NASCAR kicks off season with Truex winning big

The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series kicked off its 38 race weekend schedule Sunday evening, with a familiar face rolling into victory lane. After nearly 46 races without a win, Martin Truex Jr. scored his first ever Clash victory at the Los Angeles Coliseum. 

“It was definitely satisfying,” stated Truex on the win Sunday evening. “Anytime you win it’s obviously satisfying. I had some good guys around me. Austin (Dillon) and Kyle (Busch) raced clean, and for the most part I’ve never really had any big issues with those guys.”

Truex, who had to use a provisional to make this event in 2022, had a strong performance after a winless season a year ago. Truex started in third place, and led several times in the 150 lap race to pick up a win to start the 2023 season.  Now with a win under his belt, he looks to take this positive momentum to try to win the Daytona 500 in just two weeks. 

“To come back this year and be first in practice, I was really honestly nervous last night. I went to bed thinking today was going to suck. It was going to be a long day because it’s going to be hard to pass and we were starting sixth in our heat on the outside.”

Truex survived the 16 cautions that plagued the race – A major jump from the five cautions that occurred in the inaugural event last year. 

 

Kaleb Vestal
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