NASCAR at Charlotte 2017 Results: Martin Truex Jr. Wins in Overtime

After a couple of late cautions, Martin Truex Jr. came through in overtime to win the Bank of America 500, his sixth victory of the season.

The No. 78 car led most of the way down the stretch, although it required some great work on restarts to come through in the extra laps at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Truex was also able to clinch a spot in the next round of the playoffs in just the first Round-of-12 competition.

Here are the final results from Sunday's action:

1. Martin Truex Jr. (78)

2. Chase Elliott (24)

3. Kevin Harvick (4)

4. Denny Hamlin (11)

5. Jamie McMurray (1)

6. Daniel Suarez (19)

7. Jimmie Johnson (48)

8. Ryan Blaney (21)

9. Kasey Kahne (5)

10. Kyle Larson (42)

Truex led for 91 laps and was tough to catch down the stretch, although he might have cruised to an even easier victory if not for a couple of cautions that forced drivers to restart.

It forced the regular-season winner to work a little harder, but he was able to pull away from the field with two excellent restarts. By the final lap, it was clear he would win again:

Chase Elliott, who still doesn't have a win at this level, earned his sixth second-place finish, per Nick DeGroot of Motorsport.com.

Kevin Harvick, who led for a race-high 149 laps, ended up in third place.

With every point counting at this point of the season, the stage races feature nearly as much drama as the final laps.

After pole winner Denny Hamlin gave up the lead, Harvick took over and controlled the race through the 90th lap for the Stage 1 win:

The top drivers continued to separate themselves from the rest of the pack as the race continued with those in the playoffs stepping up in Stage 2, as Kenny Bruce of NASCAR.com explained:

Despite all the talent up front, no one was able to challenge Harvick, who led the majority of this stretch before eventually winning Stage 2.

As Bob Pockrass of ESPN noted, Harvick hadn't won a stage since the second race but won two Sunday.

Meanwhile, one of the biggest stories was Kyle Busch moving down the pack after hitting a wall. NBC Sports captured the immediate aftermath:

He struggled the rest of the race and finished in 29th place.

There were more cautions as the action continued, with Danica Patrick being a part of this big collision:

Through the stoppages and restarts, it became a two-man race between Harvick and Truex for the final 30-40 laps. Truex held the lead for much of the third stage, but the No. 4 car was right behind him.

Another yellow flag within the last 10 laps kept things close, although Harvick ended up losing four spots off pit road with Hamlin moving into second behind Truex. A restart with four laps remaining ended up leading to another caution when Kurt Busch and Kyle Larson collided.

This forced overtime, but it was no problem for Truex, who pulled away from the field and won by almost a full second. This continued his dominance in 2017, especially on 1.5-mile tracks that have seen him win five of his six events.

With a spot in the Round of 8, Truex remains the favorite to bring home a championship.

The schedule takes everyone to Talladega Superspeedway next week for the Alabama 500. Sunday's race will be the second event during the Round of 12, which means there will be just one more race after it before the next cut.

With time ticking down until the championship in Homestead-Miami, the drama should be great.