Noah Gragson claims his first NASCAR Truck win at Martinsville

Gragson powered around two-time series champion Matt Crafton on a restart with 10 of 200 laps remaining and held on to win Saturday’s Texas Roadhouse 200 at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway for his first career victory.

The win for Gragson, 18, came in his 22nd career start. He finished fourth here in his first start at the iconic track in the spring.

“It was really tough racing against these veterans,” Gragson said. “For the last 40 laps I had Johnny Sauter trying to beat off my back bumper. He did that to us in the spring and I wasn’t going to let him pass me again like that again.

“We got that caution there at the end. You can’t pass on the outside at Martinsville, but I did it. All the hard work, I got the monkey off my back. All year I’ve been asked pretty much every day, ‘When are you going to get that win? When are we going to put up a banner at Kyle Busch Motorsports?’

“I’m just thankful for everyone who has brought me up in racing, I’m so very thankful. Man, I’m blown away.”

Crafton finished second, Johnny Sauter third, Harrison Burton ended up a career-best fourth and Todd Gilliland completed the top-five.

“I would have taken the outside (lane),” Crafton said when asked if he would have done something different on the restart. “This sucks.”

With 17 laps remaining, Bayley Currey spun exiting Turn 2 to bring out the caution. On the restart with 10 to go, Crafton led the way followed by Gragson, Sauter, Burton and Gilliland.

Crafton was the top-performing driver in the playoffs. Outside of Sauter in third, Christopher Bell ended up eighth, Ben Rhodes was ninth, Austin Cindric was 10th and John Hunter Nemechek ended up 30th.

Stage 2

Once Sauter got into the lead, he ran away from the field and easily captured the Stage 2 victory.

Craton finished second, Gragson third, Bell fourth and Chase Briscoe fifth.

Bell, who entered the race as the series points leader, got off to a slow start thanks to a 15th-place effort in qualifying. “I can tell the difference between sticker (tires) and non-stickers, but track position is everything,” Bell said over his team radio.

During pit stops after the break, Bell exited pit road first and took over the race lead, followed by Ryan Truex, Crafton, Gragson and Rhodes. Sauter, who had a slow stop, lined up seventh on the restart.

After wearing out Crafton’s rear bumper for several laps, Sauter finally got around him and into the lead for the first time on Lap 72.

With 20 laps to go in Stage 2, Sauter led the way followed by Crafton and Gragson.

There were no on-track incidents in the second 50-lap segment.

Stage 1

Crafton elected not to pit during the first 50-lap segment’s only caution and held on to the lead to claim the Stage 1 victory over Sauter.

Rhodes finished third, Ryan Truex was fourth and Gragson completed the top-five.

“That’s what we’re all about right now in these first two segments, we need to get all the Stage points we can,” Crafton said during the break.

On Lap 38, Nemechek exited Turn 2 and slammed into the outside wall, doing extensive damage to his truck. “We had no brake pedal,” Nemechek said over his team radio at the time.

Nemechek had to take his No. 8 Chevrolet to the garage and his race ended early. His chances to advance to the Championship 4 race at Homestead, Fla., took a giant hit. He will be credited with a 30th-place finish.

On the restart with six laps remaining in Stage 1, Crafton inherited the lead when he did not pit and was followed by Sauter and Rhodes.

Chris Windom immediately pulled his truck into the garage upon the start of the race due to engine issues. The team did not have a backup engine to use for the race.

Cla	#	Driver	Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Laps Led	Retirement	Points
1	18	Noah Gragson	Toyota	200		10		54
2	88	Matt Crafton	Toyota	200	1.486	102		54
3	21	Johnny Sauter	Chevrolet	200	1.916	33		53
4	51	Harrison Burton	Toyota	200	2.268			39
5	46	Todd Gilliland	Toyota	200	2.686			36
6	52	Stewart Friesen	Chevrolet	200	3.497			33
7	33	Kaz Grala	Chevrolet	200	3.794			35
8	4	Christopher Bell	Toyota	200	4.168	16		36
9	27	Ben Rhodes	Toyota	200	4.505			36
10	19	Austin Cindric	Ford	200	4.867			31
11	24	Justin Haley	Chevrolet	200	5.458			29
12	98	Grant Enfinger	Toyota	200	6.151			25
13	16	Ryan Truex	Toyota	200	6.361			31
14	92	Regan Smith	Ford	200	7.452			23
15	87	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	200	7.509
16	02	Austin Hill	Chevrolet	200	8.214			21
17	83	Landon Huffman	Chevrolet	200	9.369			20
18	99	Cale Gale	Chevrolet	200	9.489			20
19	29	Chase Briscoe	Ford	199	1 lap	39		26
20	13	Cody Coughlin	Toyota	199	1 lap			17
21	49	Wendell Chavous	Chevrolet	199	1 lap			16
22	45	Jeffrey Abbey	Chevrolet	199	1 lap			15
23	86	Mason Diaz	Chevrolet	198	2 laps			17
24	1	Jordan Anderson	Chevrolet	198	2 laps			13
25	50	Bayley Currey	Chevrolet	196	4 laps			12
26	20	Jeb Burton	Chevrolet	174	26 laps		Rear gear
27	6	Norm Benning	Chevrolet	153	47 laps		Brakes	10
28	10	Jennifer Jo Cobb	Chevrolet	108	92 laps		Oil pipe	9
29	44	Austin Wayne Self	Chevrolet	61	139 laps		Engine	8
30	8	John Hunter Nemechek	Chevrolet	37	163 laps		Accident	7
31	15	Gray Gaulding	Chevrolet	26	174 laps		Electrical
32	63	Chris Windom	Chevrolet	0			Engine	5