Truex Earns Top-15 Finish in NAPA Shocks Toyota

CORNELIUS, N.C. – No. 56 NAPA Shocks Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. finished 15th in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Dover International Speedway.

The NAPA driver started 10th but shortly into the 400-lap event reported an extremely loose-handling Toyota. Despite major chassis adjustments, the Michael Waltrip Racing driver lost a lap to the leader on lap 145, but remained in position to earn the lap back.

By halfway, the NAPA Shocks Toyota was turning top-10 lap times and in need of a break. Unfortunately long green-flag runs prevented the NAPA crew from racing back onto the lead lap.

The big gains in the NAPA Toyota’s handling earned the team a top-15 finish. The NAPA team returns to action Sunday at Kansas Speedway.

“Chad took a real chance today with our set up and I am proud of him for it,” said Truex. “We had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Sometimes you have to think outside the box. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite right and a long green-flag run cost us a lap. But we fought back with some really big changes and got us in position for two chances to get our lap back but it just didn’t happen for us. It’s a shame because we were turning top-five, top-10 times. Chad did a great job adjusting on our NAPA Shocks Toyota. It was at least a top-10 car from halfway on. We made a lot of progress. If we would have gotten our lap back, we would have had something for them.”

Jimmie Johnson edged Dale Earnhardt Jr. by 0.446 seconds. Joey Logano, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch rounded out the top five. Four cautions slowed the race for 21 laps. The race lasted three hours and three minutes and featured 19 lead changes among eight drivers.