Photo Credit: Gary Buchanan
BROOKLYN, Mich. (Aug. 16, 2015) — Martin Truex Jr. had mixed feelings after posting a strong third-place finish in Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway.
The Furniture Row Racing driver felt he had a winning car for the 200-lap race that was contested in sweltering heat in Michigan’s Irish Hills.
“It was a good day for everybody on the Furniture Row team,” said Truex, who also finished third in the June Michigan race. “I felt at the end of the day yesterday we had a car capable of winning and felt like that all day again today. We struggled to get track position today — it seemed like we kept getting in the wrong lane on restarts. We finally got the right one and the No. 19 (Carl Edwards) got a bad start in front of us and shuffled us back to seventh or eighth. We really had to work for it today.”
The final result was Truex’s seventh top-five and 16th top-10 in the first 23 races of the season. The 16 top-10s tied a team season record, set in 2013 with Kurt Busch behind the wheel of the No. 78.
Truex, who clinched a qualifying berth for the upcoming Chase, stands fourth in driver points and eighth in the Chase playoff standings. There are three races remaining before the 10-race playoff begins.
Truex and the Furniture Row Racing team, led by crew chief Cole Pearn, came on strong after a struggling opening day of practice on Friday and a qualifying effort of 22nd.
“We were behind the curve on Friday, but this team knows how to figure out things,” said Truex. “We came back on Saturday with two good practices and felt that we would be a contender today. We didn’t take long to show that our Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevy had some muscle.”
Truex’s car did indeed have muscle on the 2-mile oval. By lap 14 he was running sixth. He took over second on Lap 81 and basically stayed in the top-five for the remainder of the race.
“We had a good car from the get go,” noted Truex. “We made some adjustments throughout the race, but overall the No. 78 was a fast hot rod.”
The Pure Michigan 400 race winner was Matt Kenseth. Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Kevin Harvick, Truex, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The race had 16 lead changes among eight drivers and there were eight caution flags for 31 laps.
The next Sprint Cup Series race is Saturday night at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway.
