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Joe Gibbs Toyota ace Truex wins NASCAR Dover race from back of grid

Martin Truex Jr stormed from the back of the NASCAR Cup Series field to take his second victory of the season for Joe Gibbs Racing in the rescheduled Dover race

Truex had been sent to the back after his Toyota machine failed pre-race inspection prior to Sunday's abandoned race.

The 2017 champion made up 16 places in the first 20 laps and was running in 17th position when the competition caution flew on lap 40 of 400.

The #19 then rose to 10th place by the end of stage one, (won by reigning Cup champion Joey Logano) and was able to begin to challenge the leading gaggle of Logano, polesitter Chase Elliott and fellow back-row starter, Alex Bowman of Hendrick Motorsports.

Bowman moved past Elliott into the lead with just 15 laps in stage two remaining and looked set to take his maiden Cup Series stage victory before a mistake on the final lap in traffic allowed Truex to nip through and take the segment victory.

After winning the race off pitroad at the beginning of the final stage, Truex was not headed thereafter, except for in the pitstop cycle around mid-way through the 160-lapper.

He pulled away from Bowman to take victory by 9.5s, having led 132 laps, the second-highest of the race behind Elliott's 146.

Bowman took second place for the second consecutive race, finishing as the lead Chevrolet runner, just ahead of Chip Ganassi's Kyle Larson.

Kevin Harvick led a solitary lap for Stewart-Haas, coming home in fourth as the highest-placed Ford.

Elliott, who started from a sixth career pole, dominated the opening stage of the race but was undone by a caution on lap 105 when Ricky Stenhouse Jr hit the wall in his Roush-Fenway Racing Ford.

Logano and William Bryon each took only two tyres at the resulting stops, enough to jump ahead of Elliott, who suffered from a slow stop.

Elliott was then unable to challenge at the front, finishing sixth, 17s behind winner Truex.

Erik Jones ran strongly for JGR, and took seventh, ahead of Logano, Byron and Clint Bowyer.

Kyle Busch maintained his record of finishing every Cup race this season inside the top 10, by finishing 10th for JGR, equalling the all-time series record in the process.

Race result

Pos Driver Team Car Laps Gap
1 Martin Truex Jr. Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 400 3h08m37.s
2 Alex Bowman Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 400 9.501s
3 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 400 13.046s
4 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing Ford 400 13.313s
5 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 400 17.065s
6 Erik Jones Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 400 17.582s
7 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 400 21.936s
8 William Byron Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 400 22.311s
9 Clint Bowyer Stewart-Haas Racing Ford 400 22.748s
10 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 400 23.332s
11 Daniel Suarez Stewart-Haas Racing Ford 400 24.054s
12 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 399 1 Lap
13 Kurt Busch Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 399 1 Lap
14 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 399 1 Lap
15 Ryan Blaney Team Penske Ford 399 1 Lap
16 Aric Almirola Stewart-Haas Racing Ford 399 1 Lap
17 Paul Menard Wood Brothers Racing Ford 399 1 Lap
18 Ryan Newman Roush Fenway Racing Ford 398 2 Laps
19 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 398 2 Laps
20 Matt DiBenedetto Leavine Family Racing Toyota 398 2 Laps
21 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 397 3 Laps
22 Ty Dillon Germain Racing Chevrolet 397 3 Laps
23 Chris Buescher JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 397 3 Laps
24 Michael McDowell Front Row Motorsports Ford 395 5 Laps
25 Daniel Hemric Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 394 6 Laps
26 David Ragan Front Row Motorsports Ford 393 7 Laps
27 Darrell Wallace Jr. Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet 393 7 Laps
28 Ryan Preece JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 392 8 Laps
29 Corey LaJoie Go FAS Racing Ford 392 8 Laps
30 Ross Chastain Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 389 11 Laps
31 Landon Cassill StarCom Racing Chevrolet 389 11 Laps
32 Matt Tifft Front Row Motorsports Ford 387 13 Laps
33 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 386 14 Laps
34 Cody Ware Petty Ware Racing Ford 383 17 Laps
35 Reed Sorenson Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 356 Engine
36 Quin Houff Spire Motorsports Chevrolet 168 Too slow
37 B.J. McLeod Rick Ware Racing Chevrolet 96 Engine

Drivers' standings

Pos Driver Points
1 Kyle Busch 460
2 Joey Logano 455
3 Kevin Harvick 397
4 Denny Hamlin 383
5 Martin Truex Jr. 378
6 Brad Keselowski 377
7 Chase Elliott 371
8 Kurt Busch 347
9 Ryan Blaney 335
10 Clint Bowyer 319
11 Aric Almirola 309
12 Daniel Suarez 292
13 Alex Bowman 287
14 Ryan Newman 270
15 Kyle Larson 267
16 Erik Jones 264
17 Jimmie Johnson 261
18 Austin Dillon 261
19 William Byron 260
20 Paul Menard 254
21 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 227
22 Ty Dillon 217
23 Chris Buescher 188
24 Ryan Preece 169
25 Matt DiBenedetto 166
26 Daniel Hemric 144
27 David Ragan 134
28 Darrell Wallace Jr. 121
29 Corey LaJoie 115
30 Michael McDowell 108
31 Matt Tifft 86
32 Reed Sorenson 28
33 Jamie McMurray 19
34 Quin Houff 16
35 Stanton Barrett 2
36 Casey Mears 1

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