Martin Truex Jr. snaps winless streak at Dover

NASCAR’s Dover Motor Speedway weekend was a family affair for the Truexs in their national series home track. Two days after Ryan Truex won the Xfinity Series event for his first NASCAR-sanctioned triumph since 2010, older brother Martin Truex Jr. snapped a 598-day Cup Series winless streak.

The older Truex, whose last victory came at Richmond in 2021, held off a dramatic charge from Ross Chastain on the final restart with seven laps to go for his third win at Dover. Interestingly, all three victories took place on a Monday due to rain forcing postponements.

Martin and Ryan are the sixth brothers to sweep a NASCAR national series weekend, joining Jeff and Ward Burton (2001 Darlington), Kurt and Kyle Busch (achieved six times), Mike and Rusty Wallace (thrice), and Darrell and Michael Waltrip (1992 Darlington). Unlike the aforementioned, the Truexs did so for the same team (Joe Gibbs Racing) and in the same manufacturer and number (#19 Toyota).

“It’s very special,” said Martin. “Happy my dad was here for that. Just really cool.

“Ryan has been through a lot. He’s really worked hard, and he’s gotten beat down and knocked down a lot and been through some tough times that he’s had to kind of persevere through. I was just really happy for him.

“It’s not a long list of brothers that have swept a weekend in NASCAR racing history. To be on that list with some of the guys that have done it is really, really cool for both of us and our whole family.”

The final caution was set up by Joey Logano wrecking in turn four, ending a frustrating day for him in which his steering suffered damage and caused him to go laps down. It was one of four wrecks on the day, which included a pair of multi-car accidents with Chastain being responsible for one after contact with Kyle Larson and Brennan Poole. Both drivers called out Chastian for the crash, for which he eventually apologised.

While Chastain may have made himself more enemies as his driving style has drawn plenty of criticism from his peers, he is now the points leader with a three-point edge over Christopher Bell.

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