LAS VEGAS – Even after a dominant day that netted him the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series points lead, Martin Truex Jr. still wasn’t able to seal the deal and drive to victory lane in the South Point 400.
Truex won the first stage of the inaugural fall race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and led a race-high 96 laps in the overtime-extended event but didn’t have the short-run speed to battle with eventual winner Brad Keselowski, thanks to a series of cautions that plagued the closing stages.
In the end, Keselowski was able to scoot away over the final two laps to record his third-straight Cup Series win and notch the 500th all-time victory for team owner Roger Penske across all forms of motorsport, but it was Truex who arguably left the biggest impression on the day.
Truex’s argument after the race was that Keselowski’s recent good fortune in capitalizing on circumstances has led to Team Penske’s run of wins, but the No. 2 team still doesn’t have the outright pace that it might appear they do simply from looking at the box score.
“Brad clearly found a horseshoe,” said Truex of his rival. “Three races in a row he’s won and he has not had the best car. I mean, if you want to really talk about the sport being what it is, you’ve got to look at that. I mean, obviously he hasn’t led the most laps in any of those races, and he showed up at the end with good pit stops and good short run speed.
“I think it’s pretty obvious how it worked out. He’s hot right now. He’s on a streak,” Truex added. “That’s the way it goes sometimes.”
Truex became the first driver other than Kyle Busch to lead the season standings since the fifth race of the year at California’s Auto Club Speedway in March, and he also noted that while Sunday may have marked Keselowski’s third straight win, it’s the third time he’s done so without leading the most laps.
Meanwhile, Truex has led 126 laps during that span, something that gives him confidence in his own team’s speed heading down the stretch towards Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway in November.
“We finished third with the best car. The last three weeks we had a top-three car and we finished 14th or worse in every one of them; know what I’m saying?” Truex remarked. “It’s a tough sport. A lot of things can happen, and momentum and luck being on your side, there’s a lot to say for it. Obviously they’re executing; they’re doing all the little things right, and that’s what it takes to win these things.”
Truex felt that the rash of cautions at the end of Sunday’s race did snatch the win out of his hands.
“It took the race from us, no question,” said Truex in regards to the short runs at the end. “With 15 laps or so we could take the lead and drive away. We were actually a little too good on the long run; I wish maybe we could have gone the other direction a little bit and still been able to get the lead.
“If we were the leader, we could do okay. I could maintain, but when I was second or third or fourth, it just made me tight enough that I had to wait for the thing to come to me or wait for other guys to start getting off the bottom in front of me.”
Still, however, Sunday was proof that despite the pending closure of Furniture Row Racing at the end of the season, Truex and company aren’t going away quietly in their quest to send team owner Barney Visser out on top.
“All in all it was a great day … and all the guys did a phenomenal job this weekend. Thanks to all the guys back in Denver at the shop; it’s pretty cool to see the effort going into these last 10 (races) and we’re going to get after them,” Truex stated.
“We had a winning car, but it just didn’t work out for us today. I’m really proud of the effort. The guys are doing a fantastic job and hopefully this is a sign of things to come the next nine weeks.’’
