Truex Jr takes maiden Cup win

Truex led 216 out the 400 laps of the race, and his pace was unmatched for most of the afternoon once he was able to grab the lead, after starting down from 26th place on the grid.

Only pole-sitter Ryan Newman looked at times capable of taking on Truex, but despite leading 135 laps, he could not match the pace of the No. 1 DEI Chevrolet when it mattered and finished the race nearly seven seconds behind him.

"It's been a long time coming," said Truex after giving the first points race victory of the season to his team, having won the Nextel Open two weeks ago.

"This is kind of perfect timing, you know, we needed this. [Dale Earnhardt] Junior is leaving (the team) and a lot of guys have a lot of questions about the people, not really sure which direction we're headed and this is the direction we're headed."

Truex Jr ended the Hendrick Motorsports domination of the Car of Tomorrow events by hitting the perfect set-up on his car for the race, while most drivers struggled on the 'green' track due to the rain from Sunday.

"We unloaded, struggled a little bit and threw everything we knew at it. We went back to changes we learned in the Busch car here. We weren't the fastest car in the 'Happy Hour' but we could run in the 24-second bracket and nobody else could stay in the low 25's."

Close to the end of the race, Jimmie Johnson had moved up to second place and looked a threat to Truex, but the reigning Nextel Cup Champion was forced to pit with 20 laps to go to change the right rear tyre on his car, having saved it twice from going into the wall. He eventually finished down in 15th and a lap down.

The race turned out to be actually the worst CoT event so far for the Hendrick teams as neither of their drivers even led a lap, let alone contended for victory. Points-leader Jeff Gordon however did his usual best with what he had, finishing tenth, while Lowe's winner Casey Mears was 13th and last of the drivers who finished on the lead lap.

Ryan Newman continued to show improvements with Penske's Car of Tomorrow program and claimed a solid second place, running close to the top of the leaderboard for most of the afternoon.

"Our thoughts go out to the France family today." Newman said. "Congratulations to Martin, he did an excellent job and he's an excellent driver. He definitely likes this racetrack and it's unfortunate for me. But believe it or not I get out with a smile, I've got a smile on my face when I'm driving the car too."

Newman's teammate Kurt Busch also looked good for another top-ten finish but his day ended in a controversial incident with Tony Stewart. On lap 270 both were fighting for eighth position when Busch apparently didn't leave enough room for Stewart who had the nose of his car just under him on the outside of turn 4.

"I really don't know what the heck he was all about today," Busch said about Stewart. "He didn't want to give an inch. He hit me on the restart twice, almost wrecking our day early and by wrecking our day there at the end I think he got a special accomplishment."

Busch drove to pit road after the incident and aggressively braked his car beside Stewart's, forcing one of the crew members from the Home Depot team to jump and avoid being run over. He was not allowed by NASCAR officials to return to racing.

Carl Edwards was third rounding up a good weekend after his Busch win on Saturday, giving Roush Fenway their best CoT result this fur, while teammate Matt Kenseth was fifth. Denny Hamlin was fourth despite struggling in the early part of the race.

Juan Pablo Montoya had a tough afternoon once again. He struggled with understeer for most of the first part of the race falling two laps down and then was hit by electrical problems and even some brake issues in the closing laps. He finished 31st and 5 laps down on the winner.

"The alternator went out on like the second pit stop," said Donnie Wingo, crew chief for Montoya's car. "Finally the battery got so low we had to change the battery and that put us two more laps behind. We've got a long way to go on these COT cars. We're just a little bit behind on 'em and we've got to buckle down and figure out something."

The points standings remained mostly unchanged but Martin Truex Jr moved up two places to 13th in the points, jumping ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr who ran well until being forced to pit for a flat tyre under green flag.

Pos  Driver              Make        Laps
 1.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet   400
 2.  Ryan Newman         Dodge       400
 3.  Carl Edwards        Ford        400
 4.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet   400
 5.  Matt Kenseth        Ford        400
 6.  Greg Biffle         Ford        400
 7.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet   400
 8.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet   400
 9.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet   400
10.  Robby Gordon        Ford        400
11.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge       400
12.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet   400
13.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet   400
14.  David Ragan         Ford        399
15.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet   399
16.  Sterling Marlin     Chevrolet   399
17.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet   398
18.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge       398
19.  Brian Vickers       Toyota      398
20.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet   398
21.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet   398
22.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet   398
23.  Scott Riggs         Dodge       398
24.  Jamie McMurray      Ford        398
25.  Joe Nemechek        Chevrolet   397
26.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge       397
27.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge       397
28.  Michael Waltrip     Toyota      395
29.  David Gilliland     Ford        395
30.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet   395
31.  Juan Montoya        Dodge       395
32.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet   394
33.  AJ Allmendinger     Toyota      394
34.  Kyle Petty          Dodge       393
35.  Bill Elliott        Ford        393
36.  David Stremme       Dodge       390
37.  JJ Yeley            Chevrolet   370
38.  Jeremy Mayfield     Toyota      361
39.  Ricky Rudd          Ford        352
40.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet   327
41.  Ward Burton         Chevrolet   324
42.  Kurt Busch          Dodge       271
43.  Dale Jarrett        Toyota      241