DOVER, Del. – In Saturday’s (April 29) NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Dover Motor Speedway, Ryan Truex made it look easy.
The No. 19 car quickly worked its way up to the top five less than 15 laps after starting 12th, and Truex then powered his way to the lead by lap 34. The early show of muscle was a sign of things to come for the rest of the afternoon.
All in all, Truex won the first two stages, led 124 of the 200 laps and won by nearly five seconds over second-place finisher Josh Berry.
To someone watching NASCAR for the first time, the race looked like a flawless display of domination. But for Truex, it was all that and more: it was a statement that changed the trajectory of his career overnight.
And after 13 years and 188 combined starts between NASCAR’s top three divisions, Truex is a winner in NASCAR’s top three series at last.
“Just so thankful to be here. This is amazing,” Truex told FS1 after the race. “What a car. What an amazing Supra. I’m speechless. I thought I’d be more emotional right now, but when I crossed the flag, I couldn’t even talk on the radio, and I’m not an emotional guy. This is for everyone that doubted me.”
It came down to a 94-lap green flag run to the finish, and while Austin Hill opened the final stage out front after taking the lead on pit road, Truex took the lead right back with 88 laps to go and left everyone else in the dust.
“That long run there, that first 50 laps, I was trying to take care of my tires,” Truex told the media in his post-race press conference. “I was having radio problems. I couldn’t hear them very well, and I was waiting for them to tell me to pit, and I was nervous that I wasn’t going to be able to understand them and miss pit road.
“We pitted and gave up a little time getting into pit road, just trying to be cautious. So easy to miss pit road here. I haven’t raced here since 2018, so I didn’t really have a good idea on where I needed to start slowing down.”
Although Truex had a slow stop, he cycled back to the lead with 11 laps to go while commanding a five-second lead.
“Leaving pit road, it was just hoping that a caution didn’t come out,” Truex said.
Part-time with Joe Gibbs Racing since the start of 2022, Dover marked the penultimate scheduled start for Truex in the 2023 season. But after his dominating performance at The Monster Mile, it’s…
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