LAS VEGAS (March 6, 2016) — Martin Truex Jr. hung on to finish 11th in Sunday’s Kobalt 400 Sprint Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“We just didn’t have it today,” said Truex. “We had some good runs but at the end of the race the handling of our Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota wasn’t what we needed to bring home a strong top-10 finish.”
When the green flag waved for the final restart on Lap 232 of 267, it appeared that Truex had a lock on a third straight top-10 finish of the season. He restarted sixth, but due to the handling issues he was not able to maintain his position or mount any charge to the front.
“We could have used another caution close to the end,” said Truex. “The car wasn’t right and it was sure disappointing to see those other cars get by me. An 11th place finish is nothing to brag about or nothing to get depressed about. It just wasn’t our day. We’ll move on to Phoenix and hopefully be more competitive.”
Truex started the 400-mile race from the 10th position and ran as high as fourth.
After three races Truex has an average finish of 6.66. When taking into account the 15-point penalty imposed on the No. 78 team for a prerace infraction last week in Atlanta, Truex is ninth in the point standings. The penalty dropped him four positions in the current standings.
The race winner was Brad Keselowksi. Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Joey Logano, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Ryan Blaney, Kevin Harvick, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne.
The race had six cautions for 36 laps and 20 lead changes among 10 drivers.
The next Sprint Cup race is Sunday, March 13 at the 1-mile Phoenix International Raceway.
