Truex overcomes painful weekend for top-10 finish

HAMPTON, Ga. -- After the pain Martin Truex Jr. experienced Saturday while suffering the effects of a kidney stone, just getting back into the car for Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway could have been considered a good day. So adding a top-10 finish on top of that was even better news.

Kobalt Tools 500

Race Results

Pos.	Driver	Make
1.	Kurt Busch	Dodge
2.	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet
3.	Carl Edwards	Ford
4.	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet
5.	Brian Vickers	Toyota
6.	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet
7.	Kasey Kahne	Dodge
8.	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet
9.	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet
10.	Martin Truex Jr.	Chevrolet

• Complete Results | Photos

Fortunate to stay on the lead lap when a caution during green-flag pit stops put all but a handful of cars at least one lap down early in the race, Truex maintained his spot among the leaders the rest of the way. And despite problems on his final stop, Truex still held on for 10th, reversing a recent trend that left him 27th at California and 32nd at Las Vegas.

Less than 24 hours after riding by ambulance to a nearby hospital for treatment, Truex seemed no worse for his travails.

"I feel great," Truex said. "I got rid of the kidney stone last night, so I was thankful for that. I was a little nervous yesterday afternoon but to be honest with you, the pain I had in the car during Happy Hour was the brunt of it. I got it 97 percent of the way through by the time I got to the hospital and they checked me out."

Truex said being on the track took his mind off the pain. It was when the car was stopped that he had the most trouble.

"I went through the toughest part while I was in the car and it was hard to stay in there, but I told the guys, it felt better when I was on the track driving," Truex said. "The biggest problem was when I had to come into the garage and they had to change stuff. I was bent over in pain and I couldn't stand it. But once I was running, I was OK. Once they got the IV in me and got me checked out, I got to feeling better and I never hurt again. So it was OK."

Truex was running seventh when Robby Gordon's shredded tire brought out the final caution of the afternoon. The plan was to swap out all four tires, but things went awry, forcing the team to ad-lib on the fly.

Truex was fourth when the field took the green, but he knew it would only be a matter of time before cars with four fresh tires would take advantage. He was right, as he lost six places in the final two circuits.

"We had a problem on the right-front on the pit stop," Truex said. "Our only option from that point was to take two because we were going to be the last car on the lead lap. If we'd have taken four and come out of there, we might have finished in the same spot either way, but we just couldn't get going on those two tires. I spun them real bad."

In posting his first top-10 finish since the 2008 season-finale at Homestead, Truex proved the old adage that in order to finish first, you must first finish.

"That's the key to any of these long races," Truex said. "Stay on the lead lap all day long, take care of your car and be running at the end, and you're going to have a shot at a good finish. We were doing that last week when we had the problem on the pit stop. I think we were fifth and had a loose wheel."

For a weekend that started out in a painful way, Truex was pleased with the eventual result.

"The car was really good on long runs," Truex said. "We tried a number of different air-pressure changes to just get the car where we wanted it. We didn't need that last caution flag, but it was a nice, solid run for us and we'll take it.

"We still have a ways to go to be challenging for the wins but [Sunday] was a good day for us."