Late Race Hit Leaves Truex Jr. With Frustrating Finish at Atlanta

Martin Truex Jr. had a number of obstacles to overcome at Atlanta Motor Speedway, including an unnecessary hit from a fellow competitor that left him with a 23rd-place finish in Sunday night’s Oral-B USA 500 Sprint Cup Series race.

 

After starting sixth based on his qualifying effort on Friday, Truex had to contend with handling issues with his No. 78 Furniture Row/World Vision Chevrolet during the 335-lap race.

 

“I couldn’t drive off the corners,” said Truex. “But we hung in there, fighting for every possible position until Kyle (Busch), for whatever reason, ran into the back of me, causing pretty good damage to our car. I passed him clean earlier and then he comes back and hits me from behind. It was totally uncalled for and hard to figure out why he did what he did. 

 

“We were in the top-17 when that happened and had a chance of picking off a few more positions. Not sure why someone wants to go out and purposely wreck you when you’re racing for 17th. Doesn’t make any sense.”

 

But instead of gaining track position, Truex had to battle a damaged race car in the 10 laps of overtime.

 

“We weren’t great tonight, but we were better than 23rd,” noted Truex. 

 

The race winner was Kasey Kahne. Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Carl Edwards, Danica Patrick, Ryan Newman, Kyle Larson, Aric Almirola and Greg Biffle.

 

The race had 10 cautions for 56 laps and 21 lead changes among six drivers.

 

FRR PR