Martin Truex Jr. dominated the March NASCAR Cup Series race at Richmond (Va.) Raceway but came up short of victory lane.
A caution flag with two laps remaining derailed his chances as his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin bested the driver of the No. 19 Toyota on the final restart.
Hamlin jumped the restart without any penalties from NASCAR officials, allowing the driver of the No. 11 to pull away in the end.
Truex’s frustrations boiled over as he had a run-in with Kyle Larson during the final lap, with the two drivers bashing doors twice. Truex finished fourth after a sure-fire victory slipped away. He led a race-high 228 of 407 laps.
Now nearly five months later, Truex is eyeing a different outcome.
“We had a great run going there in the spring and thought we had a shot at winning, then we were down a set of tires and the cautions didn’t go our way,” Truex said.
While the event didn’t go Truex’s way, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver is still in solid shape in terms of qualifying for the NASCAR playoffs.
Despite being winless with four races left in the regular season, Truex is 13th on the playoff grid, 108 points above the cutline as the series returns from its two-week break.
Entering Richmond this weekend after a two-week break, Truex boasts three wins at the .75-mile oval. Interestingly, it took Truex 25 tries to achieve the first.
While his winless streak lasted 12 years at the Virginia-based track, Truex admitted he’s “always really liked it, to be honest.”
““From the first time I raced there in 2003, I’ve always enjoyed the track,” Truex said. “There was a long period where I didn’t have great numbers there, but I felt like I loved the track and always ran well there and had a lot of crazy things happen there throughout my career. Once I got to Furniture Row (Racing), we started leading a ton of laps there.
“We also had a couple of heartbreaking finishes there where we should have won the race but didn’t, and I wondered if it was ever going to happen. Then we went on a streak there, so it’s been a great track and it’s a ton of fun.”
Truex won back-to-back races a
“I think we’ve improved our program a ton and have been putting on a show at some of the short tracks and places like Richmond,” Truex said. “I hope for myself and my team we can get our Bass Pro Shops Toyota back in victory lane there like we’ve done before.
“We had such a dominant run there in the spring and the caution came out and our race went haywire from there. Would like to get back out front and stay there on Sunday.”