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LONG POND — Martin Truex Jr. practically guaranteed himself a spot in the 2015 NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup by winning June’s Axalta, “We Paint Winners” 400 at Pocono Raceway.
Truex was running in second until a mistake leaving his pit with 36 laps to go put the No. 78 Chevrolet nearly six seconds back of the leaders.
Sunday’s Windows 10 400 became a fuel-mileage race and the New Jersey driver wasn’t as lucky in the end.
“I thought we were in good shape there,” Truex said. “I saved the whole last run and the last 15 to 20 laps, I saved a lot. Not sure where we missed that, but awesome job by the guys, another great race car.”
Truex was second on the last lap before the fuel tank ran dry. He started 13th on the day and charged right towards the front with all of the changing pit strategies taking place throughout the 160-lap race.
“We had a battle today,” Truex said. “We came from the back. We were getting off strategy there, off-sequence. Feel like we had a shot at it there.”
Truex pitted on the same lap as Logano and Kyle Busch, with both drivers running out of fuel within three laps of the finish. The 19th-place result may not have shown how fast the No. 78 car was on the day, but the team took the gamble in the closing laps by virtue of June’s Pocono win.
“I screwed up on the last pit stop and lost some time and then, they asked me to start saving fuel and we did that and thought we were going to make it no problem and we ran out with two to go,” Truex said.
The Furniture Row Racing driver hails from the town of Mayetta across the Pennsylvania border into the Garden State, which is just under a three-hour drive to the Tricky Triangle. Truex snapped a 69-race winless streak in June by leading 97 of the 160 laps en route to his first Pocono victory.
Yellow fever prominent early on
The caution flag flew seven times before the lap 80 half-way point of Sunday’s race. On lap 4, Kasey Kahne lost control of his No. 5 Aquafina Chevrolet in Turn 3 and slammed into the pit wall, forcing NASCAR to red flag the Windows 10 400 for almost 15 minutes to repair the damage. A piece of Kahne’s car was lodged into the pit wall after the accident and the Washington native currently sits outside of the Chase grid.
Points leader Kevin Harvick’s chances of winning his first Pocono Cup race went up in smoke after the engine let go on lap 20.
“Coming off of Turn 2, I knew I had some issues, but didn’t realize they were going to be that big, but all in all, just really proud of my team. Car was really fast.”
The engine blew while the defending Cup champ was leading the race.
Ten laps later, the No. 9 car of Sam Hornish Jr. started to slow suddenly and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. drove into the back of the Medallion Bank Ford and sustained very heavy damage to the front of the No. 17 car.
“Everything was happening real fast,” Stenhouse said. “I think it [the car] got on the splitter and couldn’t go left or right and just ran right into him. By the time I reacted, it was just too late.”
After the race’s eighth and final caution fell on lap 93, the Windows 10 400 ended with a 63 lap green-flag run to the finish.