Jones passed Elliott Sadler with nine laps to go and held off Kyle Larson to win the NASCAR Xfinity race at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois, allowing Ryan Sieg and Blake Koch to claim the final two spots in the Chase for the championship.
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Martin Truex Jr. won the first Chase for the Sprint Cup race Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway, only to fail NASCAR’s post-race laser inspection. Smith left the track Friday and returned to North Carolina after his wife went into labor.
While Elliott wondered what could have been, Truex was celebrating his second win in the last three weeks.
Truex climbed into second as the race hit 20 to go, and found himself within just one second of leader Chase Elliott as the laps wound down. That brought out a caution flag and critical pit stop for Elliott and Truex. Just excited for everybody. “We can overcome it. It was cool to be able to put it out there and make it happen”.
Truex shot to the front after a late re-start and pulled away to give Furniture Row Racing a NASCAR Sprint Cup playoff-opening victory Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway. “There are so many people who are responsible for this, and I’m glad I get to drive this 78 with Cole Pearn (crew chief) and everybody on this team”.
Erik Jones won the Truck Series title last year and is headed to Sprint Cup next year. We didn’t have the speed we have now.
WHO’S HOT: Chase drivers Truex, Logano, Elliott, Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth all finished in the top 10. “We could probably go across that thing four times a day and get four different readings, so it’s a little frustrating, especially from our side of it – when people think that you’ve got a win and your vehicle is illegal”. But Busch is far from comfortable with Truex having so much success in his own Toyota.
“The mindset was, all right, this isn’t good, this is bad”, he said. “I was really struggling to chase him down”.
Johnson was the best on long runs overall during practices, but Kevin Harvick was right behind him and actually had the best 10-consecutive lap average during Saturday’s early session. “I had fresh tires, he was lapped and that was after I had my flat (so) I was racing to get my lap back”.
“They’re trying to make sure they don’t have a scenario like what they had a year ago with Joey and Matt”, Stewart said.
“At the end of the day I’ve been through a lot”.
The team made one more correct call as the race was winding down. Elliott previously had trouble getting by Keselowski for the second position, but during a cycle of pit stops that began on lap 102, Elliott gained on Keselowski and was second in the running order when the cycle completed on lap 105.
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It was after Truex had gotten his lap back that the incident took place. Someone like Kyle Larson, who has gotten faster as the year has gone along, or Elliott, whose team has been in position to win a couple of times this year, could easily hang around long enough to grab a win and shake things up at Homestead. Martin Truex Jr. had been one of the favorites heading into the 10-week playoff. And, I think there’s some tracks that suit guys better.
