Tires rubbed and corded all over Martinsville Speedway with few cautions to offer reset relief for the top drivers struggling under the lights Wednesday night.
But Martin Truex Jr. wasn't fazed despite an early penalty on pit road. The No. 19 driver sailed to his first win of the season at the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500.
"We've been working a long time on trying to figure this place out," Truex Jr. told FOX Sports on the broadcast after the race. He won at the same speedway last fall.
Team Penske's Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski followed in second and third, respectively, at the checkered flag.
NASCAR embraced "new" with the first mid-week evening race at Martinsville and the sanctioning body's preceding announcement that it would ban the Confederate flag from all events and properties. In that vein, The Observer's takeaways follow a different format, since teams largely fell into distinct categories.
