Martin Truex Jr had a penalty to begin Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup race at Richmond, but he finished first.

Truex, who was disqualified for jumping the start of the race and finished last in the standings, took control of the race in the final stage and never looked back.

After a round of green flag pitstops on Lap 350 of 400 at Richmond Raceway, Truex took the lead and held off Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin by 1.417 seconds to win his fourth race of the season.

Truex advanced to the Round of 12 in the playoffs with the win, his 31st of his career, regardless of his result in next weekend’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“It’s a big day. It’s an important day in our history,” Truex said of his victory coming on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States. “I think all of us here – yeah, we’re proud to win, and this car is amazing and there’s so many people to thank.

“But what a day to win on. It reminds you of the honour and the privilege it is to get to come out here and do this. All these great fans that come out here, we couldn’t do any of these kind of things without the men and women that take care of us and all the first responders, police officers, firefighters, the military, you name it.”

When asked about the impact of his race-starting penalty, Truex replied, “That was frustrating; I’m not going to lie. But I knew we’d have a good enough car to overcome it. It felt pretty good the first couple laps.

“Just one of those things; you’ve got to put it out of your mind and you’ve got to go race, and we knew there was a lot on the line tonight. Very happy to get to do this and go to Bristol without any worries next week is always fun.”

JGR’s 1-2-3 sweep was completed by Christopher Bell, with Chase Elliott fourth for Hendrick Motorsport and Joey Logano rounding out the top five for Team Penske.

Kyle Larson finished sixth, ahead of Ross Chastain and Kevin Harvick, with Kyle Busch and Ryan Blaney rounding out the top 10.

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