Martin Truex Jr. cruised down the stretch and won his first NASCAR Cup race of the season on Wednesday night in the first race under the lights at Martinsville Speedway.
Truex, the 2017 Cup season champion, has been one of NASCAR's biggest winners over the last three years but couldn’t find victory lane for Joe Gibbs Racing over the first 10 races of this season.
Truex won the Martinsville grandfather clock on the paperclip-shaped track at just 0.526 miles. He won for the first time with new crew chief Jason Small.
The issue was pushed to the fore this week by Bubba Wallace, NASCAR's lone black driver and an Alabama native who called for the banishment of the Confederate flag and said there was “no place” for it in the sport.