Martin Truex Jr became the second ‘first-time' winner in as many races in Monday's rain-delayed Autism Speaks 400 at Dover although his maiden win was tainted by the death of former series chairman Bill France Jr.
Truex Jr dominated the second half of the 400-lap race around the one-mile concrete oval, leading more than 200 laps in his #1 DEI Chevrolet as Hendrick Motorsports' Car of Tomorrow winning streak finally came to an end.
With skies still laden a decent sized crowd took the day off work to watch proceedings unfold and while the sun was a rarity, conditions stayed dry and enabled the 13th round of the 2007 season to go off without any further delay.
After Bud Pole winner Ryan Newman controlled the early stages Truex Jr first took the lead on lap 125 and was pretty much in control from that point onwards. The double Busch Series champion had to contend with Newman on several occasions later in the race, as Newman benefited from his end of pit-road pit-box but after taking the lead on lap 345 Truex Jr was never headed and cruised home to win by six seconds.
With the thoughts of the entire paddock area with the France family, post race celebrations were understandably muted although there was no disguising Truex Jr's delight as he gave the under-pressure DEI team their first win of the season.
Newman held on to take second place after Jimmie Johnson's late puncture while Carl Edwards, an exhausted Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth completed the top five.
Greg Biffle took sixth place after a close, sometimes physical duel with Jeff Gordon, who slipped to ninth at the flag behind Mark Martin and Clint Bowyer. Robby Gordon completed the top ten after starting from the rear of the 43-car grid while last week's winner Casey Mears was 13th.
Johnson's late puncture relegated him to 15th although he had already fought back from the tail of the field once during the day after an early incident on pit road knocked his toe-in out.
![Martin Truex Jr - Tracker/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet [pic credit: GM media]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/289120.jpg)
