(Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
Defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion, Martin Truex Jr, has dominated the 1.5 mile tracks over the last couple years. This year, however, he has had stiff competition from former series champion, Kevin Harvick.
In Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Truex’ nemesis was a blown tire. Truex ran well in the early laps of the event, but a cut right front tire sent the No. 78 Toyota hard into the outside wall.
Asked what happened, Truex responded, “Well, just blew a right-front tire out of nowhere. Not sure what happened there – if we run something over or what. I think the first set of tires that came off the car looked great. We were just making our way towards the front. I think we were second when we blew a tire there. Would’ve been nice to have at least finished that first stage before it happened, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes.”
A tire issue also caused an early end to the day of Kyle Larson sparking speculation that there could be a tire issue. Truex, however, seemed to put those speculations to rest. “No. I doubt it. We hadn’t had any problems all weekend and first set of tires looked good. I don’t know if I run something over or what it was. Just one of them deals. We had a good car. We were going to be right there all day long I felt like. Still had some room to make it better too. I wish we could’ve seen, but just the way it goes sometimes.”
