Furniture Row Racing’s No. 78 car suffered would could be its worst finish of the 2015 season when Martin Truex Jr. was sent off the course and into the tire barriers at Sonoma Raceway in Sunday’s Toyota/SaveMart 350. His hold on second place in the Sprint Cup standings is now a slim four points, with a logjam of three racers hot on his tail.
The crash was a result of what Truex called “hard racing,” but he also said he thought Michael Waltrip Racing’s David Ragan spun him out intentionally.
“I was trying to be aggressive, made some moves, I had a couple cars passed and then the lane I was in jammed up and the guys I passed got back by me, and you just get frustrated, you lose patience,” Truex told Fox Sports. “I got into the 55’s door a little bit in Turn 7, and I guess he didn’t like it and he figured he would just dump me, so he’s probably got one coming. But other than that it was just part of the restart deal, and I hate that I got my guys’ car tore up.”
Ragan disagreed with Truex’s assessment of the incident, telling Fox Sports, “I didn’t get together with the 78 (Truex), the 78 ran me off the racetrack, just body-slammed me. I was just trying to get back on the racetrack. That’s a great instance where the 78 just absolutely did me wrong and I’m trying to get back on the racetrack.”
Truex Jr. started the day in the 12 position on the road track but finished 42nd following the accident, earning a mere two Sprint Cup points and seeing the gap between him and first-place points leader Kevin Harvick (616) grow while Joey Logano (559), Jimmy Johnson (546) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (545) all made significant moves upward in second and third places, respectively. Truex Jr. sits at 563 points heading into the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona on July 5.