Martin Truex Jr. wins the 2015 Axalta ‘We Paint Winners’ at Pocono Raceway

Nearly two years since his last win, Martin Truex Jr. returned to victory lane by taking the Axalta 400 Sunday at Pocono Raceway.

Truex checked out following a restart with 17 laps to go, outrunning Kevin Harvick to record his first win in 69 starts. Before Sunday, the Furniture Row Racing driver last won June 23, 2013, at Sonoma Raceway when he was with Michael Waltrip Racing.

The triumph comes after Truex had led the most laps in the past points three races, but failed to close out. Strategy and poor track position cost him potential victories at Kansas Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway. A week ago at Dover International Speedway, Truex led 131 laps but his No. 78 Chevrolet wasn’t as strong in the second half and he slid to sixth.

“We finally got it,” said Truex, who led a race-high 97 laps Sunday. “That is all I can say, we finally got it. We have had a great season. We have had everything it has taken to win races. We just hadn’t got it done yet. It just takes a lot of things to go your way to pull these things together.”

Harvick, the current Sprint Cup Series points leader and defending champion, finished second for the eighth time in 14 races this season. Rounding out the top-five were Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano and Kurt Busch. Johnson overcame a flat left tire to notch his seventh top-three result in the past eight races.

“(The car) is beat up and missing a left-front splitter from the contact we had with the outside wall off of Turn 3,” Johnson said. “Just a long day for us. We overcame a lot and still got a third-place finish out of it.”

Truex’s victory was popular among his peers. Several drivers, including Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski, took to social media to congratulate him, with Earnhardt posting he hopes Truex “has 1 hell of a hangover tomorrow.”

Joining Truex in victory lane Sunday was girlfriend Sherry Pollex, who last summer was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. When he climbed out of the car, the couple embraced with Truex lifting Pollex, who is currently undergoing chemotherapy, off the ground.

“It never gets any better than this,” Truex said. “It takes time to heal things, especially with what Sherry and I went through. This makes you forget all about it. Sherry’s here healthy and she’s as excited as I am.”

Said Harvick: “I’m really happy for Martin. I know he went through a lot -- for him and Sherry. If you’re going to lose to somebody today, that’s a great person to lose to.”

Truex struggled in 2014, his first season with Furniture Row, leading just a single lap and ranking 24th in the standings. He joined the single-car team when MWR became immersed in a race-fixing scandal that resulted in Truex’s sponsor leaving the organization and eventually, his dismissal.

This year, though, Truex is off to the best start of his career with top-10 finishes in every race but one. With 12 regular season races remaining, he sits second in points and third in laps led.

“I knew we were going to get (a win),” Truex said. Everybody kept asking, ‘When are going to win? When are you going to win? What’s going on?’ I knew we had the team. I knew we had what it took. We just needed things to play out the way we needed them to. I feel like we’re on cloud nine right now.”