SONOMA, Calif. — At one point, it appeared that Martin Truex Jr. had a shot to bow for the win Sunday at Sonoma Raceway.
With 10 laps to go, Truex dove to the lead on Chris Buescher, leading a three-car flurry that also included Kyle Larson. He couldn’t hold on as Larson screamed past him and drove ahead with victory in his sights.
Unless there was a late caution, Truex understood that he wouldn’t have a chance at getting back to the dominant No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports entry. He took his medicine and prepared to settle for second, a year removed from his fourth triumph in wine country.
But entering the last corner on the final lap, Truex’s No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota went flat. He ran out of fuel after the team tried to stretch mileage across the final 42 laps.
NASCAR listed the fuel window for the race at 45 laps around the 1.99-mile road course.
“Thought we were going to have a shot to win there and just couldn’t quite get by (Buescher) quick enough,” Truex said. “I finally cleared him; I made a mistake and (Larson) was right there to pounce and then obviously ran out of gas so it didn’t matter.
“I’m not sure why we didn’t try to save a little at the end. I was clearly not going to catch the 5 or pass him. It’s a shame that we went around the last corner and went from second to wherever we finished.
“It was a tough day, and we had a good car. We battled and did a good job. We were going to have a good day, but just one corner short.”
Truex’s car came to rest on the frontstretch, just feet in front of the start/finish line. After more than a minute, he rolled across the line without assistance to finish 27th and stay on the lead lap.
Truex battled to the front from early adversity, coming back after spinning off the front bumper of Supercars star Will Brown on lap 8. While Truex didn’t score any points in Stage One, he earned eight by finishing third in Stage Two.
He made it through a caution-filled Stage One without a stop and came for service during the break, resulting in needed track position for the second segment.
“Got spun out early and had to work hard to get some track position back,” Truex said. “James (Small, crew chief) did a good job on our strategy. Our car was pretty good out front.”
Truex hasn’t recorded a top 10 over the last four races and has dropped from second to fifth in driver’s points in that span.
