Long Pond, Pa.
In the broadcast booth Sunday, the retired four-time NASCAR champ said Truex’s dominant feat last weekend should be rewarded, not decried as bad for the sport because of the way he cruised against no true competition in the Coca-Cola 600.
Truex’s record romp was one of the stock car ages — he led 392 of 400 laps, set a Sprint Cup record for miles led in a race with 588, and his 160.655 mph run in the No. 78 Toyota made the race the fastest one in Coke history.
Let the critics moan.
Truex was too busy celebrating his career renaissance.
“Definitely a great week,” Truex said. “One of the best I’ve ever had.”
Even better for Truex, he was headed to Pocono Raceway, site of his lone victory in 2015. Truex dominated off late restarts down the stretch to snap a 69-race winless streak last June and earn a berth in the Chase.
“I think typically past experience at a track is definitely a good thing,” Truex said.
Truex and his Furniture Row Racing team had to wait one more day to aim for a repeat. Rain washed out the NASCAR Sprint Cup race and it will now run at noon today. Brad Keselowski is on the pole and Truex starts 17th in Pocono’s first Monday race since 2009. The 2012 rain-shortened race at Pocono was marred by lightning strikes that killed one fan and injured nine others.
This was the first postponed race of the season and ninth since 2011.
Truex’s win in Charlotte earned him a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship — a spot he parlayed last year into the four-driver field in the finale to race for the title.
Truex has proved this season that his success was no fluke. His 809 laps led through the first 13 races are 242 more than his total all of last season and his two top-five finishes and six top-10s aren’t far removed from his 2015 pace.
One a middling driver for two other teams, Truex has watched his career blossom at single-car operation Furniture Row.
The June 2015 Pocono race was replayed on Fox Sports 1 — spoiler alert, Truex won — on Sunday and showed him breaking through for his first Sprint Cup victory in two years.
Detroit
Power would have set a track record in qualifying earlier in the day, but the Australian was penalized for interference and had his top two laps taken away. Pagenaud won the pole while Power started eighth, but Power prevailed in the end for his 26th career victory and first since the Grand Prix of Indianapolis in May 2015.
With about 18 laps remaining, Power passed Pagenaud to take over fifth place — and the top four drivers still had to pit again. Power took over the lead on the 61st of 70 laps on the 2.35-mile street course.