FORT WORTH, Texas (Nov. 2, 2014) – It was a chilly day at Texas Motor Speedway, but when the AAA Texas 500 was nearing its completion the racing action was at a fever pitch.
Furniture Row Racing driver Martin Truex Jr., who qualified eighth and ran in or near the top-10 for the majority of the race, got stuck in traffic during the final green-white-checkered restart. He was credited with a 19th-place finish in Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race, which went seven laps into overtime – from 334 to 341.
“We were better than 19th, no question about that,” said Truex. “At the end I was in position for a top-10 but got held up on the last two green-white-checkered restarts.”
It wasn’t a clean-cut day by any means for Truex, who had to overcome handling issues with his No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet on the 1.5-mile oval.
“We never could get the balance right and we had to fight through that,” explained Truex. “There was a vibration, and the car just wasn’t going fast enough. But we were still battling and had a chance to get that top-10.”
The frenetic closing laps at the massive Texas facility saw six accidents for six cautions between laps 297 and 336.
“No doubt it got a little crazy out there after each of those cautions,” noted Truex, who remained 24th in driver points. “On one hand, you’re happy to finish the race, but on the other hand you’re disappointed with the final result. We have two more (races) to go and hopefully we can close out the season with a couple of strong finishes.”
The race winner was Jimmie Johnson. Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Jamie McMurray, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Larson, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards and Denny Hamlin.
The race had 23 lead changes among seven drivers and 13 cautions for 61 laps.
The next Sprint Cup race is Sunday, Nov. 9 at Phoenix International Raceway.
