Ryan Truex claims first career Xfinity win at Dover

Truex, the 31-year-old younger brother of former Cup champion Martin Truex Jr., has come painstakingly close to victory in both the Xfinity and Truck series during his career.

He finally broke through to Victory Lane on Saturday in a dominating performance to win Saturday’s Xfinity race at his home track of Dover (Del.) Motor Speedway.

Truex has been running a partial schedule this season with Joe Gibbs Racing. Two of his previous seven top-five finishes in 88 career starts have come driving JGR’s No. 19 Toyota this season.

Truex cycled through a late-race round of green-flag pit stops holding the lead despite a hiccup on his stop and cruised to a 4.8-second win over Josh Berry.

“I’m out of breath, man. Oh, my God,” said Truex, who is from nearby Mayetta, N.J. “I’m just so thankful – all these fans, my team, everybody that stuck behind me. Most people didn’t believe in me but I still did.

“I’m just so thankful to be here. It’s amazing. With 20 to go, I was just waiting for something to happen. I was praying, ‘Please, God, just keep everything straight and let’s get to the end of this.’

“What a car. I’m speechless. I’m not an emotional guy. This was for everyone that doubted me.”

Justin Allgaier finished third, Austin Hill fourth and John Hunter Nemechek rounded out the top-five.

Cole Custer, who finished seventh, was the highest finishing driver among the four eligible and collected the final $100,000 Dash4Cash bonus of the season.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, all the lead-lap cars pit with Austin Hill first off pit road and taking the lead on the restart on Lap 100.

Truex soon reclaimed the top spot on Lap 112.

With 50 laps remaining in the race, Truex had built a 4.9-second lead over Austin Hill as Allgaier had moved into third.

On Lap 164, Nemechek and Sammy Smith were the first to hit pit road to kick off a round of green-flag pit stops for new tires and fuel to make it to the end of the race.

Truex had a slow stop after he brought his No. 19 Toyota in too close to pit wall, which cost his crew several seconds on pit road.

Once the cycle of stops was completed on Lap 190, Truex cycled back into the lead with five second advantage over Berry.

Stage 2

Truex dominated on his way to the Stage 2 win, beating Austin Hill by more than five seconds.

Nemechek was third, Allgaier fourth and Custer rounded out the top-five.

During pit stops between the break between Stages 1 and 2, Riley Herbst and Parker Retzclaff were both penalized for speeding and had to restart from the rear of the field.

Parker Kligerman, who started on the pole when qualifying got rained out, wrecked out of the race on Lap 46 after being hit by Corey Heim.

Stage 1

Once he got the lead, Truex easily held off Nemechek to take the Stage 1 win, his first career stage victory.

Sheldon Creed was third, Austin Hill fourth and Berry rounded out the top-five.

During the second caution of the race, Allgaier and Brett Moffitt were penalized for speeding on pit road and both had to restart from the rear of the field.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Laps Led
1	19	Ryan Truex	Toyota	200	1:51'56.749			124
2	8	Josh Berry	Chevrolet	200	1:52'01.569	4.820	4.820
3	7	Justin Allgaier	Chevrolet	200	1:52'03.062	6.313	1.493
4	21	Austin Hill	Chevrolet	200	1:52'07.811	11.062	4.749	18
5	20	John Hunter Nemechek	Toyota	200	1:52'10.321	13.572	2.510
6	18	Sammy Smith	Toyota	200	1:52'12.560	15.811	2.239
7	00	Cole Custer	Ford	200	1:52'13.018	16.269	0.458	13
8	9	Brandon Jones	Chevrolet	200	1:52'14.803	18.054	1.785
9	1	Sam Mayer	Chevrolet	200	1:52'18.554	21.805	3.751
10	11	Daniel Hemric	Chevrolet	200	1:52'19.816	23.067	1.262
11	2	Sheldon Creed	Chevrolet	199	1:51'57.988	1 Lap	1 Lap	41
12	26	Kaz Grala	Toyota	199	1:52'07.153	1 Lap	9.165
13	16	Chandler Smith	Chevrolet	199	1:52'12.692	1 Lap	5.539
14	02	Kyle Weatherman	Chevrolet	199	1:52'13.714	1 Lap	1.022	4
15	25	Brett Moffitt	Ford	199	1:52'13.782	1 Lap	0.068
16	39	Ryan Sieg	Ford	199	1:52'17.334	1 Lap	3.552
17	31	Parker Retzlaff	Chevrolet	199	1:52'17.527	1 Lap	0.193
18	27	Jeb Burton	Chevrolet	198	1:51'58.096	2 Laps	1 Lap
19	51	Jeremy Clements	Chevrolet	198	1:51'59.779	2 Laps	1.683
20	10	Derek Kraus	Chevrolet	198	1:52'09.402	2 Laps	9.623
21	98	Riley Herbst	Ford	198	1:52'12.508	2 Laps	3.106
22	38	Joe Jr.	Ford	198	1:52'19.604	2 Laps	7.096
23	92	Josh Williams	Chevrolet	198	1:52'21.128	2 Laps	1.524
24	6	Brennan Poole	Chevrolet	197	1:52'04.433	3 Laps	1 Lap
25	43	Ryan Ellis	Chevrolet	197	1:52'19.375	3 Laps	14.942
26	45	Rajah Caruth	Chevrolet	196	1:51'58.224	4 Laps	1 Lap
27	08	Gray Gaulding	Ford	196	1:52'12.224	4 Laps	14.000
28	07	Stefan Parsons	Chevrolet	196	1:52'21.150	4 Laps	8.926
29	28	Kyle Sieg	Ford	195	1:51'59.579	5 Laps	1 Lap
30	66	Timmy Hill	Ford	195	1:52'19.084	5 Laps	19.505
31	4	Garrett Smithley	Chevrolet	195	1:52'20.373	5 Laps	1.289
32	91	Chad Chastain	Chevrolet	193	1:52'10.997	7 Laps	2 Laps
33	35	Emerlingб Patrick	Chevrolet	192	1:52'03.734	8 Laps	1 Lap
34	53	CJ Mclaughlin	Ford	192	1:52'05.688	8 Laps	1.954
35	24	Corey Heim	Toyota	170	1:40'56.198	30 Laps	22 Laps
36	78	Anthony Alfredo	Chevrolet	123	1:40'10.021	77 Laps	47 Laps
37	44	Jeffrey Earnhardt	Chevrolet	119	1:17'59.873	81 Laps	4 Laps
38	48	Parker Kligerman	Chevrolet	62	38'27.021	138 Laps	57 Laps