Martin Truex Jr. wins Dover as four drivers bounced from Chase

Martin Truex Jr. won Dover as Jamie McMurray (right) and three other drivers were eliminated from the Chase. (AP)

 

Martin Truex Jr. has established himself as NASCAR’s 2016 championship favorite as Tony Stewart’s championship hopes in his final season came to a close.

Truex ran a simply dominating Dover race, his second win of the Chase. While points reset heading into the next round of the Chase, momentum does not, and Truex and his team are simply the most efficient operation on the track right now. This win marked Truex’s fourth on the year.

Truex held off Kyle Busch for the win, with Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski, and Matt Kenseth rounding out the top five.

The rain-delayed Xfinity race ran earlier in the morning, providing an unexpected benefit: a rubbered-in track that allowed drivers to run high lanes right from the start. Keselowski held the early lead, but Truex and Busch soon claimed their own time at the front. The leaders caught the back of the pack just 16 laps into the race, and by the end of the long green flag runs that concluded the race, only six cars were on the lead lap.

A tire issue and a broken track bar mount sent Kevin Harvick, along with Truex the only driver with nothing to worry about in this race, to the garage at lap 40. Harvick’s win last week advanced him to the next round of the Chase. Also advancing: Kyle Busch, Keselowski, Kenseth, Joey Logano, Elliott, Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, and Austin Dillon.

The drivers trying to avoid elimination had a range of problems that ended up obliterating their championship hopes. Kyle Larson went three laps down just 45 laps into the race after compounding a power problem with a pit-road penalty. Jamie McMurray lost a cylinder. Tony Stewart was never able to stay on the lead lap. And Chris Buescher couldn’t hang with the bigger names and bigger teams.

The Chase now moves to home turf in Charlotte for a Saturday evening race. Truex won the Coca-Cola 600 there earlier this year; it wouldn’t be a surprise at all to see him take down another Charlotte victory.