Cool box gets hot

 

Toward the end of his first qualifying lap on Saturday, Martin Truex Jr. was distracted by smoke within the cockpit of his No. 56 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota.

“Something burned up in the race car,” Truex said, after the car was pushed to the garage. “The last few turns of the lap, I definitely screwed up, because I had smoke flying, and it smelled really bad, and I was like, ‘Oh, no, what’s going on here?’

“So my concentration was kind of messed up. I think we’re going to be OK. It looks like it was just part of the wiring harness for the cool box (the air conditioning unit that cools the driver), which we didn’t even use (Saturday), but we’ll use it (Sunday). So hopefully it’s not a big deal.”

Despite the electrical fire, Truex completed a lap that was good enough to earn the 14th starting position for Sunday’s race.