Victory eludes Martin Truex Jr. when strategy call backfires

In a race where he unquestionably had the best car and routinely built sizeable leads, Martin Truex Jr. left Texas Motor Speedway not with his first victory of the season but a disappointing sixth-place finish Saturday night.

Truex led a race-high 141 laps and was out front when a caution came out with 45 laps remaining, and it was then that he began losing control of the Duck Commander 500. Instead of pitting, Truex stayed out on old tires while the majority of the lead-lap cars stopped including eventual race-winner Kyle Busch, who got four fresh tires.

Crew chief Cole Pearn instructed Truex to pit at the last-second, but because he was already parallel with pit road the Furniture Row Racing driver chose not to, fearful he would incur a penalty for hitting the commitment cone. On the subsequent restart Truex continued to hold the top position and again put some distance between himself and the field.

That lead, however, was short-lived when a 13-car accident on the backstretch necessitated another caution just two laps later. And suddenly, on an evening when tire wear was significant, Truex found himself at a disadvantage on substantially worn Goodyears.

Once again, Truex did not come down pit road.

“Our plan was to stay out and (Pearn) called me in,” [but] I didn’t want to hit the cone,” Truex said. “Had we went green that next restart, we did OK. We got the lead and we drove away. We just kept getting yellows and caution laps and the tires just kept getting more air in them and more air in them. By the time we finally got moving there, we just didn’t have the grip everybody else had.”

When the race resumed Busch quickly passed Truex with ease and pulled away for his second consecutive Sprint Cup Series victory, having also won the previous week at Martinsville Speedway.

Meanwhile, Truex backslid. Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr. passed him, so too did Jimmie Johnson and Chase Elliott. A disheartening conclusion to a night that had appeared so promising.

“It’s frustrating, but that’s racing,” Truex said. “That’s the way it goes sometimes. I’m proud of my guys for the race car they brought. That thing was so fast all night, we did everything we were supposed to do except for that one deal there.

“It hurts, it’s tough, but we have a lot to look forward to this year. We have great race cars and we have a lot to look forward to. We’ll go back home and get to work and hopefully come out smarter and stronger.”

Pearn described the decision whether to pit or not as a “no-win situation.” Because had he called Truex to pit road with 45 laps left, in all likelihood other teams would have employed the opposite strategy, which would have placed the No. 78 car in traffic. And when under the caution for the multi-car accident occurred by then Pearn was committed to keeping Truex on the track.

“I was hoping more cars would have stayed out, but when you have the dominant car that’s the only chance they have to beat you,” Pearn said. “By staying out and leading, we felt that having clean air would be an equalizer. But in that situation it’s easier to make the call when you’re running second and not first.

“It was a bummer to finish where we did tonight.”