Gibbs, Busch’s boss, has an alliance with Furniture Row Racing and Truex. “I look at the next week when we go to New Hampshire and Matt Kenseth is going to be the favorite”.
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While the team has been slumping, it’s apparent that the beginning of the Chase has motivated the team with six Sprint Cup trophies in their garage.
Make sure to get your final lineups locked in, and make sure to check out the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400 Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.
“I mean I was completely shocked that I was fast, because I’m way under, just being cautious”, he said after the race. He’s had only one top-five finish in his last 13 starts and hasn’t won a race in his last 21 heading into Chicago.
When they lined up for the final green-white-checkered restart, Truex was fourth with only three cars on much older tires in front of him.
Stafford Township native Martin Truex Jr.is having the best season of his 11 year career in the NASCAR compeitition.
Had Truex not reacted quickly and calmly, it could have spelled disaster – not only to his chances of winning the race, but also to his chances of surviving the first round of the Chase.
“That was the right idea, the right call, because everybody took tires except three guys and they were sitting ducks”, Truex said. “We’re working hard. There’s a lot of optimism and a lot of great things happening”. Martin enjoys running up front.
That has been a problem not only this season but the past two seasons, when Johnson has been eliminated from the Chase before the finale at Homestead.
“The mindset was, ‘All right, this isn’t good … how are we going to overcome it?'” Truex said with a smile. “That’s what gives you the most anxiety in these situations”.
“You can’t ever discount him and Chad Knaus and what they’ve been able to accomplish in this sport over the last decade”, defending Cup champion Kyle Busch said. It failed at the lowest levels of rear alignment measurements, not reaching the level where NASCAR would not allow him to use the win to advance.
Truex could face a 15-point penalty with crew chief Cole Pearn being fined $22,500 because this is their second such violation in two weeks, which increases the penalties by 50 percent. His vehicle was nailed for illegal adjustments prior to the race and he started in the rear.
Truex had no other tire issues on the 1.5-mile oval and outraced Kevin Harvick, who also got into early trouble, to be in position for the free pass to the lead lap on the next caution.
Jimmie Johnson had a strong vehicle.
Johnson fell out of contention on Lap 234 when he was assessed a speeding penalty exiting the pits.
Johnson, meanwhile, is now eighth in points but a 10-point penalty would drop him into a tie for 12th.
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“I feel like we did a good job trying to control the things that we could control today”, Elliott said. And it’s Harvick getting trapped a lap down by less than a foot, thanks to a caution triggered by a tire randomly rolling across pit road. “That stuff is just life; (you) move on”. “I knew I would be flirting with the edge there, and I just got over it and got into the wall and ended our shot”. But when Michael McDowell blew a tire to bring out a debris caution the advantage was wiped away.
