NASCAR at Fontana recap: Martin Truex Jr.’s championship form on full display

There was every appearance The Kevin Harvick Express would continue running unimpeded. Two-mile Auto Club Speedway, with its worn and aged surface, played into Harvick’s strength of managing his tires and being able to be fast over long green-flag stints to the point few, if anyone, would be able to keep pace — similar to how Harvick had blitzed the field in winning three weeks ago at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

What wasn’t taken into account was Harvick himself would be the reason his three-race winning streak would come to an end. And yet that was precisely what occurred during Sunday’s Auto Club 400.

Trying to aggressively pass Kyle Larson, Harvick attempted to dart low on ACS’s backstretch. There was one problem, however. Unbeknownst to Harvick, Larson was already to his inside and the result of two drivers going for the same piece of real estate resulted in Harvick spinning himself out and careening into the outside wall.

Just like that, his chance to become the ninth driver in NASCAR’s modern era (1972-present) to win four races in a row was gone. The who’s who list of names to accomplish the impressive would not be adding its newest member.

“I don’t know that that was his fault,” Harvick said. “I think that was my fault for coming down the racetrack and trying to side draft and we touched. I tried to get a little too much there.”

With Harvick’s likely dominant car now beaten and battered — Larson said post-race Harvick had the fastest car of anyone Sunday — it opened the door for someone else to step into the spotlight.

Fittingly, it was defending Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. turning in a performance similar to what Harvick had exhibited the past three weeks. The Furniture Row Racing driver swept all three stages, led 125 of a possible 200 laps, and won by a whopping 11.6 seconds over second-place Larson.

It is far too early in the season for statement wins — especially by the driver-team combination that won the title a year ago and is expected to be in contention again this season. But Sunday’s outcome did offer a reminder and foreshadowed what may be ahead.

While Harvick had started the season by winning three of four races, it wasn’t as if Truex had suddenly transformed into an afterthought, regardless of how dominant Harvick may have been.

After placing 18th in the season-opening Daytona 500 marred by crashes (and won in upset fashion by Austin Dillon), Truex finished fifth, fourth, and fifth in the next three races. He was in the ballpark performance-wise and seemed capable of pushing Harvick and the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing team if his team could find just a little more.

”I don’t really worry about who’s winning, who else is fast,” Truex said. “Obviously, (Harvick) has been quick. They’ve got a great team. Kevin is an awesome driver. They had it going on the last couple weeks.

”As we seen today, we can put together a run like that, as well. I think most of all it feels good, we’re able to find that speed we’ve been looking for the last couple weeks. Like I said, we’ve been close, but not quite close enough. We knew we were off a bit, so it wasn’t a surprise that we weren’t winning.”

Who knows how Sunday would’ve played out had Harvick not crashed? Considering recent events, there was a strong probability he would’ve run away with the win just as Truex did. It’s also probable Truex would’ve answered the challenge and emerged as the driver to end Harvick’s streak straight up.

The showdown between the two towering figures thus far in this young season will have to wait for another day. And it is clear that while Harvick is fully capable of displaying overpowering superiority, so too is Truex. That much was evident Sunday where he resembled the driver who last season led the series in nearly every major statistical category.

”After the beginning of the season there, watching Harvick run away with everything, I wasn’t sure where we were at,” FRR team owner Barney Visser said. “I wish he would have not had the problems he had today and we could have run him again.

”We had something for him today.”