Martin Truex Jr. took his series leading 8th win of 2017 en route to his first career title on Sunday in the Ford 400.  Truex held off a hard-charging Kyle Busch, who had fresh tires, and Kyle Larson, who was rim-riding, to win the race and the title. “It’s just overwhelming,” Truex said in Victory Lane. “To think about all the rough days and bad days, the days that we couldn’t run 20th, to be here — I never thought this day would come, and to be here is so unbelievable.”  Truex has fought through adversity his whole career.  His girlfriend Sherry Pollex is currently battling ovarian cancer, and team owner Barney Visser couldn’t attend the race because of a heart attack.  “A lot of it was for her,” said Truex when asked how much it meant to win for Pollex. “A lot of it was for me. A lot of it was for this team — just, I don’t even know what to say. We just never gave up all day long. We didn’t have the best car. I don’t know how we won that thing. Never give up. Dig deep.”  Kyle Busch drove up to Truex Jr.’s bumper late in the race, but couldn’t pass him once he got there.  “Yeah, it wasn’t quite what we wanted there at the end,” Busch said. “I thought we had a really great race car. Especially on the long runs, we were really, really good. Just came down to there at the end, not having enough tire when I got to the 78.”

Three drivers ran their final races as full-time drivers on Sunday, which are Danica Patrick, Matt Kenseth, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.  Patrick announced her retirement on Friday in a very emotional press conference.  She will run the Daytona 500 and Indy 500 next year and then retire for good.  “It’s a perfect way (to go out),” Patrick said. “It definitely feels like it should be over. But look, it’s my decision. Before I heard if we had a sponsor or a team wanted to move forward I felt a lot of pressure on myself to answer whether I wanted to before.”  She was involved in a crash with Kasey Kahne on Sunday to end her full-time career, as Kenseth finished 8th, and Earnhardt Jr. finished 25th.

Credit to www.nascar.com

Written on November 24, 2017