Truex: Las Vegas NASCAR victory vindicates form after winless run
Martin Truex Jr says his Las Vegas NASCAR Cup win vindicates the direction his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota squad has been working in, despite an extended run without victories

The current Cup Series points' leader and 2017 champion hadn't won on an oval since Charlotte in May, despite feeling like he has had the car to do so on multiple occasions and being one of three drivers to take four wins this season before Las Vegas.
Truex Jr - who moved to Joe Gibbs for this season from Furniture Row Racing - took the lead from Kevin Harvick with 20 laps remaining at Las Vegas to seal a fifth victory of the season, and winning the first race of NASCAR's playoff points system.
"I think a lot of people have been like, 'Where has the No. 19 been? We don't expect them to be that strong.'" said Truex after ending a run of three races not finishing higher than 13th.
"We know what we can do. When we live up to our potential, it makes us all happy.
"We've had a stretch of six or seven races that we've been really strong in.
"We feel like we've had cars capable of winning.
"We honestly don't have a whole lot to show for it.
"We had no bonus points in that stretch. It was getting frustrating.
"But we knew we were really fast, we knew we were working on the right things.
"I knew the team was doing a great job.
"[The win] is kind of like for us inside of our minds, it's kind of an indication that, 'Hey, we were doing the right things, we are doing the right things.'
"When we can get things to roll our way, not make any mistakes, this is what we can do."

The win guarantees that Truex will make it to the next stage of the playoffs, so he can finish anywhere over the next two races and still make it through to the next stage as he fights for a second title and to go one better than his runner-up finish last year.
Truex's crew chief Cole Pearn said the result was like getting a "monkey off our back".
"You work really, really hard just to be disappointed every week. It's huge when it goes right," he said.
"You think about it, you can win eight races in a season and have the best career year, but that means you're probably miserable 30 other weeks.
"The ratio is not very good. [It's] definitely a lot more fun to win, just to get the monkey off our back.
"Hopefully, like Martin said, just keep running well these next couple weeks."

Kyle Busch blasts "pathetic" backmarkers after NASCAR Las Vegas
Richmond NASCAR: Martin Truex Jr wins despite being sent spinning

Latest news
De Vries cleared of wrongdoing in dispute over €250K loan
Nyck de Vries has been cleared of any wrongdoing in an Amsterdam court over a claim launched against him by real estate magnate Jeroen Schothorst relating to a €250,000 loan.
Horner admits Red Bull’s real RB19 will be ‘somewhat different’
Red Bull boss Christian Horner says the real RB19 that will appear in Formula 1 testing in Bahrain later this month will be ‘somewhat different'.
Horner hints at closer links between Mercedes and Williams F1 teams
Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner has hinted that there could be a closer relationship between the Mercedes and Williams Formula 1 teams in the wake of James Vowles’s move.
Ford remains committed to WRC amid F1 return
Ford has stated that it remains committed to its programme in the World Rally Championship following confirmation of its return to Formula 1 as an engine supplier from 2026.
The ex-F1 driver taking on NASCAR with a new team
Saddled with uncompetitive Minardi machinery, Tarso Marques didn't manage to score points in his three partial seasons of Formula 1. But now the Brazilian has the chance to show what he can do in NASCAR, and explains the story of his comeback with new Cup Series entrant Team Stange
The early benefits and challenges of NASCAR's Next Gen car
NASCAR’s new stock car generation is encouraging an influx of fresh blood into its top tier. But there are concerns that parts are in short supply as the entire paddock tries to build up stocks at the same time
How Penske's rookie sensation opened NASCAR's new era in style
After holding his nerve and hip-checking his team-mate on the run to the line, Austin Cindric made a perfect start to life as a full-timer in the NASCAR Cup Series by winning the Daytona 500. Here's how the Penske Ford man emerged first across the line in the first points-scoring race for the much-anticipated Next Generation cars
Six key themes to follow in the 2022 NASCAR Cup season
There are plenty of uncertainties ahead of the 2022 NASCAR Cup season as an all-new fleet of cars take to the track for the first time. Ahead of this weekend's Daytona 500, our experts explain what you need to know
How NASCAR had to learn a harsh lesson ahead of its Next Gen arrival
The NASCAR Cup kicks off with the Daytona 500 this weekend, but a major overhaul and a subsequent mountain of work has been required to be ready for the arrival of the Next Gen cars
How Larson took the long way round to NASCAR Cup glory
From villain to hero, Kyle Larson’s journey to the 2021 NASCAR Cup title comes straight from the Hollywood blockbuster scripts. While Larson had to reach his lifelong goal the hard way and go through a very public shaming after a ban for using a racial slur, his talents shone long before his name grabbed the headlines for both the right and the wrong reasons
How NASCAR is gearing up for its "biggest change" in 2022
It’s not just Formula 1 that’s set for upheaval in 2022, as the NASCAR Cup Series adopts its Next Gen cars that will cast any in-built advantages aside and require teams to adopt a totally new way of operating. Far more than just a change of machinery, the new cars amount to a shift in NASCAR's core philosophy
Why Bubba Wallace’s Talladega win is such a big moment for NASCAR
Bubba Wallace claimed his maiden NASCAR Cup Series at Talladega on Monday to become the first Black victor in the category since Wendell Scott in 1963. Both Wallace and Scott had faced obstacles and racism in their paths to their breakthrough wins, and NASCAR is trying to put it right with its range of diversity programmes
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.