Martin Truex Jr Hits the Jackpot, Sweeps Las Vegas Before Fight Breaks Out

Martin Truex Jr celebrates in victory lane at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
(Google Images)

Martin Truex Jr won four races last year. He also came close to winning a lot more races in 2016 too. The No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team lost races because of ill-timed caution flags, late-race accidents, and a bolt on a wheel spacer balancing perfectly on a hub to create a vibration late in the spring Kansas race. They just couldn't seem to shake the little black rain cloud that seemed to make the trip with them every week from Denver, Colorado.

After topping two practice sessions and qualifying in second place, it seemed that Truex's No. 78 Camry would be one of the cars to beat again heading into the Kobalt 400. But polesitter Brad Keselowski jumped out to an early lead and dominated the first 80 laps of the race. By lap 53, the Penske Racing driver had over a two second lead over Truex.

Keselowski's Ford might've been the class of the field early on, but Kevin Harvick's bad luck from Atlanta seemed to follow him to Sin City. The 2014 champion blew a tire and hit the wall at the start/finish line. After being released from the infield care center, Harvick, who had last weekend;s race at Atlanta in hand until a late-race speeding penalty cost him the victory, told reporters that the car "started vibrating about four or five laps before it blew out, and I was just trying to ride it to the end of the stage... the worst part was the medical response; it took forever for them to get to the car. I thought we made that better, but obviously, we haven't... it either just cut a tire, or came apart and melted the bead."

Truex came in for four tires during the caution for the Harvick incident, which enabled him to get out to a two-second lead and win Stage One. Kyle Larson, Jamie McMurray, Keselowski, and Chase Elliott rounded out the top five at the end of the stage.

Following Derrike Cope's slip up in turn three on lap 152, Truex and the rest of the frontrunners made their way to pit road before the end of the second segment. The New Jersey native beat Keselowski off pit road again, using this momentum to go on to win the second stage. Keselowski and Larson would wind up looking at Truex's rear bumper again coming to the green checkered flag.

Martin Truex Jr. celebrates his first win of 2017
(Google Images)

For Truex, his team, and anyone who is a fan of Furniture Row Racing, they knew this is where something usually happens to derail their dominance. A loose lug nut, a slow pit stop, losing their clutch like the week in Atlanta. They had already captured 20 championship points and two playoff points for their pair of stage victories, so another shoe had to drop at some point.

Well, that shoe dropped late in the final stage. As Truex was being stalked by Keselowski's No. 2 Ford, he needed to make a track bar adjustment to improve his car's handling. But when he reached for the dial to make the change, nothing happened. Something had happened to disconnect the track bar from the mechanism that allows Truex to adjust it from the cockpit.

As Keselowski passed Truex with 24 laps to go, he began to stretch his lead. All Truex said over the radio was "Oh track bar, where art thou?!"

Then Danica Patrick, who had been nursing a sick Ford around the racetrack for much of the second half of the day,  lost an engine with 17 laps to go. This totally changed the complexion of the race and indicated that the little black rain cloud that normally follows the No. 78 team from track to track might not have made the trip to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

On the final restart, Keselowski passed Truex again on the high side off of turn two. Then, as quickly as he had taken the lead, "Bad Brad's" Miller Lite Ford was slowly being reeled back in by Truex's Bass Pro Shops Camry.

Something had broken on Keselowski's that caused him to lose his brakes, which enabled Truex to pass him back off of turn two with just two laps to go.

In the end, the black cloud had dissipated, the bad luck took the weekend off, and Martin Truex Jr scored his first win of the 2017 season. This was also the first win for the new 2018 Toyota Camry and the first time a driver had swept all three stages of a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Race. This netted Truex 60 championship points and seven playoff points.

"We definitely had our share of races where we've dominated and gave one away, and it looked like today was going to be another one of those," Truex said after the race. "We had to run that last set of tires on that last caution longer than we did all race long. I was out of control, and Brad was really good on the long run. I hate that he had problems. He was strong and we weren't going to do anything with him, but then he lost the brakes or something. A little bit of a gift, but we've given some away, so it feels good to come out on the good end for once."

Kyle Busch (center with back to camera) takes a swing at
Joey Logano (center in black hat) (Google Images)

But unfortunately, it was the extracurricular activities on pit road that stole the show after Truex took the checkered flag.

On the final lap, Joey Logano pinned Kyle Busch behind Keselowski's slower car going into turn three while racing for fourth. Busch dove under Keselowski, bumped Logano down the track and drove off into the final set of turns. But that bumped messed up Logano's entry into turn three, which caused him to get loose under Busch and slide up into him, sending the No. 18 car sliding down the track to the entrance of pit road.

Busch climbed from his smoking cockpit, tossed his helmet onto his seat and set off briskly down pit road to find Logano's fourth-place machine. Flanked by Joe Gibbs Racing handlers, Busch approached Logano and took a swing at the Penske Racing driver.

While it was a good swing, Busch's punch didn't make contact. To make matters worse, he was promptly tackled to the ground by several members of Logano's pit crew. He was dragged away from the scuffle with a bloody cut on his forehead.

You can click here to watch a full video of the fight. The footage was captured by Jeff Gluck of JeffGluck.com.

When asked about the altercation after the fact, Logano said that Busch didn't have much to say on the incident.

“Not a lot of talking,” Logano said. “Just a lot of swinging. We usually don’t have any issues.”

When asked if any punches were landed, Logano smirked and simply replied, “none to me.”

Fox Sports pit reporter Vince Welch caught up with Busch walking through the garage area. He told Welch that that's simply the way Logano races and that "he's gonna get it."

After announcing that they would receive a second date in the playoffs next year, a move that was lambasted by many fans because another "cookie cutter" mile-and-a-half track took a date from a short, one-mile track (New Hampshire Motor Speedway), Sunday's Kobalt 400 might have proved that Las Vegas Motor Speedway might be worthy of a second race after all. With the excitement that fans saw on and off the track, this should fire every race fan up for what the rest of 2017 has in store.