Another weekend, another race that mother nature has plagued for the NASCAR Cup Series. It seems that in the last month or so mother nature has held a terrible grudge against NASCAR. Three weeks ago, the start time of the Nashville race was moved up due to possible weather. Two weeks ago in Chicago, rain plagued the entire weekend. Last week in Atlanta, the Cup Series race was cut short just past halfway due to storms. And finally, this past weekend in New Hampshire, once again, mother nature unleashed her fury. The Cup Series race was delayed from Sunday to Monday thanks to rain, which only made the racing that much more intense on Monday. But for years, New Hampshire has plagued one driver, but after Monday, Martin Truex Jr can finally cross his home track off the checklist.
Monday Martin:
For years, there was one track that Martin Truex Jr could not win at. That was at the same track that he calls his home track, New Hampshire. Last year at Loudon, Truex had the dominant car, but it was his teammate Christopher Bell taking home the win. Right from the drop of the green flag, it was apparent if anyone was going to win this race, they were going to have to outduel Martin Truex Jr. Truex handily won stage one and stage two. With a late race caution with 31 laps to go, this threw a wrench into the strategy call. Several drivers including Truex and Kyle Larson came down for two right-side tires after this caution. A few other drivers and their crews made the call to stay out under this caution to gain track position, such as Kevin Harvick and Austin Dillon.
With a restart with 25 laps to go, it only took Truex one set of corners to take the lead back from Kevin Harvick. Truex had to survive a few more late-race restarts, but he was able to overcome them without any issues. MTJ finally got his first win at Loudon on Monday after a dominating performance. How dominant was this win? Truex led 254 of the 301 laps on Monday. This is Truex’s 34th career victory, his third of the season, and his first at New Hampshire. But with another win on the season, could Truex be considered a championship favorite from now on?
Is MTJ a Championship Favorite?
The obvious and simple answer to this is yes. Truex, who is back to being his competitive self again, is a huge championship favorite. Truex, who broke a 54-race winless streak at Dover earlier this year, is back to his competitive self. From 2017 through 2019, Truex won 19 races and very well should’ve won all three championships in that time. Those 19 wins in that time are almost equal to one win in every five races. The 2017 Cup Series champion was contemplating retirement last year, now he is a championship favorite once again. From missing the playoffs to becoming one of the top three drivers in the Cup Series right now, MTJ has proven himself to be a top dog in the Cup Series once again. But next week, the Cup Series heads to another one of MTJ’s favorite tracks in the mountains of Pennsylvania.
What to Expect from Pocono:
This is a tough one to preview. Pocono is a unique track as it is a 2.5-mile triangle. Yes, you read that right. Last year’s race at Pocono was a wacky one. This race was headlined by Denny Hamlin winning for the seventh time at Pocono. That was until both Hamlin and his then Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Kyle Busch, failed post-race inspection. Both Hamlin and Busch were disqualified from their first and second finishing positions, which gave the win to Chase Elliott. Who can be expected to run up front this coming weekend in the Pocono mountains? The answer is simple. Denny Hamlin. Hamlin will be looking to reclaim his disqualified win from last year, and officially earn his seventh win at Pocono. Pocono is where Hamlin earned his first Cup Series win so this is a great chance for Hamlin to earn another win this weekend.
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