Ryan Truex and the No. 83 VooDoo BBQ / Armed Forces Motorsports Toyota Camry team finished 32nd at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday afternoon. After rolling off at the back of the pack, Truex made a steady climb through the field and was racing in the 14th position when he was collected in “the big one,” which resulted in a 32nd-place finish.
In a weekend marred with rain showers, the race traditionally scheduled Saturday night of Independence Day weekend was pushed to Sunday afternoon when heavy showers soaked the 2.5-mile superspeedway. Rain moved through the area on Friday afternoon abbreviating qualifying to just one 25-minute session, and as a result, Truex rolled off 42nd for Sunday’s race. With his car handling well, Truex reported that he needed a bit more assistance trying to get his car to pull up to the cars in front of him in traffic.
Racing inside the top 15 by lap 30, Truex continued to maintain his position throughout the first half of the event. With dark clouds signaling rain showers approaching the speedway, things were a bit more hectic on track than usual. On lap 98 “the big one” broke loose on the backstretch while Truex was running in the 14th position. With more than half of the competitors involved and the entire track covered in carnage, Truex was left with nowhere to go and was involved in the incident. With damage to the rear end of his racecar, Truex was towed back to the garage area where the team was able to begin making repairs. Missing only a few laps, Truex was set to rejoin the field when the red flag was displayed for rain on lap 112. Unfortunately, racing never returned to green flag conditions as the event was called when rain once again soaked the Daytona International Speedway. Truex was scored with a 32nd-place finish.
“I’m really proud of the effort of our VooDoo BBQ / Armed Forces Motorsports Toyota Camry team today,” commented Truex. “We were really competitive all day, racing inside the top 15 and top 20, and really having one of the best races that we’ve had all year. While we were happy to be racing inside the top 15, it unfortunately put us in a really vulnerable position when ‘the big one’ broke out. There were cars spinning everywhere to the point that all I could really see was smoke and dirt, and unfortunately I just didn’t have anywhere to go. The guys worked hard to get the car repaired, but once the rain started back up again we never had a chance to return to green flag racing. Rain was basically the theme of the weekend. With how we ran today, it gives me that much more confidence going into the race at Talladega [Ala.] Superspeedway this fall-I’m really excited for that race now.”
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