Skip to content

Truex Holds on to Sprint Cup Chase Wild Card Slot at Michigan

CORNELIUS, N.C. – No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. finished 16th in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway. Truex fell from 10th to 12th in the standings with three races remaining before the start of the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup. He holds the second and final Sprint Cup Chase wild card berth as only 12 points separate positions eight through 12.

The Michael Waltrip Racing driver qualified 17th and moved into the top 10 in the first 20 laps of the 200-lap race.

The NAPA driver battled both loose and tight handling conditions, but still raced in the top 15.

Throughout the second half of the race, the NAPA team worked to tune up the No. 56 and enabled Truex to finish 16th.

“We started off pretty solid and I thought we were going to be OK,” said the NAPA driver after the race. “Then the handling on the NAPA Toyota went away. We tried a bunch of different strategies to regain track position but the car just would not handle the way we needed it to. It was downright terrible there for a while. Chad took one final stab at it on our last pit stop and it helped a lot. I wish we had more laps because it could have been a better day.”

Joey Logano edged Kevin Harvick by 1.013 seconds for victory. Kurt Busch, Paul Menard and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top five. The race featured 20 lead changes among 13 drivers

The NAPA team returns to action Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *