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Truex Jr. wins rain-delayed NASCAR Cup Series race in Dover

Dover Internatioal Speedway

NASCAR’s spring race weekend in Dover ended with a real “come-from-behind” performance.

Martin Truex Jr. started at the back of pack, but still found a way to win the rain-delayed NASCAR Cup "Gander RV 400" at Dover International Speedway.

Truex Jr.’s car failed inspection Saturday.  So instead of lining up 13th, his #19 car was pushed back to 33rd on the starting grid.

But Truex Jr. managed to work all the way to the front and wound up winning by a comfortable 9-second margin.

“Once the race started, it was like ‘OK, we’ve got something here.’ From there, it was just 'How do we keep up with the race track? ' and 'How do we get toward the front, how do we get that track position?'" said Truex Jr. "We just fought hard all day long and the guys in the pits did a good job, and we just kept chipping away at it. And once we got up front, the car was pretty badass to be honest with you.”

 

The win is Truex’s second win this season.  The other was just two weeks ago at Richmond. It’s his third career Cup series win on the Monster Mile.

The race was delayed one day by rainy conditions Sunday.  The last time a Dover race was forced to move to Monday was June 2007.  The winner in that race: Martin Truex Jr.

“Maybe I need to figure out how to get Sunday races cancelled.  I don’t know. I actually won an XFINITY (Series) race her on a Monday too," said Truex Jr.  "I don’t know.  I’m going to lobby for all Dover races to be on Monday, I guess.”

NASCAR returns to Dover for its fall race weekend October 4th through 6th.

Tom Byrne has been a fixture covering news in Delaware for three decades. He joined Delaware Public Media in 2010 as our first news director and has guided the news team ever since. When he's not covering the news, he can be found reading history or pursuing his love of all things athletic.
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