JOLIET, Ill. (Sept. 20, 2015) — Martin Truex Jr. finished an unlucky 13th in Sunday’s Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway.
When the final caution came out with eight laps remaining in the Sprint Cup Series race, Truex was comfortably running in sixth place.
But after coming down pit road to take two right-side tires and restarting fourth for the five-lap shootout, Truex’s No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet fell back and couldn’t regain its momentum to get back in the top 10.
“You can’t win the Chase in the first race but you can sure lose it,” said Truex who is making his third career Chase appearance. “We didn’t lose it today but finishing 13th after running solidly in the top-10 for almost the entire race is very disappointing. We didn’t have the speed to get back up there at the end. Though we didn’t have a great race car today, it was sure better than 13th. We’ll regroup and go after it in New Hampshire next week.”
Truex, who started fourth, shot out of the gate quickly on the 1.5-mile oval. He took over the lead on Lap 7 and stayed there for 39 consecutive circuits, which ranked third for most laps led by a driver.
“We had a good start but then had a few issues to deal with,” stated Truex. “But we still managed to run up front until those last few laps. This is the Chase and everybody is fighting hard for track position.”
Truex, who picked up one bonus point for leading a lap, is 11th in the Chase standings. Following the third race of the Chase, 12 of the 16 playoff drivers will advance to the next round of three races with points reset to 3,000 for each driver.
The race winner was Denny Hamlin. Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Matt Kenseth, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch and Aric Almirola.
The 267-lap race had six cautions for 28 laps and there were 17 lead changes among 10 drivers.
The next race is Sunday, Sept. 27 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.
