Martin Truex Jr. is certainly making a bold statement about both his championship determination and his racing ability by taking the trophies in both the opening 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoff races. And the bad news for his competitors is that this week’s Bank of America ROVAL 400 (Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) has probably been circled on his calendar from shortly after the checkered flag flew in last year’s race.
Truex was leading on the last lap of the 2018 inaugural ROVAL race when his Toyota tangled with a hard-charging Jimmie Johnson’s Chevrolet during the final series of turns – within eyesight of the finish line. Instead of hoisting a trophy, Truex finished 14th.
There has literally been no one better than Truex on the road courses of late. In the last six road course races in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup competition, the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has three wins and two runner-up finishes. He won his second consecutive race at Sonoma Raceway in June and finished runner-up to Chase Elliott at Watkins Glen International in August.
Momentum is something the New Jersey-native Truex has in abundance. With his win at the Playoff opener in Las Vegas two weeks ago followed by another at Richmond on Saturday, he now has a series’ high six wins and amazingly, it marks the first time the 2017 series champion has won back-to-back races in his Cup career. Since 2016, Truex has eight Playoff race wins – most in the field during that time frame.
With Sunday’s race the first “elimination” race in this season’s Playoffs, so much is on the line. Twelve of the 16 drivers will advance to Round of 12 still fighting for a championship. And the Playoff standings are extremely tight around the cutoff mark.
Second-year Monster Energy Series driver William Byron goes into the Charlotte ROVAL sitting in the pivotal 12th position. He holds only a two-point edge on 13th place Alex Bowman, a four-point edge on 14th place Clint Bowyer, and a 14-point advantage on 15th place Kurt Busch. Erik Jones, whose car was disqualified following a fourth-place finish at Richmond last week, is 16th – 45 points behind Byron – and will need to win to advance.
The points are close among those to-the-good of Byron as well. Aric Almirola is ranked 11th, only a single point up on Byron. Ryan Blaney – the defending ROVAL winner – is only six points up on Byron in 10th place. And ninth-place Ryan Newman holds only a 12-point cushion on the 12th place cutoff line.
For some of these high-achieving Playoff drivers, there are also some personal competition matters to settle. Blaney hasn’t won a race since his ROVAL triumph. Kyle Larson, who led a race-best 47 laps last year only to finish 25th is a five-race winner but hasn’t won since September 2017 at Richmond.
In fact, Larson, Ryan Newman, Blaney, Aric Almirola and William Byron – positions eighth through 12th in the standings – are all winless on the year. In the second-year series driver Byron’s case, he’s still looking for his first win at this premier level.
After a triumphant regular season for the whole Joe Gibbs Racing team, when Kyle Busch won the regular-season championship and four races – a regular-season win total matched by both Truex and Denny Hamlin, there is certainly an eagerness to have a Playoff resurgence. Both Busch and Hamlin answered a tough-luck Playoff opener at Las Vegas with top-3 finishes at Richmond last week – Busch led a race-high 202 laps and finished runner-up to Truex and Hamlin finished third.
Team Penske teammates Brad Keselowski and reigning Cup champion Joey Logano have earned five wins between them in 2019, but the last trophy came 14 races ago when Logano won at Michigan. Two of the top contenders this weekend should be Elliott, whose ranked seventh, won his second consecutive race at the historic Watkins Glen, N.Y. road course in August. Kevin Harvick, who sits second in the championship standings by 21 points, has won at both of the series traditional road course venues – Sonoma and Watkins Glen.
Source: Holly Cain | NASCAR Wire Service
