BRISTOL, Tenn. (Aug. 21, 2015) – Martin Truex Jr. was forced to a backup car after his primary car suffered damage during today’s (Friday) first practice session at Bristol Motor Speedway.
With 15 minutes remaining in the opening practice, the left-control arm broke in the No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet, sending it into the wall and resulting in right-side damage.
The single-car Furniture Row team didn’t have much time to get the backup ready for the second and final practice since there were only 55 minutes between the two sessions. But the spirited crew put the final touches on the backup 16 minutes after practice started. Truex went on to make some race-trim runs and a few qualifying-trim runs on the half-mile, all-concrete oval. He was listed as 21st fastest.
“The backup car, which had some better points to it than the primary, felt pretty good,” said Truex. “We were jammed for time in the final practice and didn’t get as many runs in as we would have liked. But my hats off to the crew for getting the backup ready in a short period of time. We’ve had our backs to the wall a number of times this year and seem to eventually work out the glitches, as we did last week in Michigan where we qualified 23rd and finished third.”
Sprint Cup qualifying is scheduled for later today at 5:45 p.m. ET (NBC Sports). Saturday night’s Irwin Tools Night Race will also be televised on the NBC Sports Network, 7:30 p.m. ET.
