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It’s home sweet home for Martin Truex Jr. with third career Dover win

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For the second time in three races, Martin Truex Jr. drives to victory lane, winning the NASCAR Cup Series Gander RV 400 at Dover International Speedway.

For the second time in three races, Martin Truex Jr. reached victory lane, capturing the Gander RV 400 Monday at Dover International Speedway.

The race was postponed to Monday after Sunday’s attempt was rained out.

Truex, who won two races ago at Richmond, led 132 of the 400 laps at the 1-mile Monster Mile. It was his 21st career Cup win and third at Dover, which the native of nearby Mayetta, New Jersey considers his home track. Truex’s three wins there make Dover his most successful track on the Cup Series circuit.

“It feels incredible,” Truex told Fox Sports 1. “What a race car we had today. We’ve got one hell of a team. We came here with a new setup this time. We had been good, but not good enough.

“Thanks to all these fans for coming out here today. This is awesome. I promise, it wasn’t easy. It was a lot of work, it was tough, but this race car, man, was incredible. Without Talladega (finished 20th), we would have won two in a row.”

MORE: Results, standings after the Gander RV 400 at Dover

Joe Gibbs Racing drivers have now won seven of the first 11 races: Kyle Busch has 3 wins, while Denny Hamlin and Truex have 2 wins each. JGR is just the fourth team in Cup history to do that to a season, the most recent being Hendrick Motorsports, which won 8 of the first 11 races in 2007.

Alex Bowman finished runner-up for the second consecutive race – equaling his Cup career best showing from last Sunday at Talladega. Bowman finished 9.5 seconds behind Truex. According to Racing Insights, the margin of victory was more Monday than in the first 10 races combined this season.

“I’m worn out,” Bowman told FS1. “This is the physically hardest race of the year for me, for sure. Things went Martin’s way today. I wish I was in Martin’s way at the end of the race, but we had a shot at it and that’s all you can ask for. ... It’d be better if we had a trophy, but we needed this one, for sure.”

After struggling for the first 10 races of the season, Kyle Larson finally broke through with a season-best third-place showing. Rounding out the top five were Kevin Harvick and Talladega winner Chase Elliott.

Sixth through 10th were Erik Jones, Joey Logano, William Byron, Clint Bowyer and Kyle Busch.

Even though he struggled throughout the race, including hitting the wall once, Busch’s 10th-place finish tied Morgan Shepherd’s record of 11 top-10 finishes to start a season. Shepherd did so in 1990. Busch can break that record Saturday night at Kansas Speedway.

STAGE 1 WINNER: Joey Logano

STAGE 2 WINNER: Martin Truex Jr.

WHO HAD A GOOD RACE: Kevin Harvick remains winless, but he’s the king of fourth-place finishes, earning his fifth fourth-place finish in the first 11 races. … Chase Elliott followed up his Talladega win with a fifth-pace finish, his third top five of the season.

WHO HAD A BAD RACE: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. hit the wall early in the race and finished 33rd, 14 laps off the lead lap. … Bubba Wallace continues to struggle, finishing 27th. It’s Wallace’s seventh finish of 25th or worse. His season-best outing has been 17th (Martinsville).

NOTABLE: Denny Hamlin would likely agree with Bowman about how physical the race was. Hamlin was treated and released from the infield care center after the race. ... Jimmie Johnson, who holds the Dover record with 11 wins, saw his winless streak extend to 70 straight races, finishing 14th. His last Cup win was at Dover in June 2017.

WHAT’S NEXT: Digital Ally 400, Saturday May 11, 7:30 p.m. ET, Kansas Speedway.

Follow @JerryBonkowski