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[/media-credit]New pavement or old pavement, Martin Truex Jr. has a knack for the Kansas Speedway. Sunday at the newly surfaced 1.5-mile track he brought home another second place finish after being unable to track down the dominant Matt Kenseth who won the Hollywood Casino 400.
“It was wild one that’s for sure, we were second here in the spring, but today was a whole different mood. We had to battle for this one all day long, we didn’t quite have a second place car there for a while,” said Truex.
“Fought track position most of the day, started 16th and didn’t qualify all that well and worked our way to the top five early and then we caught by that caution and had to get the wave around and all that. We came form the back and finished second, which is really had to do at a place like this, where it’s hard to pass and new pavement.”
Truex will be credited with finishing second in both Kansas races this season. At the track in April, before it was repaved, he was the class of the field. On that day he led 173 laps, but Sunday he never saw the front of the field. The closest being Kenseth’s Zest bumper getting further and further away during the race’s final 48 lap run.
After starting 16th Truex ran comfortably in the top 10 for much of the event. His No. 56 NAPA Toyota one of the few which wasn’t leaving the track with scrapes, dents or barebond on it. Cautions ruled the day; a record 14 yellow flags flew on Sunday afternoon. Many drivers simply losing their racecars, resulting in single car spins, although tire issues plagued a few different competitors.
“There was two grooves out there today, but even the second groove wasn’t very high. The bottom lane was definitely the place to be on restarts, unless you were the leader and you could control the start, as we saw at the end,” believed Truex. “The 17 [Kenseth] had really good restarts on the outside. But when you are back on traffic it always seemed better to be on the bottom.
“Anytime, at least for me, when I was on the outside my car was really, really loose. So I was trying to stay as low as I could and I noticed a lot of other cars doing it.”
The strategy worked for Truex, who quietly worked his way closer into contention. With how tight everyone was running together because of how small the groove was, cars were getting loose while side-by-side, thus the spins. But Truex was pleased with the repave and how the track felt, noting that things will get better with time and age. Something that, as he continues to succeed at this track, he’ll look forward to next season.
But Sunday, his runner up finish was only his seventh top five of the season, continuing his quest for victory. His single Sprint Cup win at Dover in June of 2007 is becoming a faded memory, with Truex having expected to be victorious long before now. Yet, it’s becoming just a matter of time.
Truex and his MWR team did qualify for the Chase this season and have done everything but break through to Victory Lane. Sunday, close again, but not close enough. It was enough though for Truex to move to sixth in points, yet over 40 markers behind the leaders as they head for the seventh Chase race next weekend in Martinsville.
“There’s always a chance, there’s more racing to go. There’s always a chance. We’re further back than we want to be, but you can’t change that,” said Truex.
“Those races are behind us now and we just got to do what we did today. That’s try to go out and win races, we definitely want to win before the years out. We’ve been close a bunch of times and let a few slip away here and there. Hopefully we’ll be able to do that before the season’s out and just go each weekend to the racetrack try to be a good help for our teammates, try to do the best job we can to put all three of our cars up in the front and that’s what we’re going to continue to do.”
