LONG POND, Pa. (Aug. 3, 2014) – Whatever chance Martin Truex Jr. had to get his No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet into the top-10 came to a halt when he got collected in a 13-car wreck in Sunday’s GoBowling.com 400 Sprint Cup Series race.
While running in 14th-place on Lap 116 of 160, Truex got caught up in a Turn 1 multicar melee, relegating him to a 32nd-place finish at Pocono Raceway’s 2.5-mile triangular track.
“I almost missed that wreck, I went low but just couldn’t avoid the mess — very disappointing,” said Truex. “We weren’t that good today but there was that possibility of posting a top-15 or top-10 had it not been for the accident.”
After the accident Truex brought his car down pit road where it was determined it needed to go to the garage to make major repairs to basically all sides of the car. He returned to action with a crippled racecar on Lap 133.
“We went back out to get as many points as possible,” noted Truex, who is 25th in the driver standings.
After starting 19th, Truex said his car was plowing through the three different corners and he had trouble getting the flat black Chevy up to speed.
“The early part of the race wasn’t good, but the handling did get better later,” explained Truex. “But the Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevy didn’t have the same feel to it as it did when we finished ninth here back in June.”
However, there were some positive moments for Truex on Sunday, who ran as high as second, thanks to a sound pit strategy by crew chief Todd Berrier.
The 400-mile race had 12 lead changes among eight drivers and there were six cautions for 21 laps.
The race winner was Dale Earnhardt Jr. Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer, Greg Biffle, Jeff Gordon, Jamie McMurray, Ryan Newman, Denny Hamlin and Kasey Kahne.
The next Sprint Cup Series race will be contested at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International on Sunday, Aug. 10. It will be the second and final road course race of the season.
