RICHMOND, Va. — The statistical heartbreak that has followed Martin Truex Jr. like a dark cloud at Richmond Raceway continued to hover Saturday night.
For the fourth time in the last five Richmond events, Truex led the most laps at the .75-mile track but left still searching for his first career win here. In Saturday’s Federated Auto Parts 400, there was consolation to be had in a methodical rally from a pit-road penalty to a third-place result, but the bigger-picture silver lining for the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 team came with a berth in the next round of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs on the basis of points.
“This race, for whatever reason, this track just does not want me to win at it,” said Truex, who was able to muster some good humor after leading 163 of the 400 laps. “We’ve done everything here but win, so it’s getting a little frustrating, but at the same time, mission accomplished, we’re moving on. Hopefully we’ll save our good luck and good fortune for when we really need it.”
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Truex started third and chipped his way to the lead by Lap 41, taking control of both stage wins to provide a commanding boost in the standings and adding to his nest egg of playoff points (now at 38). But a penalty during the second-intermission pit stop for an uncontrolled front tire knocked him to the rear of the lead-lap pack in 20th place.
Truex picked back through the field on a lengthy green-flag run, but with only one yellow flag to bunch things up in the race’s second half, time ran out as he chased eventual winner Kyle Busch and runner-up Kevin Harvick down the stretch.
“With only one caution there, it’s hard to make up that much track position,” said Cole Pearn, No. 78 crew chief. “Martin did a great job managing traffic and getting through there. Obviously without the penalty, I think we would’ve won the race hands down, but that’s not how it worked out. We’ve had our share of tough luck here for some reason with having good cars, but hopefully at the end of the day we got some stage wins and we advanced so that’s the main goal.”
Truex maintained his points lead and then some, but the larger reward was mathematically clinching a berth in the Round of 12. The outcome buys the No. 78 group immunity heading into next weekend’s wild-card race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway combination oval/road course, an unknown circuit making its series debut.
“We can just go have fun now and we can wing it,” Truex said. “I feel really bad for those guys on the bubble and having to come out of there with a good result. They’re going to have heartburn, they’re not going to sleep — I can’t imagine. So we’re going to go have some fun and try to get some extra bonus points.”
Said Pearn: “That’s huge, right? We can take what next week gives us and still hopefully have a good week and learn from it and then go on to Dover, where we’ve got usually a good track for us and then pick up and get focused on the second round.”