Martin Truex Jr. (78) does a burnout following his victory in the NASCAR Cup auto race at Kentucky Speedway, Saturday, July 8, 2017, in Sparta, Ky.

SPARTA – Martin Truex Jr. displayed pure dominance by sweeping the first two stages and leading 152 laps to win the Quaker State 400 in NASCAR’s Monster Energy Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway on Saturday.

Truex got a big push from Kyle Larson off an overtime restart and ran away from the field for his series-leading third victory of the season.

Truex battled Kyle Busch back and forth for the first half of the race, then pulled away all by himself – at times leading by 16 seconds – before Kurt Busch brought out the caution with two laps remaining.

“I thought I was dead,” Truex said on his postrace TV interview. “Fortunately able to hold them off. This thing was so stout tonight, and a good push from Larson helped us a bunch.”

Larson finished second and Kyle Busch was fifth after leading 112 laps from the pole and winning the Xfinity Series race earlier Saturday afternoon.

Truex was a master of the 400-mile race. He snuck by Busch after 67 laps to win Stage 1, then controlled the second stage to give him a series-best 13 stage victories this season. He built a 16-second lead on the field before the caution came out with two laps remaining.

The win pulls Truex within one point of points leader Larson in the Monster Energy Cup standings.

Chase Elliott was third and Denny Hamlin finished fourth.

Stage 1

Just a few hours after dominating the Xfinity race, Kyle Busch led the first 67 laps from the pole before Truex took the lead in traffic on the backstretch. Truex drove the No. 78 Toyota to his 12th stage victory at lap 80.

Stage 2

The first crash occurred on lap 87 when defending Kentucky race winner Brad Keselowski got loose coming out of Turn 3 and hit Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson. Johnson and Keselowski’s day ended as a result, but Bowyer returned on the lead lap and finished 13th.

Trevor Bayne and Kasey Kahne got loose in Turn 1 one lap after the restart to bring out another caution. Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 winner, brought out another at lap 111 and went to the garage.

Truex and Busch continued to battle at the front all by themselves throughout the stage. Truex led the last 30 laps to win Stage 2, the fourth time this year he’s swept a race’s first two stages.

No repeat for Keselowski

Brad Keselowski’s three wins at Kentucky Speedway lead all Cup drivers. His quest for back-to-back 400-mile victories in Sparta fell short when he got loose in Turn 3 on lap 87. Keselowski has five top 10s and led 483 laps in six previous Cup races at Kentucky.

Saturday was the fourth time in the last seven races Keselowski has crashed out of the race. He finished 39th.

Larson cuts loose

Points leader Kyle Larson started from the rear after failing to complete prequalifying inspection on Friday. It didn’t take long for Larson to pick the field apart, moving up to third in the first 80 laps to complete Stage 1.

Larson ran in the top 10 the majority of the race and provided the push Truex needed to win on the final restart.

Dale’s last Kentucky ride

Dale Earnhardt Jr., NASCAR’s most popular driver for the last 14 years, finished 12th and led three laps in his last Cup race at Kentucky Speedway. Earnhardt averaged a 14th-place finish in seven races at the track. He reached as high as seventh place after qualifying 13th.

His top finish at Kentucky was fourth in 2012.{&end}