SPARTA, Ken. (June 28, 2014) – On the eve of his 34th birthday, Martin Truex Jr. posted a hard-fought 19th-place finish in the Quaker State 400 Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway.
Though it wasn’t the finish that Truex was looking for to make it a special weekend, the Furniture Row driver overcame a couple of incidents during the 267-lap, 400-mile race to finish in the top-20.
Those incidents happened on pit road and were costly in regards to the all-important track position.
During one stop his car took a hard hit from behind sending the No. 78 for a short spin in the team’s pit box. The hit caused damage to the car and forced Truex to make an unscheduled pit stop. The incident also forced the over-the-wall crew to make adjustments while the car was facing the wrong direction.
Later in the race when crew chief Todd Berrier called for two tires to gain track position Truex was blocked in his pit stall and lost valuable time before he was able to exit pit road.
“We didn’t need those (pit-road) problems tonight, we had other problems to deal with, mainly grip and a lack of rhythm,” noted Truex, who remained 25th in driver points.
“At the beginning of the race we didn’t have any rear grip. Once that got better we started to have trouble with the front-end grip. We fought for every inch to finish 19th.”
With the No. 78 Chevy fully wrapped in World Vision colors Truex was disappointed that there wasn’t a better finish for the Christian humanitarian organization.
“We obviously wanted a better finish for World Vision but hopefully we’ll get another opportunity with them down the road,” said Truex. “I got to tour World Vision’s mobile exhibit at Kentucky Speedway and it was overwhelming to see the things they do to help fight poverty worldwide.”
The Kentucky race winner was Brad Keselowski, Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, Joey Logano and Jimmie Johnson.
The race had 12 lead changes among three drivers and six cautions for 34 laps.
The next race is Saturday night, July 5 at Daytona International Speedway.
