Truex Jr. Leads Most Laps; Finishes 3rd in Richmond

RICHMOND, Va. (Sept. 10, 2016) — Martin Truex Jr. brought home a third-place finish in Saturday night’s 407-lap overtime race at Richmond International Raceway. It was his career best Sprint Cup result at Richmond’s 0.75-mile short track.

Truex led six different times for a race high of 193 laps. He led 101 consecutive laps from 101 to 202.

Truex’s No. 78 Tanger Outlets Toyota was the dominant car on long runs, but was a tick off on short runs. And with seven cautions in the final 85 laps, the Furniture Row Racing driver never had the opportunity to take advantage of his long-run speed.

“I was off a little bit for five or six laps on restarts and then I would start to reel them in,” explained Truex, who won last week’s Southern 500. “I could pass them within 10 laps but just never got that opportunity because the caution would come out every time before it happened. Our Toyota was lights out on long runs and nobody could touch us, so that was a lot of fun.”

Truex also had to battle back from 27th place after he was called for a pit road speeding penalty following a Lap 265 caution.

With one lap remaining he was comfortably running second to Denny Hamlin, but then another caution came out. Truex was passed for the runner-up position by Kyle Larson, who had fresh tires for the green-white-checkered restart.

“All in all, it was an awesome night for us,” said Truex. “We had a great race car. We had a new sponsor on board with Tanger Outlets. We did everything pretty good tonight – it just didn’t work out to get the win, but really proud of the effort. We’ve struggled here at Richmond the last few times, and to do what we did tonight was just incredible.”

The top-10 finishers in order were: Denny Hamlin, Kyle Larson, Truex, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Kasey Kahne, Jamie McMurray, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Joey Logano.

The race had 16 cautions for 89 laps and there were 21 lead changes among seven drivers.

The Richmond race marked the final Sprint Cup Series event of the regular season. The 10-race, 16-driver Chase playoffs starts next Sunday (Sept. 18) at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill.

With the driver points reset for the Chase, Truex ranks sixth with 2,006 points. All Chase drivers start with 2,000 points and receive an additional three points for each win during the 26-race regular season.

The 16-driver Chase lineup with reseeded points in parenthesis: Kyle Busch (2012), Brad Keselowski (2012), Denny Hamlin (2009), Kevin Harvick (2006), Carl Edwards (2006), Truex (2006), Matt Kenseth (2006), Jimmie Johnson (2006), Joey Logano (2003), Kyle Larson (2003), Tony Stewart (2003), Kurt Busch (2003), Chris Buescher (2003), Chase Elliott (2000), Austin Dillon (2000) and Jamie McMurray (2000).

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of SpeedwayMedia.com

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

RacingJunk.com and Leaf Racewear Safety Equipment Giveaway

Latest articles

Joe Gibbs Racing shifts half of Cup Series crew chief lineup in 2025

Beginning in 2025, Chris Gabehart will serve as Joe Gibbs Racing's Competition Director while Chris Gayle shifts from JGR's No. 54 team to assume Gabehart's position as crew chief for Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 Toyota team.

RACE OF CHAMPIONS AND THOMPSON SPEEDWAY ANNOUNCE NEW SERIES DATE FOR THE 75TH ANNUAL...

Race of Champions and Thompson (CT) Speedway management have come to an agreement for the iconic facility to host the historic 75th annual Race of Champions to be held as part of the 63rd annual World Series Weekend on Saturday, October 11, 2025

Hyak Motorsports Announces New Name and Ownership in 2025

Hyak Motorsports welcomes in a new era of racing for the iconic No. 47 team with a rebrand, new name and ownership.

NASCAR and FloSports Sign Multi-Year Media Extension

National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (“NASCAR”) and FloSports, today announced a multi-year extension of its media partnership that will focus on elevating the nation’s premier grassroots racing events and allow them to invest in the sport of short track racing.

Best New Zealand Online Casinos