Yahoo Autos NASCAR Cup Notes, Crayon 301 Monday Results: Winner Truex Jr.'s New Hampshire Roots Go Deep
In Monday’s rain-delayed Crayon 301, Martin Truex Jr. dominated the New Hampshire race to record his 34th career Cup victory.
The win was and his third this season, two of which have come in Monday events.
Truex led five times for 254 of the 301 laps.
Martin Truex Jr. was 12 years old when he first visited New Hampshire Motor Speedway with his family. They sat in turn one while his mother bottle-fed his younger brother Ryan, who was about 4 months old.
At that time, Truex’s father raced in NASCAR’s Busch North Series, which sometimes competed with NASCAR’s Busch Series, and as soon as he was old enough, he was in the one-mile track’s garage.
“This is the first place I saw Cup cars and Busch cars and the drivers walking around,” Truex says.
It was a Busch North/Busch series combination race when Dale Earnhardt’s Busch Series entry was parked nose-to-nose with the car driven by Truex’s father. The boy stood in awe and watched Earnhardt work on his car’s carburetor.
“Some of my most fond early memories of racing was coming up here,” Truex says. “We always had to go home (before the Cup race) because after Dad raced, we’d leave, but I remember watching them practice and just being around the cars, watching them push them around the garage through tech. For a young kid that only watched it on TV, that was pretty awesome. Thinking my dad was hanging out with them was pretty cool.”
The elder Truex knew in 2000 it was time to step out of the car and focus on his son’s career when in the younger Truex’s rookie season in the Busch North Series, he won in only his second time at the one-mile track. He recalls being “shocked” that day.
“He really paved the way for me,” Truex says. “He’s like, ‘You’re too good. I need to give you my cars, the best equipment I have and put everything behind you.’”
Truex initially objected, but his father insisted. When they returned to Loudon later that year for the NASCAR Busch North Series July event the son was the team’s No. 1 driver.
“He gave me his car and his engine, and I came here and sat on the pole and led every lap and won the race,” recalls Truex. “It’s crazy to think that was 23 years ago.”
Since moving into NASCAR’s Cup Series, Truex has desperately wanted to win at New Hampshire. Throughout his career, no matter how well his car performed in the race, it seemed victory eluded him until this year.
In Monday’s rain-delayed Crayon 301, Truex dominated the New Hampshire race to record his 34th career Cup victory and his third victory this season, two of which have come in Monday events.
Truex, who led five times for 254 laps, said he didn’t even know if he would get to race one day when he traveled to New Hampshire to watch his dad race. Now, he doesn’t know if he will return in 2024. It’s a decision he knows he has to make soon, but he admits he doesn’t make big decisions quickly.
Crew chief James Small says no matter what Truex decides he and the team will support him.
“We’re just a close-knit group and we’re just a bunch of mates going racing,” Small says.
Busch Exits Early
After starting in the rear due to unapproved adjustments for Monday’s rain-delayed Crayon 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch found himself sidelined after just 71 laps.
Busch’s Chevrolet hit the wall on the final lap of Stage 1, which ended on lap 70.
“I’ve been lacking right-rear grip the whole time we’ve been here,” Busch says. “Just couldn’t get the right-rear feel in the race track. It was getting late in the run, and I was trying a different line and it was just too high. I couldn’t give it wheel and have the right-rear stick with the lateral grip that you need.”
It was the fourth race Busch has failed to finish this season. He crashed out of the Daytona 500 and the May Kansas race, and his Chevrolet suffered suspension issues at the Bristol dirt event.
