Truex Dominant at Dover

It appeared for much of the Citizen Soldier 400 on Sunday it was going to be a battle between Martin Truex Jr. and Jimmie Johnson.

Both Truex and Johnson took turns leading long stints in the race until a late race mistake on pit road by Johnson’s crew opened the door for Truex to take advantage. Truex never was seriously challenged after that leading a race high 187 laps to notch his fourth victory of the season and second career win at Dover.

“We are here to get it done and golly I’m telling you just the best bunch of guys you could ever ask for,” Truex Jr. said.  “It’s just amazing to drive their race cars and do what we were able to do. I’m just ecstatic.”

Truex put on a driving clinic as only six cars finished on the lead lap after 400 miles on the tough one mile oval.

The win was even sweeter for Truex as he considers Dover his home race track.

“All in all, this is a dream come true,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of friends here, a lot of family here.”

Truex’s margin of victory was 7.527 seconds ahead of second place finisher Kyle Busch.

Rookie phenom Chase Elliott finished third followed by: Brad Keselowski and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top five.

Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top ten finishers.

Truex, Kevin Harvick, Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Kenseth, Johnson, Logano, Elliott, Kurt Busch, Hamlin, Carl Edwards, and Dillon all advance to the second to the second round of the chase which starts next Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart, Chris Buescher, and Kyle Larson were eliminated from championship contention after Sunday’s race.