Ryan Truex Rebounds for Top-10 Finish at the Roval

By Seth Eggert, NASCAR Correspondent

CONCORD, N.C. – A mid-race spin at the treacherous Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval was not enough to keep Ryan Truex from a top-10 finish.

At the start of the final stage, Truex found his No. 8 Marquis Chevrolet Camaro SS just in front of a four-wide battle. Tyler Reddick wheel-hopped into turn one and tapped the JR Motorsports driver. Truex spun in front of the field. Somehow, as John Hunter Nemechek and Ray Black, Jr. also spun, Truex emerged unscathed.

Now mired deep in the field, Truex had to somehow move through the field. By keeping his nose clean, the NASCAR Xfinity Series driver picked off positions one by one. Truex also had to dirt-track his way through the grass to avoid Brandon Jones when he spun late.

The Drive for the Cure 250 came down to a three-lap shootout. Truex restarted outside the top-10. On the restart, he passed Jeremy Clements and Gray Gaulding to move into the top-10 where he remained until the checkered flag.

“I’m still frustrated because we had a good car,” Truex admitted. “We didn’t qualify well, and we worked the whole race to get that track position, and to get to get spun out like that, kind of for no reason, sucks. I hate it that happened. We got really lucky that we didn’t get hit by anybody.

“The crew gave me a set of tires and good adjustments so I could drive through the field and it’s just tough. It’s hard to pass here. You saw even like the 20-car got back there, the 98, it took them so long to get through the field, just hard to pass, even though there’s more passing zones now with the chicane.

“It’s hard and it’s really easy to make mistakes. Proud of my team and I think we had a shot at the top five there if everything worked out, but obviously it didn’t.”

Truex had been running well inside the top-10 early. The 13^th-place qualifier finished the first stage in seventh. Pit strategy saw the Mayetta, NJ native pit prior to the end of the final stage.

The 10^th-place finish is the fourth top-10 for Truex this season. It is also the 24^th of his Xfinity Series career.

Truex currently has one more race on his schedule with JRM this season, the Kansas Lottery 300 at Kansas Speedway in three weeks.