Furniture Row Racing left Atlanta Motor Speedway and the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 with top-15 finishes and solid gains in the point standings for both teams as well as a great second step in the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Despite a clutch problem and a speeding penalty, Martin Truex Jr. and the No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Toyota team finished eighth in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Erik Jones started 23rd and moved his No. 77 SiriusXM Toyota Camry into the top 15 by lap 76, running for a good stretch of time in the top 10 before settling for a solid 14th-place finish.
Truex started ninth and ran as high as fourth in the 325-lap race on the 1.5-mile tri-oval. He finished fourth in each of the first two stages, picking up an extra 14 standing points. Those additional points from the Stage 1 (Lap 85 of 325) and Stage 2 (Lap 170) races lifted Truex from 17th to seventh in the overall Cup standings. He is 13 points out of the top five and 27 behind point leader Kevin Harvick. It was the fifth top-10 finish for Truex in his last six Atlanta Motor Speedway starts.
Jones picked up three regular season points for finishing eighth in the second stage and picked up eight positions in the point standings, from 37th to 29th. The Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate is five points out of the top five and 10 points out of the top 20.
Brad Keselowski led the final seven laps to win the Folds of Honor Quicktrip 500 after a late penalty for speeding pit road ended Kevin Harvick’s chances for winning after dominating the event. The rest of the top 10 finishers were Kyle Larson, Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Truex, Harvick and Jamie McMurray.
The third race of the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series season is the March 12 Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.