FORT WORTH, Texas — After a difficult stretch of races, Legacy Motor Club enjoyed a solid day on Sunday at Texas Motor Speedway, placing both of its cars in the top eight at the finish of the Wurth 400, which was the 11th race of the NASCAR Cup Series season.
Erick Jones brought the No. 43 Toyota home fifth after an up-and-down day that Jones felt could have been better, while John Hunter Nemechek finished eighth.
It was the first top-five and top-10 finish of the season for Jones.
“It was a sloppy day in a lot of ways,” Jones explained. “We had two pit road penalties, but just happy to come back from it and get a top-five. It would have been pretty disappointing to have a car this good, kind of our first car this year that’s been pretty strong to throw it away. I thought we were headed that way, but it turned out well.”
Nemechek posted his third top-10 finish of the season in the No. 42 Toyota.
“It means a lot. We unloaded with speed this week, which was nice, in practice,” Nemechek said. “Had good long run speed – guys brought a fast Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE. It was an up-and-down day for us. Just kind of all over the place with what we had. Glad to come home eighth. The last couple of restarts were tough with the positions that we were in. I’ve got to get better from a driver’s standpoint racing up towards the front, but I haven’t had any chances at that, so progressing and learning.”
• In addition to Legacy Motor Club, Team Penske and Trackhouse Racing each had two cars in the top 10 on Sunday.
Joey Logano won with Ryan Blaney finishing third for Team Penske, while Ross Chastain came home second and Daniel Suarez took 10th for Trackhouse.
Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports each placed a single car in the top 10. Kyle Larson was fourth for Hendrick and Christopher Bell was ninth for JGR.
• Ryan Blaney finished third in his Team Penske Ford on Sunday afternoon, ending a streak of bad luck. Still, Blaney sounded like a driver who is down on himself.
“I don’t know. The one time I didn’t pick the outside the 71 (Michael McDowell) got the lead and then I couldn’t get it back,” said Blaney. “Just driver making dumb decisions and not doing his job. I appreciate the team. The 12 car was a fast car today. I just can’t do anything right currently. Hopefully it will work itself out.”
• Josh Berry led 41 laps in the Wood Brothers Ford, but his day ended when he spun on lap 126.
“The car was really good. I could tell early on that our car was really strong, especially after the first pit stop when we made an adjustment it was really good and we got out front and felt really good about it,” Berry said. “Just started to approach the lapped traffic. You have no choice but to run the opposite lane. Your car is never going to turn if you follow them. I went around the 62 on the outside and felt pretty decent about it.
“Then caught the 51 and was working on the 51 and hit that bump and got loose. I don’t know what I would do too much different. Obviously in these cars, especially at a place like this you are going to be fast, it is going to be uncomfortable and you are going to be on edge. Unfortunately it bit us today.”
• With a fourth-place finish, Kyle Larson trimmed Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron’s point lead to 13 markers heading to Kansas Speedway next weekend.
Larson led a race-high 90 laps.
“If I could have kept the lead, we would have been hard to beat in clean air like that,” Larson said. “Just a little frustrated with myself, but all-in-all, it was a good points day for us today. The No. 5 Valvoline Chevrolet team did a great job today. The car was good. We’ll just study it and try to do a better job next time.”
• Denny Hamlin’s streak of 21 consecutive lead-lap finishes—eighth-most all-time in the Cup Series—came to an abrupt end on Lap 75. One circuit earlier, Hamlin lost power with an engine the team was running for the third time.
