Martin Truex Jr. raced like he needed this one.
The 19 car was fast. The 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion acknowledged that it was before Sunday’s main event. But in the first race back since a winless 2022 season marred by bad luck, Truex raced with patience and confidence at the 2023 Clash at the Los Angeles Coliseum — and he earned a long-overdue win as a result.
“Last year was a pretty rough season for us, with no wins” the 42-year-old driver for Joe Gibbs Racing told FOX Sports on the frontstretch, a few moments after taking a lap with the checkered flag in-hand. “And to come out here and kick it off this way, really proud of all these guys.”
He added: “Tonight, we had to persevere, not give up, just battle through. And we found ourselves in the right spot in the end.”
This was Truex’s first win at the Clash, the exhibition race that kicks off the NASCAR Cup Series season.
Austin Dillon finished second, and Kyle Busch finished third. Both run for Richard Childress Racing.
Truex led the final 25 laps of Sunday night’s race after making a move past Ryan Preece late in the second stage. He did so by virtue of waiting for his moment, biding his time — a patience that likely wasn’t easy to summon considering the race’s choppiness: There were a remarkable 16 cautions in the 150-lap race around the purpose-built, 0.25-mile track. At one point, just past the 100-lap mark, all but nine of the 27-car field had been involved in a caution.
“Sometimes they work out your way, and sometimes they don’t,” Truex said. “Tonight it went our way, and we made some good adjustments, too.”
The other seminal moment in Sunday’s race came in the last 10 laps, when Bubba Wallace, who’d been running in the Top 5 all day and had a great car, saw a squabble with Austin Dillon turn into a wreck: The collision spun Wallace out and sent him to the back of the field, and Dillon remained in second.
Dillon spoke on the late-race move afterward.
“I hate it for Bubba; he had a good car and a good run,” he told FOX Sports. “But you can’t tell who’s either pushing him or getting pushed. I just know he sent me through the corner and I saved it three times through there, released the brake and all kinds of stuff, and then when I got down, I was going to give the same. Probably was a little too hard.”
Sunday’s race did not earn the drivers points. The 2023 season officially begins with the Daytona 500 on Feb. 19.
Other observations from LA Coliseum
-- Erik Jones had a super-short main event.The Legacy Motor Club driver grew up driving on 0.25-mile tracks, but he didn’t get much a chance to get going on Sunday night. Only 17 laps had gone before the 43 car was hit and subsequently spun out by Michael McDowell. The hit damaged the car’s toe link. Interviewed in the infield after his day was done, Jones quipped: “Michael’s gotten me twice pretty good now.”
-- Ty Gibbs ends his first Clash at the Coliseum early.The 20-year-old driver, who completed a limited Cup Series schedule last year, ran in the back-half of the field most of Sunday night. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver got caught in carnage in the middle of Stage 2 and had to retire for the day. Gibbs to the FOX broadcast on his first race as a full-time Cup driver: “I felt like we were really fast and just couldn’t go anywhere,” Gibbs said.
-- McDowell and Austin Cindric also had their days end early.But at least they snuck into the main event: Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Harrison Burton, Brad Keselowski, Chris Buescher, Ty Dillon, Corey LaJoie, Cody Ware, JJ Yeley and BJ McLeod all did not qualify after the Clash’s slew of heats earlier Sunday afternoon.
