FORT WORTH, Texas – The hard work by Martin Truex Jr. and his Furniture Row Racing team has paid off with a bid into the Championship 4 in two weeks at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway with a runner-up finish in Sunday’s AAA Texas 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Truex’s placement of his No. 78 Furniture Row / Bass Pro Shops Toyota isn’t much of a shock considering the dream season that he’s had – but he did so without a win.
Truex – who has won six races on 1.5-mile tracks this season was passed by Kevin Harvick in traffic with nine of 334 laps remaining in Sunday’s race. Although tallying his second straight runner-up finish and third of 2017, Truex assembled just enough points to lock in one of the four Championship 4 slots at Homestead on Nov. 19.
The 14-time Cup winner will be joined by Martinsville winner Kyle Busch and Harvick, leaving one available position up for grabs next weekend at Phoenix for the five remaining Playoff drivers.
“I knew (Harvick) was quicker – once he got around (Denny Hamlin) I guess it was, he started coming really fast and that’s all I had,” Truex said. “I just struggled a little on the long run today, which was normally where we’re at our best.
“He seemed to be better when he got out front – we were good when we got out front toward the middle of the race and we just got too loose in those long runs.”
Truex said lapped traffic distracted his ability to focus on fending off Harvick’s move in the final laps.
“I did all I could do on the inside, but we had (Trevor Bayne) and some other dummy racing side-by-side in front of us and I was way loose in traffic and I got loose going into (Turn) 1 and Harvick jumped to my outside,” he said.
“One of those deals, I think we could have held them off on a clean race track, but (Bayne) is in the damn way every week – that’s pretty normal.”
Despite the loss, Truex said it felt “amazing” to have the chance to compete again for the Cup Series championship. Truex made the Championship 4 in 2015 but his 12th place finish in the race left him fourth overall behind Busch, Harvick and Jeff Gordon.
“It feels great. It feels amazing – that’s what we set out to do this year was to make it to Homestead and fight for the title and we feel like we’re right there,” he said. “To win seven
races, it’s been an amazing season.
“When you get two seconds in a row and you’re disappointed, it says something about your team and your confidence in them. Just can’t thank everyone enough for their support throughout the years.
“I’m really excited to go to Homestead and I think we’ll have something for them.”
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
