Late-race issues take 1-2 in 2021 championship out of Ruoff Mortgage 500 at Phoenix
AVONDALE, ARIZ. — As Sunday’s Ruoff Mortgage 500 at Phoenix Raceway neared the final 70 laps, the top two drivers in the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship already turned their final lap.
Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. finished 34th and 35th after falling out of the race before the final 70 laps of Sunday’s race.
The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion had a mechanical issue that took him out on Lap 239.
“It was a broken valve spring,” Larson said. “The engine started laying down. Umfortunately, that’s just a part of racing.”
Martin Truex Jr. fell out of the race after completing 219 of 312 laps. Truex Jr. cut a right-front tire exiting turn two and hit the outside wall hard on Lap 222.
“We had been getting really loose all day on the longer runs. I was just out there trying to take care of it, and we gained a few spots on the restart and I was just trying to take care of the rear tires,” Truex Jr. said. “Coming off of turn two there, I’m kind of neutral-free and then all of a sudden it shot straight into the fence. I cut a right front down running up there in the glue or something.”
Prior to the wreck, Truex Jr. battled with Joey Logano as they raced near the top 10 for much of the race.
Truex Jr. sits 11th in the championship points, 27 points behind leader Joey Logano and 16 points ahead of 17th-place Bubba Wallace.
Larson is 4th in points — 10 behind Logano — and is virtually locked into the playoffs with his Feb. 27 win at Auto Club Speedway.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com