Despite having the strongest car in the race, Martin Truex Jr. was not able to take his car to victory lane in the Lone Star State.
The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota seemed poised to score his fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory in the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, but two late race cautions and almost everyone behind him opting to pit led to him losing the lead with 32 laps to go and finishing sixth.
“We just ran out of tires, you know,” Truex said. “Made it through (turns) one and two side-by-side, got to three and just didn’t have the grip. Then we fell back because we were sliding around. Everybody had new tires, we ran under caution for a long time, they keep building air pressure and losing grip. Pretty big disadvantage, but can’t say enough about the guys for the race car they brought here and the weekend we had. It hurts. It’s happened a few times to me here. Hurts a little bit, but we’ll get over it and we’ll move on and we’ll take the positives out of it tonight.”
He led 142 of the 334 laps and was in control until the sixth caution of the race flew with 47 laps to go. When he opted to stay out, everybody expected Austin Dillon to pit.
“It’s just the way it goes,” he said. “Had we went green that next restart, we did OK. We got the lead and we drove away. We just kept getting yellows and caution laps and the tires just kept getting more air in them and more air in them. By the time we finally got moving there, we just didn’t have the grip everybody else had. Just sliding around.
“It’s frustrating, but that’s racing. That’s the way it goes sometimes. I’m proud of my guys for the race car they brought. That thing was so fast all night, we did everything we were supposed to do except for that one deal there. I don’t know. It hurts, it’s tough, but we have a lot to look forward to this year. We have great race cars and we have a lot to look forward to. We’ll go back home and get to work and hopefully come out smarter and stronger.”
Despite the disappointment of coming up short, Truex leaves Texas 11th in points trailing Kyle Busch by 72.
