LOS ANGELES — Martin Truex Jr. played bumper cars better than the rest of the record 27-car field at NASCAR’s first race of the season.
Truex Jr. took a methodical approach to the weekend, picking his moment before grabbing the lead 25 laps remaining and holding on to win The Clash at the L.A. Coliseum on Sunday night.
“To persevere and rise above, we found ourselves at the right spot at the end,” Truex Jr. said. “Sometime it works out our way, sometimes it don’t. Tonight it went our way.”
Truex Jr., who did not win a race in 2022, claims his first The Clash victory and received NASCAR’s first ever gold medal for the victory.
“I have a lot of fire in my belly to change what happened last season,” Truex Jr. said. “Last year was a pretty rough season for us so to come out here and kick it off this way, it’s just a good feeling to win a race.”
Truex Jr. qualified 22nd on Saturday and won Heat No. 2 to qualify on the starting line for the main event, then waited for his moment to claim the lead.
“Luckily, I got a good jump and was able to make it clear. You just try to get a good jump and try not to mess it up,” Truex Jr. said.
Eric Amirola qualified fifth on Saturday then won Heat No. 1 early Sunday to earn the pole position for the main event, but was under pressure from the start and fell all the way to 18th.
Denny Hamlin grabbed the lead from Amirola but was pinched by Bubba Wallace on the restart ahead of Lap 44 and fell all the way to 12th before finishing ninth.
Wallace was dominant for 39 laps but Ryan Preece squeezed past on Lap 84 and went on to pace an event-best 44 laps before Truex Jr. made his pass inside Turn 4.
“It was fun to race with (Preece) and he’s a great talent,” Truex Jr. “If he hadn’t of had issues it might have been a different story.”
Wallace, running second with seven laps remaining, was spun by Austin Dillon and finished 22nd as the last car running. Preece’s car was felled by electrical…
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