DARLINGTON, S.C. (Sept. 6, 2015) — Plagued with rear-side damage to his No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet, Martin Truex Jr. held on to post a ninth-place finish in Sunday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
The result was Truex’s 17th top-10 finish in the first 25 races, which set a team record for most top-10s in a season. The previous team record of 16 top 10s in a season was set by Kurt Busch in 2013.
“We lost the handling late in the race and went backwards,” said Truex, “We were a top-five car all night and to come away ninth is disappointing. We just didn’t have the grip at the end to run closer to the front. I would feel better about the team record had we finished in the top-five.”
Truex ran as high as second in the 367 lapper that saw a track record 18 cautions. With 60 laps remaining he was solidly running in fourth place but when he made his final pit stop following a lap 355 caution, he was positioned in 10th place.
“We were in a survival mode at that stage of the race and managed to get one position back,” noted Truex, whose teal-accented car raised awareness for ovarian cancer. “There are times when you’re ok with a top-10, but not tonight.”
Truex remains sixth in driver points with one race remaining before the start of the 10-race Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
The race winner was Carl Edwards. Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Truex and Kyle Larson.
The next race is Saturday night, Sept. 12 at Richmond (Va.) Raceway.
