Truex Pulls Away For NASCAR Cup Series Victory

BY ESPN

Martin Truex Jr. finally ended his string of rotten luck at Kansas Speedway.

Danica Patrick was left to rue more bad luck of her own.

Truex pulled away from Ryan Blaney and Kevin Harvick on a late restart Saturday night, winning the NASCAR Cup Series race that he seemed to dominate every year without reaching Victory Lane.

"They're all so special, honestly. These races are so hard to win," said Truex, who had a fluke tire change problem that robbed him of the win after leading 172 laps last year. "Any of those restarts I could have gotten beat on. You never know what's going to happen."

Brad Keselowski made a pass on the final lap to take second, followed by Harvick and Blaney. Kyle Busch rounded out the top five after winning the Truck Series race Friday night.

"We were really good all day and just never had a chance to show it," Keselowski said. "Every time we had a chance to pass cars and cycle up front, something happened, which was a real bummer.

"Toward the end we made some runs and made the most of it."

The race was halted with 67 laps to go when a broken brake rotor turned Joey Logano's car into Patrick, sending her hard into the fence in the first turn. Aric Almirola had nowhere to go and slammed into Logano, the force of the impact lifting his car into the air.

Logano and Patrick were treated and released from the infield care center, and Almirola was airlifted to the University of Kansas Medical Center. He was conscious and alert.

"I hope Aric is OK. He's definitely feeling the worst of everybody," Patrick said. "NASCAR does everything it can to make it safe for everybody but these things happen. One of these times, these accidents aren't going to be good for me. They're all big. I've been fortunate so far."

That has been true when it comes to escaping accidents unharmed. But Patrick has had very little fortune on the track, crashing out of the past four races and failing to finish five times this season.

"Just out of nowhere. Everything was fine, and then it took a hard one," Logano said. "I hate that I'm the part of it that started it. I don't know what I could have done."

The race tied a track record with 15 cautions, and the last of them (for a spin involving Jimmie Johnson) bunched up the field with two laps to go. Truex dove to the bottom and roared from the rest of the field, ensuring there would be no more misfortune for him at Kansas.

It was Truex's ninth career win and second this season. He also won at Las Vegas.

"I felt like if I could get out front on those restarts, I was OK," Truex said. "If I came out second or third, it took me a long time to get around guys."

The only race at the end was for second place. Keselowski, Harvick and Blaney went three-wide with Keselowski on the high side, and he made the move stick. Harvick finished third while Blaney was shuffled back to fourth after leading 83 laps.

"Truex had a couple of really good restarts and I didn't, and I don't know if I could have held him off or what," Blaney said. "But good showing. Go out there and lead laps and run with some really good cars. That's where this team deserves to be."

BUSCH KEEPS ON ROLLING

After sweeping both intermediate stages and winning the Truck Series race Friday night, Busch kept his roll going by sweeping to the front on a restart and winning the first stage.

It was the first stage win for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver since the Daytona 500.

Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne were forced to start near the back because they were unable to get through qualifying inspection. But all of them quickly sliced through the field, despite an intense glare in the third and fourth corners caused by the setting sun.

The biggest drama came when Chase Elliott hit Michael McDowell trying to exit his pit, damaging Elliott's No. 24 car. Elliott quickly fell off the lead lap.

BLANEY BACK ON TOP

Blaney started from the pole and won his third stage of the year, leading the field across the line in his No. 21 Ford moments after Ryan Newman had an oil pump problem that forced him out.

Newman was running in the top 10 before his engine quit.

Johnson had all kinds of trouble during the stage. He was penalized for driving through too many pit boxes entering his own, and then made contact with Kurt Busch that caused his tire to go down.

ALMIROLA RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL

Aric Almirola has been released from the hospital after suffering a compression fracture in his back in a violent crash Saturday at Kansas Speedway.

The Richard Petty Motorsports driver, conscious and alert after the crash while being put on a backboard after the roof was cut out of his car, was airlifted Saturday night to the University of Kansas Medical Center.

In a statement Sunday morning, the team said Almirola suffered a compression fracture to his T5 vertebra. He will fly to his home in North Carolina on Sunday and his driving status has yet to be determined.

"Almirola is mobile and will follow-up with his doctors in Charlotte," the statement said.

ESPN racing commentator and emergency room physician Dr. Jerry Punch said that a compression fracture to a thoracic vertebra is different than the lower back injuries suffered to NASCAR drivers in recent years. Denny Hamlin missed four races in 2013 after suffering a compression fracture in his lower back (L1 vertebra) and Tony Stewart needed nearly three months to recover from an L1 burst fracture last year.

The accident occurred on Lap 200 when something broke in the right front of the Joey Logano car, turning him left into Danica Patrick. Patrick took a wicked hit into the wall and Almirola slid into the front of Logano's car at high speed, picking his car off the ground.

"That's the last thing you want to see, a big hit like that for anyone," Logano said. "It's unfortunate for everyone. ... Everything was fine and then [my car] just took a hard right."

Almirola is 23rd in the NASCAR Cup standings, 62 points outside the current cutoff for the 16-driver NASCAR playoffs with 17 races left in the regular season. If he misses any points events -- the exhibition NASCAR all-star race is Saturday with the regular season resuming May 28 with the Coca-Cola 600 -- he would need a waiver from NASCAR (along with a win and a spot among the top 30 in the standings) to remain eligible for the playoffs. NASCAR typically grants waivers in those circumstances.

The 33-year-old driver from Tampa, Florida, in his sixth full season in the series driving for Richard Petty Motorsports, has one career win and 10 top-5s in 226 career starts. He has had a pair of fourth-place finishes at Daytona and Talladega this year, and he won an Xfinity Series race May 6 at Talladega.