Martin Truex comes from behind to win Cup Series playoff race at Richmond

By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer

RICHMOND, Va. – Martin Truex snapped a 15-race winless streak, but it didn’t start all that easy Saturday night at Richmond Raceway.

Penalized on the opening lap of the race for jumping the start, Truex easily rallied from the back of the field into the top-10 over the first 75 laps and led 79 of the final 132 laps on the way to his fourth victory of the 2021 season.

"We had a lot of tough luck and a lot of crashes and got caught in the rain a few times," Truex said about his summer. "Some crazy things happened to us.

"I felt like we brought good speed all summer. We had good cars for the most part."

The win propelled the Joe Gibbs Racing driver into the second (quarterfinal) round of the playoffs, where he will be joined by teammate Denny Hamlin (last week’s Darlington winner) and Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson (in on points after a sixth-place finish Sunday). The final nine spots will be determined next Saturday night when the opening round ends at Bristol.

The driver to take the biggest tumble at Richmond was Kurt Busch when a cut tire in the opening stage ended his day. Busch entered the race 26 points above the cutline and left tied for the final playoff spot with Alex Bowman.

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The four winless drivers in the round who are the lowest in points at Bristol will be eliminated from championship contention.

Takeaways from Richmond:

Truex rebounds from his mistake

They say in the playoffs a team and driver can’t beat themselves. But it isn’t so much about not making mistakes as it is if a driver does make a mistake, hope that it comes early enough that there is time to rebound.

Truex’s issue came when he was starting second on the front row and he beat Hamlin, considered the control car for the start of the race, to the starting line. He had to drive down pit road at the designated pit-road speed.

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Truex was miffed at the penalty.

"I was like, ‘This is ridiculous, but I'm already last now, so there's nothing I can do except for go forward,’" Truex said.

"I don't really understand what you're supposed to do in that situation. I let the 11 [of Hamlin] get a nose out in front of me to get the launch first. I wasn't going to jump him, and then he spun the tires and stopped. What am I supposed to do, stand on the brakes and crash the field behind me?"

Elliott makes too many mistakes

Defending Cup champion Chase Elliott sits 19 points above the cutline after placing fourth at Richmond. He appeared to potentially have a shot at the win until a pit stop where he was first hit by Ross Chastain as Elliott tried to enter his stall. It was compounded by Elliott backing up on pit road and breaking the jack, not realizing the team had begun servicing the car.

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"I don’t know what I would have done any different," Elliott said. "I guess [Chastain] go is a safe thing, but it’s so close and always hard to tell kind of when they’re going to get done on the left side.

"I hate that. I thought I was long in the box and backed up out of a precautionary measure."

Team Penske still behind

Although all three of its drivers are above the current cutoff when hoping to advance to the next round, Team Penske still appears behind Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports in the playoffs.

Joey Logano salvaged a fifth-place finish Saturday, while Ryan Blaney was 10th and Brad Keselowski was 13th.

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"There’s no doubt we’re a little behind right now," Logano said. "We just have to stay focused on ourselves. ... Maybe a little discouraged because this is our best race track. We were probably expecting a little bit more here.

"Looking at the spring race, ... I was in the mix with those guys in the spring and able to actually pass the 11 [of Hamlin] in the long haul. Tonight, there was no chance of that. I couldn’t see him on the long haul."

Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!