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Martin Truex Jr achieves record dominance in NASCAR's Charlotte 600

Martin Truex Jr put his early season bad luck well behind him with a dominant win in the NASCAR Sprint Cup's 600-mile race at Charlotte Motor Speedway

Possible victories slipped through his fingers at Daytona, Texas and Dover earlier in the year, but nothing and nobody could get close to Truex on Sunday night.

He began the race on pole in his Furniture Row Racing Toyota, and would have gone unchallenged for the majority of the evening if not for a late charge from Kevin Harvick.

Truex broke the Cup record for most laps led during a race at Charlotte, leading all but eight of the 400, during which Jimmie Johnson inherited the lead temporarily during pitstops.

Even more impressively, his 588 miles led is the most ever in one race in the history of NASCAR.

With his win, Truex joins Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth in the provisional Chase field.

The fight for best of the rest was largely contested by Johnson, Harvick and Joey Logano. The latter narrowly got past Johnson during the pitstop window of lap 166-168, but at the next round of stops, Logano received a drive-through penalty for his pit crew coming over the wall too early, putting him a lap down and eliminating him from the hunt for the lead.

It made for a stark contrast to Logano's race at Charlotte a week prior, where he scooped a $1million prize in the All-Star race, but his loss was Johnson's gain, and the Hendrick Motorsports man seized second place.

Traffic towards the end of the race began to slow the leader slightly, and Johnson closed up to within half a second.

But Johnson too encountered the traffic, and a late turn of pace from Harvick got him past, and into second.

It was then Harvick's turn to set about trying to catch Truex, but nothing could touch the Furniture Row Racing machine, and he finished around two and a half seconds ahead of his rival.

RESULTS - 400 LAPS:

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Toyota 3h44m05.s
2 Kevin Harvick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 2.572s
3 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 4.591s
4 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 6.406s
5 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 7.221s
6 Kurt Busch Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 7.221s
7 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 10.526s
8 Chase Elliott Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 11.493s
9 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 14.087s
10 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 16.084s
11 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 18.153s
12 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 19.426s
13 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 24.648s
14 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 24.824s
15 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 26.477s
16 A.J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 1 Lap
17 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 1 Lap
18 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 1 Lap
19 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 1 Lap
20 Ryan Blaney Wood Brothers Racing Ford 3 Laps
21 Danica Patrick Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 4 Laps
22 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 5 Laps
23 Clint Bowyer HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 5 Laps
24 Tony Stewart Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet 5 Laps
25 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford 5 Laps
26 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 5 Laps
27 Landon Cassill Front Row Motorsports Ford 5 Laps
28 Regan Smith Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet 5 Laps
29 Brian Scott Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 6 Laps
30 Casey Mears Germain Racing Chevrolet 6 Laps
31 David Ragan BK Racing Toyota 7 Laps
32 Matt DiBenedetto BK Racing Toyota 7 Laps
33 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Accident
34 Michael McDowell Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing Chevrolet 9 Laps
35 Cole Whitt Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 9 Laps
36 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 10 Laps
37 Chris Buescher Front Row Motorsports Ford 12 Laps
38 Josh Wise The Motorsports Group Chevrolet 13 Laps
39 Jeffrey Earnhardt Go FAS Racing Ford 18 Laps
40 Reed Sorenson Premium Motorsports Chevrolet Clutch

LEADING CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Pos Driver Points
1 Kevin Harvick 457
2 Kurt Busch 421
3 Jimmie Johnson 409
4 Kyle Busch 405
5 Carl Edwards 404
6 Brad Keselowski 404
7 Martin Truex Jr. 381
8 Chase Elliott 374
9 Joey Logano 373
10 Matt Kenseth 347
11 Denny Hamlin 345
12 Austin Dillon 344
13 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 341
14 Jamie McMurray 318
15 Ryan Blaney 309
16 Ryan Newman 309
17 A.J. Allmendinger 308
18 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 299
19 Trevor Bayne 291
20 Kasey Kahne 290
21 Kyle Larson 271
22 Paul Menard 257
23 Danica Patrick 236
24 Greg Biffle 230
25 Clint Bowyer 229
26 Aric Almirola 228
27 Landon Cassill 216
28 Casey Mears 195
29 Brian Scott 190
30 David Ragan 171
31 Regan Smith 161
32 Michael McDowell 161
33 Matt DiBenedetto 150
34 Chris Buescher 145
35 Tony Stewart 111

PROVISIONALLY INTO CHASE SO FAR

Kyle Busch (3 wins), Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, Brad Keselowski (2 wins), Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth, Martin Truex Jr (1 win)

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