INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Four straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races outside the top-10 for Martin Truex Jr. and Furniture Row Racing are no more.
After finishes of 42nd, 38th, 17th and 12th over the last month, Truex returned to form Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway earning his sixth top-five finish of the year and 15th top-10 overall.
Afterwards, Truex felt bad about two late-race moves, one that saw Kevin Harvick with one of the dominating cars finish third, the other worked out fine with Kyle Busch earning his third straight Cup victory.
“Yeah, just feel a little bad for Kevin (Harvick) there,” admitted Truex. ”I kind of screwed him. I was trying to push him, just mistimed it. It’s hard to see the lines down there when you are behind a guy. I just totally forgot to ask my spotter for help and a heads up when we were getting five / 10 feet from that line. I feel bad I messed him up a bit there.
“I kind of messed Kyle (Busch) up on the last one too and he still won. I guess at the end of the day we were on our own out there in the front row I guess without me behind them because I wasn’t getting good starts.”
The strong result on Sunday couldn’t come at a more opportune time for the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet. Next weekend, the series returns to Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, the track he scored a popular win in June.
“You always want to put yourself in position for a win at the end and that’s what we did today,” said Truex. “We fought hard and stayed patient all day. We got caught on pit road again when the caution came out, but fortunately we had enough time to get back to the front. We had good cars the past four races but had horrible luck. Today it came together and it’s a good feeling to regain momentum.”
The team’s second-ever triumph guaranteed Truex a slot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Compared to June where Truex left the 2.5-mile triangle second in points, he’ll enter the race fifth overall, 109 points from first-place Harvick.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
