LAS VEGAS, Nev. – After finishing four straight Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races outside the top-10, Martin Truex Jr. and his Furniture Row Racing team returned to form in Sunday afternoon’s South Point 400 at Las Vegas (Nev.) Motor Speedway.
The afternoon wasn’t a cakewalk for the reigning Cup Series champion but his 16th top-five finish of the season included leading a dominate 96 of the event’s 272 laps and assured to the competitors that despite their future, the Denver, Colorado-based team will be a contender to win back-to-back Cup titles.
While Truex had likely the best car on Sunday, he lost crucial spots on pit road and didn’t have the short run speed in his No. 78 Bass Pro Shops |5-hour ENERGY Toyota that he needed at the end to stop Brad Keselowski winning three straight races.
Ultimately, the lack of short-run speed squashed any chance of Truex winning his fifth win of 2018.
“It took the race from us, no question. With 15 laps or so we could take the lead and drive away,” said Truex. “We were actually a little too good on the long run, I wish maybe we could have gone the other direction a little bit and still been able to get the lead. If we were the leader, we could do okay, I could maintain, but when I was second or third or fourth, it just made me tight enough that I had to wait for the thing to come to me or wait for other guys to start getting off the bottom in front of me.”
All things considered and after 11 of the top-16 Playoff drivers encountered some sort of issue during the race on Sunday, Truex took his third-place finish in stride.
“All in all, it was a great day for everybody on the Bass Pro | 5-hour ENERGY Camry and all the guys did a phenomenal job this weekend,” he added. “Thanks to all the guys back in Denver at the shop, it’s pretty cool to see the effort going into these last 10 – we’re going to get after them. We had a winning car, just didn’t work out for us today. Really proud of the effort.”
Truex knew that his No. 78 team should have won on Sunday but didn’t shy away from that Keselowski is on a roll and momentum indeed is everything, even at the sport’s pinnacle level.
“Brad clearly found a horseshoe,” he said. “Three races in a row he’s won and he has not had the best car. I mean, if you want to really talk about the sport being what it is, you’ve got to look at that.
“I mean, obviously he hasn’t led the most laps in any of those races, and he showed up at the end with good pit stops and good short-run speed. I think clearly it’s pretty obvious how it worked out. He’s hot right now. He’s on a streak. That’s the way it goes.
“We finished third with the best car. The last three weeks we had a top three car and we finished 14th or worse in every one of them; know what I’m saying? So it’s a tough sport. A lot of things can happen, and momentum and luck being on your side, there’s a lot to say for it. Obviously, they’re executing, they’re doing all the little things right, and that’s what it takes to win these things.”
Still, Truex is focused on what’s ahead and knows no matter where he finishes, every point is critical into making the Championship 4 at Homestead.
“We can talk all we want about who did great in the regular season, but at the end of the day, we’re here to win a championship, and at the end of the season, the four best guys will be at Homestead, and hopefully we’re there.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
