Truex Remains 5th in Driver Points, 6th in Chase Standings
SPARTA, Ken. (July 11, 2015) — After running solidly in the top-three for a number of laps, Martin Truex Jr.’s Furniture Row Chevrolet suffered aerodynamic damage, causing it to fall out of contention in Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 Sprint Cup Series race at Kentucky Speedway. The end result for the Furniture Row Racing driver was a 17th-place finish.
Truex, who remained fifth in the driver points and sixth in the Chase playoff standings, was running second to race winner Kyle Busch at the halfway point of the 267-lap race. Truex started the race fifth and ran inside the top-five and top-10 for the first 150 laps.
The trouble began for Truex when the race was was restarted following a Lap 151 caution. He not only lost track position on the 1.5-mile oval, but a few laps later his Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet suffered right-front damage while trying to get back to the front.
“We had too many issues to overcome in the second half of the race,” said Truex. “We had problems with handling — the car kept on plowing through the corners, especially after taking a few hits to the right front. I gave it all I had, but when the car is aerodynamically handicapped it’s difficult to make anything happen.”
Truex added, “The good news is that we ran up front for plenty of laps and the bad news is that we didn’t stay up front. If we ran the entire race where we finished I would be much more disappointed. But for at least half the race we were up front.”
Following Kyle Busch to the checkered flag to round out the top-10 were: Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Jeff Gordon, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch.
There were a record 11 caution flags for 49 laps and 13 lead changes among eight drivers.
The next Sprint Cup Series race is Sunday July 19 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.
