Martin Truex, Jr. can win for the third time at the Monster Mile on the unconventional race day after rain stopped the action only 78 laps into the 400-mile race Sunday.
Truex raced to his first NASCAR Cup win June 4, 2007, at Dover and 12 years later used another rainout to take the checkered flag on May 6, 2019.
It’s the fourth time out of 104 career Dover races it will run on a Monday.
With a green flag start just after 3 p.m., and no lights at the concrete mile track, NASCAR faced a tight window to reach the halfway mark needed for an official race. So they’ll fire the engines again at noon Monday with Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott starting 1-2. Ryan Blaney is third, Truex is fourth and William Byron fifth.
Truex is winless this season with two top-five finishes over the first 10 Cup races. He won four races last season and would certainly like to break through into the win column, especially in the midst of contract negotiations with Joe Gibbs Racing. The 41-year-old Truex made his 596th career start at Dover and is set to join Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch as active drivers with 600 starts.
Chris Buescher won his only career Cup race in a weather-shortened race in 2016 — yes, on a Monday — at Pocono Raceway. Successes have been rare for Buescher since that checkered but he took the pole at Dover - his first in more than 230 career Cup races and 74 Xfinity starts.
