Martin Truex Jr. had another good run in what has become a breakout season, coming home 13th in Saturday’s Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway.
The action got intense early, with a two-car accident occurring on lap number four. It was quickly followed by another multi-car accident 10 laps later.
Crew chief Kevin “Bono” Manion called his driver in for gas, four tires and an air pressure adjustment. The Bass Pro Shops pit crew put together an excellent pit stop and their driver reentered the race in the second position.
Truex drifted in and out of the top-10 for the rest of the event. As is typical of restrictor plate racing, he would often lose a number of positions on one lap only to regain them the next.
The race became really interesting for the Dale Earnhardt Inc. driver when the caution flag flew on lap 132 for an accident involving five cars in the back of the field.
Manion called his driver in for four tires and gas but Truex pulled his car in too close to the pit wall and jack man Jeff Kerr could not get around to the left side of the car with the jack. Manion saw the situation that had developed and instructed Truex to leave the pits after the right side tires had been changed. Truex was in the third position on the restart.
On lap 144, the caution flag flew for the seventh time when the No. 38 spun in front of the Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet. Truex managed to avoid the spinning car but was worried about his tires.
“I may have flat-spotted them, ” Truex said. “Come on in and let’s change them – just to be sure, ” replied Manion.
Truex pitted for the four tires and reentered the race in the 23rd position. He continued to battle his way around the 2.5 – mile superspeedway before settling for 13th.
“I’m not sure, but we may have had a problem with the motor late in the race, ” Truex said. “The car just didn’t seem to run as good.
“The main thing is that we were pretty competitive most of the night. We brought the car home in one piece which isn’t easy to do here with so many guys racing so close together lap after lap.
“We’ll take this finish and get ready for next week. ”
Truex is currently 10th in NASCAR Nextel Cup Series points.
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