Martin Truex Jr. continued his career best start to the season with another top 10 finish, this time with a fifth place in the Geico 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
The Furniture Row Racing driver started 36th, hanging among the front of the field until pushing towards the front on the last lap. His fifth place finish tied his career best finish in 21 starts at the 2.66-mile tri-oval.
“Talladega is a wild card, and any time you can come out of here with a fifth place finish that’s a good day.”
“It was kind of interesting — I think everybody was on the same plan, waiting for the last lap,” explained Truex. “If you make a move and it doesn’t work you are going to lose a lot of spots and you try to minimize that. We took a shot there on the last lap and had a great run going into 1, got up to third, then got blocked a little by the No. 11 and lost our momentum. I was still able to gain one spot. The No. 27 helped us pretty good and I got a good shove at the end from my friend (Ryan) Newman.”
The combination of Truex Jr. and first year crew chief Cole Pearn has led to a solid start for the Barney Visser owned team.
With 10 races into this season, Truex Jr. has amassed nine top 10 finishes and now sits second in the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship standings, 40 behind Kevin Harvick.
Image: Matthew Bishop/About.com NASCAR
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