Who won the NASCAR race yesterday? Complete results from Sunday's Phoenix race

Holly Cain

Who won the NASCAR race yesterday? Complete results from Sunday's Phoenix race image

The winner of Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race accomplished a pair of firsts.

Martin Truex Jr. overcame an early-race brush with the wall and took the lead on the final restart with 25 laps remaining to earn his first victory of 2021 and first in 31 career starts at Phoenix Raceway.

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Truex’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota ultimately held off Joey Logano’s No. 22 Penske Racing Ford by a convincing 1.698 seconds for the win in the Instacart 500. The 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion took the race lead from the outside on a bold restart move and pulled away in the closing laps of a spirited race that featured 22 lead changes.

Below is more about Truex's win, plus the complete results of Sunday's race.

Who won the NASCAR race yesterday?

Martin Truex Jr. became the fifth different winner in as many NASCAR Cup Series races this season, joining Michael McDowell, Christopher Bell, William Byron and Kyle Larson. Their wins have earned them spots in the playoffs.

"I wish it was November and I was in the Final Four," Truex said, referring to the season championship finale at Phoenix later in the year. 

Logano led a race-best 143 of the 312 laps and won Stage 2, his first stage win of the year.  His Penske Racing teammate Ryan Blaney won Stage 1 (also his first stage victory of 2021) and all three Penske Racing cars finished in the top 10. In all, the Penske trio of Logano, Blaney and Brad Keselowski combined to lead 197 laps — 63 percent of the day.

NASCAR results from Phoenix

Truex’s JGR teammate Denny Hamlin was third, followed by Keselowski. Last November’s Phoenix winner, Chase Elliott, was fifth.

Kevin Harvick, a nine-time Phoenix winner, was sixth, his fourth top-10 finish in the season’s opening five races. Larson, last week’s Las Vegas winner, was seventh and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Byron was eighth, followed by Bell and Blaney to round out the top 10.

Hamlin, Keselowski and Logano — all still looking for their first 2021 wins — are 1-2-3 in the championship standings, with Hamlin holding a 39-point edge over Keselowski as the series heads to Atlanta Motor Speedway for next weekend’s Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 (3 p.m. ET Sunday; Fox, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NASCAR at Phoenix results

PositionDriver
1Martin Truex Jr.
2Joey Logano
3Denny Hamlin
4Brad Keselowski
5Chase Elliott
6Kevin Harvick
7Kyle Larson
8William Byron
9Christopher Bell
10Ryan Blaney
11Aric Almirola
12Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
13Alex Bowman
14Matt DiBenedetto
15Kurt Busch
16Bubba Wallace
17Austin Dillon
18Chris Buescher
19Ross Chastain
20Erik Jones
21Daniel Suarez
22Chase Briscoe
23Michael McDowell
24Justin Haley
25Kyle Busch
26Ryan Preece
27Corey LaJoie
28Ryan Newman
29Tyler Reddick
30BJ McLeod
31Cole Custer
32Quin Houff
33James Davison
34Garrett Smithley
35Josh Bilicki
36Cody Ware
37Anthony Alfredo
38Timmy Hill

Holly Cain writes for the NASCAR Wire Service.

Holly Cain