In the previous nine races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Truex had led 768 laps – including winning the pole last year – but had never finished better than third.
In Monday’s rain-delayed race at the 1-mile oval in Loudon, N.H, Truex and his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota were again dominant – leading 254 of 301 laps.
With three restarts in the final 23 laps, Truex still had to work for the win. He quickly cleared Joey Logano on the final restart with nine laps to go and held him off by 0.394 seconds for the victory.
The win is the third of the 2023 season for Truex and 34th of the 43-year-old’s Cup career.
“What we’ve been able to do here over the years is pretty remarkable, and to not win was really getting frustrating,” Truex said. “James (Small, crew chief) and I talked about it many times.
“We thought about it all weekend, talked about it with Christopher (Bell) before the race. He’s like, ‘Man, you’ve led more laps here than I’ve even raced in Cup.’
“Just really an awesome job by everybody. What a race car we had today. Just proud of the whole team. Pit stops were flawless. Race car was unbelievable.”
In his last 10 races at New Hampshire, Truex has now led 1,022 laps.
Kyle Larson ended up third, Kevin Harvick fourth and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five.
Completing the top-10 were Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Bubba Wallace, Austin Dillon and Chase Briscoe.
Stage 1
Truex cruised to the Stage 1 win over Byron, but Kyle Busch slammed the wall on the final of the 70 laps and did significant damage to this No. 8 Chevrolet.
Reddick was third, Aric Almirola fourth and Ryan Blaney fifth.
A.J. Allmendinger spun out just before a scheduled competition NASCAR due to the heavy rain on Sunday. Most of teams used the opportunity to pit for new tires with William Byron first off pit road utilizing a two-tire stop.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. remained on the track and inherited the lead but was soon overtaken by Byron, who eventually relinquished the lead to Truex, who had taken four new tires.
Stage 2
Truex reclaimed the lead on a restart with 11 of 115 laps to go and held off Larson to win Stage 2. Logano was third, Blaney fourth and Hamlin fifth.
A late-stage caution for a spin by Erik Jones resulted in some different pit strategies with Almirola taking over the lead thanks to a two-tire pit stop. On the restart, Almirola wrecked in Turn 1 due to a loose right-rear wheel.
You can see the wheel nut come off of Aric Almirola's car before the crash. #NASCAR | @USANetwork pic.twitter.com/7ifgg9OjUU
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) July 17, 2023
Stage 3
During the break between Stages 2 and 3, several lead-lap cars pit with Harvick first off pit road. Truex remained on the track and in the lead to begin the final 116-lap stage.
With 75 laps to go in the race, Truex maintained about a 1-second lead over Blaney as Logano ran third.
Blaney was the first to hit pit road with 65 laps remaining to kick off a final round of green flag pit stops for new tires and fuel to make it to the end of the race.
Once the cycle of stops was completed on lap 257, Truex returned to the lead with a 3-second advantage over Blaney and Larson in third.
Noah Gragson slammed the wall in Turn 2 on lap 271 to bring out the sixth caution of the race. Most drivers elected to pit and took two new tires.
A hard hit for Noah Gragson. #NASCAR
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) July 17, 2023
: @USANetwork pic.twitter.com/DZRoV2r31u
Blaney was penalized for running over equipment during his stop and had to restart from the rear of the field. Harvick stayed on the track and led the way on the restart with 24 laps to go.
Truex, on two new tires, quickly got around Harvick on the restart to reclaim the lead.
Ty Gibbs got into Bowman to bring out the seventh caution and set up a restart with 16 laps remaining and Truex still out front.
A wreck by Christopher Bell set up another restart with nine laps to go with Truex leading Logano and Larson.
