LONG POND, Pa (June 8, 2014) – Martin Truex Jr. scored his second straight top-10 finish by securing a ninth-place result in Sunday’s Pocono 400 Sprint Cup Series race.
Truex finished sixth last week at Dover International Speedway.
“We had top-10 cars all year but we were not able to finish races,” said Truex, who also had a top-10 at Richmond in April. “The last two weeks we finished the races and got some decent results. We’re gaining but still have a ways to get to where we want to be with our Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet.”
To claim his second consecutive top-10 Truex made an impressive move on the final restart of the 160-lap race at Pocono Raceway. He charged from 13th into the top-10 with 12 laps remaining.
“He saved us on the restarts today,” said Furniture Row Racing crew chief Todd Berrier.
Truex said he happened to be in the right position when the green flag waved for the final time.
“I made a mistake on one of the restarts and lost a bunch of track position,” explained Truex, a native of nearby Mayetta, N.J. “But on the last restart I was in the right line and got a little lucky. Earlier in the race we were unlucky on the restarts. I guess what goes around comes around.”
The No. 78 team had a scare on Lap 109 when Truex brushed the wall on the 2.5-mile oval, causing damage to the right-side of the car.
“We got the car going really good at one point of the race but I hit the wall, which made the car really tight and we had to fix it on the next pit stop,” said Truex. “That incident put us behind, but we battled back, and our pit crew did another outstanding job.”
Truex started the Pocono 400 from the 17th position and ran for quite a while in the mid teens until he made that impressive charge on the final restart.
“Overall it was a tough day,” stated Truex who moved up one position to 24th in the driver point standings. “But all-in-all we’re gaining on it. Finishing with a top-10 after a tough weekend is a good sign for our Furniture Row Racing team. We learned a lot this weekend and hopefully it will help us in the future. We still need to get that victory to make the Chase. And the progress we’ve made lately gives us more optimism to nail down that win.”
The race winner was Dale Earnhardt Jr. Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Jimmie Johnson, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, Truex Jr. and Jamie McMurray.
The race had 21 lead changes among 10 drivers and there were seven cautions for 26 laps.
The next Sprint Cup Series race is Sunday (June 15) at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.
