NASCAR Cup Series Würth 400
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September 11th, 2021. That's the last time Martin Truex Jr. visited victory lane before a rain-delayed Dover Motor Speedway triumph Monday in the NASCAR Cup Series. That's almost 20 months, an unexpected drought for the 2017 Cup champion, which also included missing the playoffs last year.

But it's a dip in performance those around him claim the 42-year-old from Mayetta, N.J. took in stride.

"Martin may be the calmest, rational athlete I've ever been around," said owner Joe Gibbs, who's seen his fair share as a two-time Super Bowl-winning head coach. "He handles everything so -- just in the right way, in our meetings and everything. When bad things happened last year, he never got upset about it from the standpoint of rationally talking to you."

Perhaps that's because it took Truex time to settle into success, enduring several down years at Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Michael Waltrip Racing early on in Cup. The driver made a point to remind the media his recent drought was nothing compared to a full half-dozen years without a victory from 2007-13.

Only when landing with Furniture Row Racing, then his current ride at Gibbs, did Truex land comfortably within the sport's top tier. In total, 30 of 32 career wins have come in those cars, including his lone championship a full dozen years into a full-time Cup journey at age 37. No stranger to overcoming adversity, Truex did so at Dover when a poor pit stop dropped him outside the top 10 after stage one.

Tough language was exchanged between he and crew chief James Small on the radio, a pattern in recent weeks after several close brushes with victory lane fell short.

"It's normal," Small claimed about the R-rated banter. "I'm fairly emotional. I was calm all race, but he was killing me through the middle there because it's hard. He can't see what's happening in the race, as well, with the other cars and the lap times and everything."

In the end, Truex put his head down and charged through the field, battling with Ross Chastain for the lead in the final stage before the team's last green-flag pit stop put him out front. A two-tire call after a late caution for Joey Logano sealed the deal this time and gave Truex the track position he needed to stay out front.

It was an emotional win for the whole Truex family at their home track, capping a weekend in which 31-year-old brother Ryan won his first career race in Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series event. It's the first brotherly sweep at a NASCAR track since Mike and Rusty Wallace accomplished the feat at Dover way back in 1994.

We'll see what's next for Truex in the last year of his deal, although Gibbs made clear he wants Martin in the 19 car "as long as we can convince him to do that." For now, a run at another title is taking center stage as Truex remains just as competitive as drivers nearly half his age.

Traffic Report

Green: Ryan Blaney -- Blaney's third-place finish marks the first back-to-back top-5 effort from any Team Penske driver this season. Could he be the next one poised to end a long winless streak (his is now 57 races)?

Yellow: Denny Hamlin -- A fifth-place effort for Hamlin was his second top 5 in the last three races, the first time his No. 11 team has shown signs of life. But an issue with his pit crew cost Hamlin spots during the final stop, causing the driver to be vocal about making changes while some on-track aggression from teammate Christopher Bell left him frustrated.

Red: Noah Gragson -- Gragson had a steering issue, out early at Dover to post his fourth DNF in the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club ride. How bad has it been for the rookie, still seeking his first top-10 finish of 2023? Chase Elliott already has more points -- despite missing six weeks due to a snowboarding injury.

Speeding Ticket: Stewart-Haas Racing -- The four-car Ford team found trouble in multiple ways at Dover: Kevin Harvick had a tire issue and Chase Briscoe hit the wall while Ryan Preece and Aric Almirola never got the handling right. It added up to four finishes of 17th or worse for an organization that hasn't yet scored a victory this year. Eleven races in, only two of their drivers (Harvick) sits in playoff position with Briscoe squarely on the bubble in 16th. Almirola and Preece are well outside it, as the quartet combine for nearly as many DNFs (nine) as top-10 finishes (10).

Oops!

Ross Chastain is under fire again after a first-stage wreck that took out Brennan Poole and Kyle Larson. Larson's No. 5 car became an innocent victim after Chastain simply ran over Poole's No. 15 on the frontstretch.

"Completely my fault," Chastain admitted after the race. "[Poole] just checked up quicker than I thought."

Larson immediately launched into expletives on the radio, blaming Chastain and wound up blocking him during a key portion of the final stage as he attempted to chase down Truex for the lead. Despite both running for the same manufacturer (Chevrolet), Larson's actions are the latest sign the garage is getting tired of Chastain's on-track aggression gone wrong.

"His errors never affect him negatively," Larson explained. "I'm not saying anything about that. I just find it funny how he always comes out on the good end. So, it is what it is."

Poole didn't mince words about what he thought should happen next: "Probably needs to have his butt whooped."