Surprise Cup winners are fun, but regular names are set to return to victory lane

'I'm kind of speechless,' Martin Truex Jr. says of only his second win since seven wins in 2019.

Photo: Sean Gardner/Getty Images

By Michael Eubanks

The first four races of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series saw several surprise winners, but Sunday’s race at Phoenix saw a return of the usual suspects.

Gibbs. Penske. Hendrick. Stewart-Haas. 

Those were the four teams whose cars made up the top 10 in the Instacart 500, which was won by Martin Truex, Jr.

The 2017 series champ took the lead from Joey Logano with 25 laps remaining and held onto it through the checkered flag. Doing so, he became the fifth different winner in the first five Cup races so far this season.

And in turn, there are now five drivers already locked into the 16-driver playoff picture already … and there’s still 21 more races to qualify for the playoffs!

“At the beginning of the race, I thought we were going to run 15th or so and I’m kind of speechless,” Truex, who started fifth, told Fox Sports. “This feels pretty amazing. Phoenix has been a tough one for us. Hopefully, we can come back here in November and have a shot at being in the final four.”

While there will likely be many more surprise winners in Cup this year - especially given the addition of five new venues to the schedule this season - Truex’s victory signifies that the names fans are used to hearing in victory lane are set to return there.

Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott rounded out the Top five Sunday. All four drivers won at least three races apiece last season. Sunday’s sixth-place finisher Kevin Harvick finished P1 nine times in 2020 — but is 0-for-5 so far in 2021.

All five drivers are all but guaranteed to win this season, and likely it will be soon. If Kyle Busch can shake off some recent bad luck, he will also likely reach victory lane, adding another driver to rise up and dominate yet again.

Photo: Christian Peterson/Getty Images

For Logano, the itch to reach victory lane once again is one he’s more than ready to scratch.

“We were a second-place car and finished second, won a stage and second in the other stage, so a lot of points. I hate finishing second, though,” Logano said. “It really stinks, but, overall, this has been a good racetrack for us.

“We did a great job all day execution-wise, staying upfront, good pit stops, getting us back upfront when we lost our track position, and, overall, a solid day. We had a stage win and some points in second place, so we’ll take it. It’s not a win. Second hurts, but we’ll move on and go to Atlanta.”

The next race, this Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway, could very well be where Logano picks up his first victory in 2021, But teammate Keselowski and fellow Ford driver Kevin Harvick have both won two of the last four races at AMS. Don’t count out either driver there.

Atlanta is a track that generally favors dominant drivers, so next Sunday’s winner will likely be a familiar face. But regardless of who wins, NASCAR’s 2021 season has already brought plenty of excitement and will likely continue to do so going forward.