Kansas run still marks Furniture Row’s 10th top-10 finish of 2015
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KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A late-race call for fuel only might have been “the worst thing you could have done there,” said Martin Truex Jr., the driver who led more laps than anyone in Sunday night’s SpongeBob SquarePants 400.
Proof was on the race track, where Truex, 34, was unable to catch the folks in front of him or hold off those behind during a final six-lap shootout at Kansas Speedway.
It was on the scoreboard, too, where the formidable No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet finally appeared in the ninth position. Instead of battling defending series champion and points leader Kevin Harvick for what might have been his third career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory, Truex was left to mull over what could have been.
“We ended up being the last guy with no tires,” Truex said of the call that brought him and a handful of others running low on fuel to pit road. “Everybody else behind us had two (tires) and they ate us up on the restart.”
Fuel mileage was already a concern for the front-runners when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. brought out the ninth and final caution of the race on Lap 256 of the 267-lap race.
Harvick (Stewart-Haas Racing) and Truex Jr., running 1-2, were among those that hit pit road. Four others — eventual race winner Jimmie Johnson and Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch (SHR) and Jeff Gordon (HMS) did not and started up front.
Truex, taking fuel only, was first off pit road and restarted fifth with Harvick on his outside. With two fresh tires and fuel, Harvick charged toward the front; Truex, meanwhile, went nowhere.
“It was fun. … Bad finish, good run. What are you going to do?” Truex said on pit road.
“It was a good run for us. It was a lot of fun all night long to run like that. I’m just proud of all my guys to bring a fast car like that. It was disappointing to run like that and not be in position to win it there at the end, but on the flip side, what a great run for us. That’s a sign of things to come I think and we’ll just keep working hard.”
Although winless, Truex sits second in points, 46 behind Harvick. Among the single-car teams competing each week, the FRR bunch is clearly the class of that field.
And it’s closed the gap on the bigger teams, as well.
“I’ve never come out on the right end of one of these fuel mileage deals and I hate when it comes down to that,” he said. “We had a shot to win it there if that last caution didn’t come out. We were right there with Harvick, just saving a little bit of fuel and waiting until about 10 to go to really put the hammer down.
“It would have been nice to have raced him heads-up and see if we could have beaten him because I thought we had a shot at it. All in all, it was a good night, just not a great finish.”
Truex led five times for 95 laps.
Crew chief Cole Pearn made the call for fuel only, but Truex wasn’t about to take his team’s leader to task for the move.
“He’s taken gambles when he needed to that paid off, he’s been smart when he needed to, he’s done everything right,” Truex said. “And tonight he just — he didn’t make the right call. …
“Hindsight is 20/20. He’s done a great job this year of calling races … and I just want to make sure that he doesn’t get his confidence down, because he’s been so good at it. Live and learn. He’ll learn from tonight and get better next time around, and he’s doing a great job.”