MENCS: Martin Truex Jr. Wins Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway

By:
On:
In: NASCAR Cup Series News

Martin Truex Jr. slimed the field on Sunday at Chicagoland Speedway to capture his fifth win of the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. Truex, one of the fan-favorites going into the NASCAR Playoffs, led 77 of the 267 circuits enroute to his 12 career victory in the series.

“I can’t even tell you how much it means to me. I’m a much better driver because of (Sherry Pollex), and what she taught me,” said one happy Martin Truex Jr. in victory lane. “We’ve learned a lot about life together. We continue to face every challenge head on and not skimp and we live every day just like we want to and we have fun. I’m proud of her and very proud to have the teal and gold in the race car and thankful for the other 28 guys who have done it. I’m thankful for all that and everybody.”

Truex didn’t see the lead until passing Kevin Harvick for the top spot on lap 190. He eventually went on to lead every lap with the exception of one after that point. In addition to five victories, Truex holds 11 top five and 18 top 10 finishes through 27 races.

Chase Elliott will take home the runner-up spot in the No. 24 NAPA Chevrolet. Elliott started eighth and led 42 laps of the Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway. The young driver found himself leading the field at the end of stage two to earn some bonus points.

Elliott felt like the results on Sunday was a step into the right direction for the No. 24 Chevrolet crew. “Yeah, just a huge step in the right direction. Days like this are the days we are going to have to have. There is no way around that,” said Elliott after the race. “I thought we had a solid day overall.  Our car drove good, it had pace, our pit stops were good.  I didn’t have anything for Martin (Truex, Jr.).  I thought we made the most of our day without some luck I wasn’t going to get around him unless we had a late-race restart or something.  I had a solid day and frankly, it is a lot better than we have been doing and we’ve got to have days like this to keep moving forward.”

Elliott will leave the state of Illinois with seven top five and 15 top 10 finishes this season.

Kevin Harvick will round out the top three finishers on Sunday. Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet, started fourth on the leaderboard and stayed upfront all throughout the three stages. He would finish stage one and two sitting second on the leaderboard and leading the field for 59 circuits.

“Well, we haven’t finished well here the last couple of years just by not putting ourselves in position to do what we needed to do from my standpoint,” said Harvick when asked what more he needed. “I crashed the car and had a mishap on pit road last year. Everyone did a great job today. That is what we have to do to compete for the championship. I know we can do that as a team because we have done that before and executed whether our backs have been against the wall or we have been off, we have always figured a way out. That is the plan. We will keep doing that. Today we made it happen.”

The dangerous championship contender leaves the first NASCAR Playoff race with nine top five and 17 top 10 finishes as he looks to capture his second career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship.

Kyle Busch started the race on the pole and led the first 44 laps of the event. However, despite leading 85 circuits, the most of any driver on Sunday, Busch and the No. 18 crew was hit with a crew members over the wall too soon penalty while pitting on lap 96.

The penalty put the team further back into the field and wasn’t able to make the ground up. As a result of the pass-through penalty, Busch will leave Chicago with a 15th-place finish.

During the week leading up to the Tales of the Turtles 400, Joe Gibbs Racing announced a crew swap between the No. 18 & 19 pit crews. The move was made to further improve the No. 18 pit crew for the playoffs.

Unofficial Results Among Playoff Drivers

POS

CAR

DRIVER

1

78

Martin Truex Jr.

2

24

Chase Elliott

3

4

Kevin Harvick

4

11

Denny Hamlin

5

42

Kyle Larson

6

2

Brad Keselowski

8

48

Jimmie Johnson

9

20

Matt Kenseth

10

1

Jamie McMurray

11

21

Ryan Blaney

15

18

Kyle Busch

16

3

Austin Dillon

19

41

Kurt Busch

21

5

Kasey Kahne

23

31

Ryan Newman

25

17

Ricky Stenhouse Jr.


The next race for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will be at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on September 24 at 2:00 p.m. ET. on NBCSN. The Performance Racing Network and SiriusXM Channel 90 will carry the live radio broadcast.

Brett Winningham
Follow Me
Latest posts by Brett Winningham (see all)
Post Views: 58