: 78,18,22,2,48,42,41,20,14,11<\/p>\n

Stage #2 Top Ten: 78,2,18,11,20,22,48,42,14,24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service FONTANA, Calif. \u2013 Martin Truex Jr. drove three things on Sunday afternoon at Auto Club Speedway. First, he drove the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota to a dominating victory in the Auto Club 400, the fifth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the season. Second, he drove […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[401,399,244,16],"class_list":["post-15515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-auto-club-400","tag-auto-club-speedway","tag-martin-truex-jr","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/MENCS_ACS_TRUEXVL_031818-e1521428768153.jpg?fit=640%2C427","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-42f","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15515"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15533,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15515\/revisions\/15533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}