STP 500: Live highlights, stage results and more from Martinsville

Wintry weather delayed the STP 500 for a day, but hopefully the racing action will be just as hot as ever on Martinsville’s short track.

The wait for short track racing was a day longer than expected, but the drivers of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series finally hit the track on Monday for the STP 500. Martin Truex Jr. inherited the pole rather than winning it, a result of qualifying being rained out on Saturday evening.

Truex’s ability to both get and keep the lead was one of the bigger questions as the race approached, especially with more accomplished short track racers like Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski also starting near the front.

But let’s not wait any longer. We’ll jump right into STP 500 highlights to keep up with the on-track action.

Truex was able to get out in front of Kyle Busch when the green flag dropped. But he couldn’t stay there for all that long. First Busch went to the point, and then it was his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin, who got to the lead.

Hamlin was pressured heavily by Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney later in Stage 1, with lapped traffic making things even more tense. It almost turned disastrous when the 51 of Harrison Rhodes was in the way late in the stage, but fortunately, his car just got moved way up the track and didn’t lead to a multi-car wreck.

In the end, Hamlin ended up leading over 100 laps en route to his first ever short track stage win.

Stage 1 results

1. Denny Hamlin, 10 points plus one bonus playoff point
2. Brad Keselowski, 9 points
3. Ryan Blaney, 8 points
4. Kyle Busch, 7 points
5. Clint Bowyer, 6 points
6. Kevin Harvick, 5 points
7. AJ Allmendinger, 4 points
8. Kurt Busch, 3 points
9. Joey Logano, 2 points
10. Jimmie Johnson, 1 point

During the stage-ending caution, Ryan Blaney emerged in front after pit stops, leading his first ever laps at Martinsville. He backed it up on the track under green, putting some time between himself and Keselowski.

Are pit guns still an issue now that we’ve got some races under our belts in the 2018 NASCAR season? The No. 19 team of Daniel Suarez says yes.

NASCAR, however, had a quick response to this particular issue.

Clint Bowyer, seeking an end to his lengthy winless drought, made his way to second and closed to within a few tenths of Blaney. When both drivers reached the lapped car of Kasey Kahne, it looked like Bowyer might have a chance to make a pass, but Blaney held him off and took the stage win.

Stage 2 results

1. Ryan Blaney, 10 points plus one bonus playoff point
2. Clint Bowyer, 9 points
3. Kyle Busch, 8 points
4. Brad Keselowski, 7 points
5. Denny Hamlin, 6 points
6. Kevin Harvick, 5 points
7. Kurt Busch, 4 points
8. AJ Allmendinger, 3 points
9. Joey Logano, 2 points
10. Jimmie Johnson, 1 point

Blaney remained in the lead after pit stops, but Bowyer had the fastest car and was able to track him down. Once he did, it didn’t take him long to become the new race leader, and Blaney was soon passed by several other cars as well.

While Bowyer continued to show the way, there was bumping going on between Kevin Harvick, Hamlin and Truex in an interesting sequence. Then Jamie McMurray, who was running 19th, went into the wall (after Austin Dillon hit the curb and then bumped up the track into him) to bring out a caution — a huge break for Bowyer, because his crew didn’t get the car full of fuel on the previous pit stop.

The drama in the closing laps was whether or not Kyle Busch could run down Bowyer. The lapped cars of McMurray and Rhodes both had issues with less than 10 laps to go, but they made it to pit road without bringing out the yellow.

The gap was less than a second during the final lap, but Bowyer was never seriously challenged and held on to win his first Cup Series race since October 2012.

Bowyer was so excited about snapping his 190-race winless streak that he started doing his burnout before he even slowed all the way down, something Jeff Gordon said he had never seen before. It should be a popular victory for one of the cooler, more genuine guys in the Cup Series garage.