Martin Truex Jr. cliches regular-season championship; narrowly loses Southern 500

Martin Truex Jr. didn’t win the Southern 500, but he did take a big step toward winning a first-ever Monster Energy Cup Series championship Sunday night at Darlington Raceway.

Truex clinched the regular-season points championship by virtue of winning the first and second stages of the penultimate regular season race, giving him a significant advantage come the 10-race knockout playoffs. He has earned 52 playoff points on the year and will begin the postseason with a minimum 20-point advantage over second-place. The regular season concludes Saturday night at Richmond Raceway.

“It’s definitely special,” Truex said. “It feels great, can go to Richmond without any pressure, which is awesome.”

That points cushion essentially ensures Truex will advance to the quarter-final round and likely to the semi-final round of the playoffs, that sees the 16-driver field eliminated by four every three races.

On the season, Truex leads the series in overall wins (four), stage wins (15), top-10 finishes (16), average finish (11), and laps led (1,448). That high performance level has the Furniture Row Racing driver as a favorite to qualify for the best-finish-wins championship finale.

“Really proud of everybody on this team for an amazing season so far, and to lock up the regular season points is a huge accomplishment for us, for our team,” Truex said. “I feel like we’ve come a long way in just a few years together and continue to climb.”

Truex had a chance to add to his impressive season totals Sunday night. After winning the first two stages, he was leading with two laps remaining and well position to win a second straight Southern 500, before a flat right-front tire caused him to bounce off the outside wall. That allowed Denny Hamlin, who had fresher tires than Truex and had erased a nearly 22-second deficit over the final 54 laps, to pass and score the victory. Truex limped to the finish line, placing eighth.

Afterward, Truex admitted he had mixed feelings on how the night unfolded. On one hand, he locked the regular-season points crown, while also seeing a potential win slip away.

“Definitely a bittersweet night for us to come up just two laps short there, blow a tire at the end after having no issues with tires all night, and having such a good racecar,” Truex said. “Wish we could have won, but that’s the breaks. Sometimes they go your way, sometimes they don’t and tonight we come up a little short, but definitely a lot to be proud of.”