DOVER, Del. (May 31, 2015) — Martin Truex Jr. had another strong run, but a late-race caution didn’t play in his favor as he finished sixth in Sunday’s FedEx 400 Sprint Series race at Dover International Speedway.
For the third straight race in the same No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet Truex led the most laps (131), bringing his season total of laps led to 389. With only 13 of the 36-race schedule completed, the 389-laps-led ranks third in a season for Truex. He led 581 laps in 2007 and 434 in 2012.
The finish was also Truex’s 12th top-10 in the first 13 races. He remains second in driver points, 44 markers behind leader Kevin Harvick and 32 ahead of third-place Jimmie Johnson. Only Truex and Harvick have scored 12 top-10s this season.
Truex, who qualified on the outside pole, first took the lead on Lap 42 of 405. For the first 315 laps he did not run lower than second except when green flag pit stops were cycling through.
As the overtime race (by five laps) was winding down, Truex was holding his own in third place and gaining on the second-place car of Kasey Kahne. Truex was running third after cautions on Lap 377, 387 and 400. But on the final green-white-checkered restart it appeared that Kahne had a hiccup that caused Truex to slow down.
“Well, it wasn’t so much his hiccup, I was inside him and he ran me down on the apron,” explained Truex. “I either had to let off or wreck all of us. We had a good car today but it was never right. We were never right yesterday all through practice. We made some changes today and we made some gains on it, but never really got it where we needed it. Clean air was huge. When we were out front, we were okay. It just never turned good all day long. It eventually caught up to us.
“I hated to see that last caution, our Furniture Row Chevy was charging and felt we were going to overtake the No. 5 (Kahne) and then try to chase down the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson).”
The finish was Truex’s ninth career top-10 finish at Dover, which he considers his home track. He grew up in nearby Mayetta, N.J.
“I want to fire off another shout out to all our Furniture Row guys at the track and back at the shop in Denver for all of their hard work,” said Truex. “They’re giving me fast race cars and it’s been a lot of fun. We’ll keep on hustling and get the 78 car into Victory Lane.”
The race winner was Jimmie Johnson. Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Kevin Harvick, Kyle Larson, Kasey Kahne, Aric Almirola, Truex, Jamie McMurray, Paul Menard, Clint Bowyer and Jeff Gordon.
The race had 15 lead changes among nine drivers and there were seven cautions for 40 laps.
The next Sprint Cup Series race is Sunday, June 7 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa.
