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  • Austin Dillon Fastest in First XFINITY Practice at Bristol

    Austin Dillon Fastest in First XFINITY Practice at Bristol

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Austin Dillon topped the chart in first XFINITY Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway.  The driver of the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 15.570 123.237 mph.

    Kyle Larson was second in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with a time of 15.588 and a speed of 123.095 mph. Brandon Jones was third in his No. 33 RCR Chevrolet with a time of 15.598 and a speed of 123.016 mph. Brendan Gaughan was fourth in his No. 62 RCR Chevrolet with a time of 15.617 and a speed of  122.866 mph. Kyle Busch rounded out the top-five in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 15.647 and a speed of 122.819 mph.

    Kevin Harvick was sixth in his No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. Justin Allgaier was seventh in his No. 7 JRM Chevrolet. Joey Logano was eighth in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Erik Jones was ninth in his No. 20 JGR Toyota. Ty Dillon rounded out the top-10 in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet.

    Allgaier posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 121.341 mph. Busch was second at an average speed of 121.314 mph. Gaughan was third at an average speed of 120.934 mph.

    The XFINITY Series will be back on track this afternoon at 3:00 for final practice.

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  • Hamlin fastest in first practice at Bristol

    Hamlin fastest in first practice at Bristol

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Denny Hamlin topped the chart in first Sprint Cup Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 14.913 and a speed of 128.666 mph.

    Martin Truex Jr. was second in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota with a time of 14.944 and a speed of 128.399 mph. Brad Keselowski was third in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford with a time of 14.947 and a speed of 128.374 mph. Jimmie Johnson was fourth in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 14.970 and a speed of 128.176 mph. Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-five in his No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with a time of 15.018 and a speed of 127.767 mph.

    Kevin Harvick was sixth in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was seventh in his No. 88 HMS Chevrolet. Kyle Busch was eighth in his No. 18 JGR Toyota. AJ Allmendinger was ninth in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet. Carl Edwards rounded out the top-10 in his No. 19 JGR Toyota.

    Casey Mears, who finished 17th in his No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet, posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 121.472 mph.

    The Sprint Cup Series will be back on track this afternoon at 4:15 for pole qualifying.

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  • Blaney Says ‘There’s Really Been No Rivalry’ with Elliott

    Blaney Says ‘There’s Really Been No Rivalry’ with Elliott

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Despite being neck and neck in the Rookie of the Year battle, Ryan Blaney says there’s no rivalry going on with Chase Elliott.

    Speaking before the media during his press conference this morning, the driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford was asked if there’s a rivalry in the making with the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with the two of them controlling the rookie battle after seven races of the 2016 Sprint Cup Series season.

    “There’s really been no rivalry between us,” Blaney said. “It’s been pretty fun to race with Chase every single weekend. I haven’t really had the opportunity to do that, ever. We never really raced together every single weekend. Even growing up in late models, we were never around each other that much. So it’s nice to do that and have fun with your friends on the race track.

    “They do a great job over there (Hendrick Motorsports), so it’s been fun and we’re just trying to get our cars better. But you notice where they’re running. I like to know where my teammates are running and where some friends of mine are running on the race track. But at the same time, you have to go back and worry about your own deal and try to make your car better. It’s great that they’re running good, but we have to make sure our car is better and just worry about our program.”

    Elliott currently leads the rookie battle with 87 points. Blaney sits in second place, 13 points back.

    During the availability, he also addressed working on his conditioning with the longer races in the Sprint Cup Series.

    “I feel like I haven’t really changed that much, to be honest with you, as far as preparation or anything like that,” Blaney added. “I got a small taste of it last year running half the schedule and we were able to do a handful of 500-mile races. We did the (Coca-Cola) 600 in Charlotte, so not a lot of that has changed. I feel like the biggest thing is it’s not really physical for me, it’s more mental and trying to keep mentally focused for 500 miles. I think that’s what most of the drivers fight and that’s something I’ve been trying to work on and make better. That’s helped out a lot. I had a great opportunity to kind of train with DeAngelo Williams, who plays for the (Pittsburgh) Steelers now, but he was in Charlotte and I was hanging out with him a little bit and he kind of told me his preparation and what he does mentally.”

  • Colossus Comes to the ‘Last Great Coliseum’

    Colossus Comes to the ‘Last Great Coliseum’

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Just as Colossus of Rhodes stood tall over the ancient world, Colossus of Bristol hangs tall over Thunder Valley.

    First conceived in October of 2015 by Bruton and Marcus Smith, the new four-screen center-hung jumbotron makes its debut during this weekend’s NASCAR festivities at Bristol Motor Speedway. It will also be in place for this September’s Pilot Flying J Battle at Bristol.

    “Colossus was first imagined by Bruton and Marcus Smith, so we knew it would be big,” said Bristol Motor Speedway Executive Vice-President and General Manager Jerry Caldwell. “Every time I walk into the stadium, I’m blown away by their vision and by what our crew has accomplished. Basically, our build team put together a high-tech building three-stories tall and hung it in the sky.”

    “To go from the original designs and models to seeing and hearing the real deal – this has been a larger than life process, every step of the way,” said Marcus Smith, chairman and CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc. and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway. “The unveiling of this system at Bristol Motor Speedway means a whole new level of entertainment and interactivity for fans of NASCAR, for football fans and for guests of events we haven’t even imagined yet. Colossus has transformed Bristol, and the state of Tennessee, into one of the most versatile and amazing entertainment destinations on the planet.”

    Colossus hangs 104 to 110 feet off the ground depending on the temperature, according to Bristol Motor Speedway, and weighs nearly 700 tons. It’s held up in the air by a supporting ring that weighs 127 tons, 117 tons of cabling and four supporting towers, eating weighing 437 tons, placed outside turns 1, 2, 3 and 4.

    The screens measure 63 feet wide by three stories tall and are 4.5 times larger and 20 feet closer to the stands than the previous scoring pylon. With 18-million pixels and nearly 54-million LED’s, the screens display 281-trillion different color combinations. According to Bristol Motor Speedway, Colossus has the “highest viewing quality of any permanent outdoor stadium display in the world” as it features 2880 x 1350 lines of resolution, compared to the average home HDTV screen at 1920 x 1080.

    The track claims that Colossus “has a mighty roar” with 485 speakers powered by half a million watts. It provides a listening distance of “no more than 90 feet from speakers to ears.

    Construction of Colossus took 155 days with the help of 200 workers.

    “Last December, the towers were up, the cables were here and we were trying to figure out the process of raising the halo,” said Vice-President of Operations and Development for SMI Steve Swift. “All the connections had to be made at the same time while the structure was in the air. That was a very complex and challenging process with a very tight timeline. Someone suggested keeping the old infield scoring pylon in place just in case we couldn’t get it done in time. I jumped in and said ‘No, not an option.’ So the pylon came down and our safety net was gone.

    “Watching everything come together was amazing,” Swift said. “There were some late nights with the Musco lights burning and freezing cold days when we were hanging steel, but the team made it look easy. All of us can look back now, laugh and appreciate everything we went through together.”

  • Rusty Wallace to Give Command on Sunday

    Rusty Wallace to Give Command on Sunday

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Rusty Wallace will deliver “the most famous words in motorsports” for Sunday’s race at Thunder Valley.

    Speaking at the corporate headquarters in Abingdon, Virginia, Steven C. Smith, president and CEO of Food City, announced that the NASCAR Hall of Famer will give the command to fire engines for this Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

    “Over the years, Rusty has always been one of the greatest supporters of Food City and our racing program,” Smith said. “As the driver who boasts the most Food City 500 wins (six), we thought it appropriate to recognize his tremendous contributions to our company and the sport by naming him Grand Marshal for the 25th running of the Food City 500.”

    In 44 career starts at Bristol, the 1989 Sprint Cup Series champion amassed nine wins (including four season sweeps), 22 top fives (50 percent) and 29 top-10s (65.91 percent),a 9.6 finishing average and 3723 total laps led. In 14 of those 44 starts, he led more than 100 laps and he also led at least one lap in 29 starts at Bristol.

    Wallace’s last two wins at Thunder Valley came in a season sweep of the races in 2000. He started sixth and led 86 laps on his way to winning in the spring. In the summer, he started on the pole and led 279 laps on his way to winning.

    He finished his career tied with Dale Earnhardt and Cale Yarborough for second on the all-time wins list at Bristol behind Darrell Waltrip and his 12 wins.

     

  • 2016 Food City 500 Preview

    2016 Food City 500 Preview

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– “In my Tennessee mountain home, life’s as peaceful as a baby’s sigh. In my Tennessee mountain home, the sound of roaring thunder sings in fields nearby.”

    This week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to my part of the country – Bristol, Tennessee – to run the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The 500-lap race on the .533 mile (.858 km) concrete short track will be the eighth race of the 2016 season.

    I have no problem saying that Bristol is my single favorite track on the entire schedule. What’s not to love about it? It’s got the bumping and banging that we all love about short track racing and it’s got actual racing. It’s also my home track being just a 90-minute drive from where I live in Knoxville.

    Inevitably, there will be someone out there moaning about how it’s not like it used to be. Those people are right. Bristol is not like it used to be. It’s better! I will argue the point until the day I die that Bristol today is far superior to the Bristol of yesteryear, but that’s an argument for another day.

    There are two ways to approach Bristol; the classic against the wall on the straights and dive to the bottom in the turns and the current ride against the wall all the way around. The latter became more prevalent back in August of 2012 and is now the main way to get around the concrete short track.

    Passing becomes a challenge at Bristol as it is at most short tracks. In the past when the only way around Bristol was the bottom, you had to forcibly move a guy out of the way or wait for him to make a mistake. Now, you either move the guy in front out of the way and into the wall or you dive bomb under the car in front. This carries a lot of risks because you have to slow down the car a lot more so as to not slam the wall and it allows the car behind to get by you very easily. If you can keep the car you passed behind through the whole process, then you can move on and focus on the next car.

    We’ve seen on many occasions over the years at Thunder Valley that tempers do flare. Controlling the beast inside is key to doing well at Bristol.

    Now let’s get to the drivers to watch this weekend.

    We start off with the odds-on favorite to win this weekend at 6/1 (Vegas Insider), one Kyle Thomas Busch.

    In 21 career starts at Bristol, the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has amassed five wins, eight top fives (38.10 percent) and 13 top-10’s (61.91 percent) for an average finish of 12th.

    He’s also riding a hot streak of two straight wins at Martinsville and Texas coupled with two straight weekend sweeps.

    Now here’s where the numbers aren’t in his favor.

    Since the introduction of the Gen-6 car, he’s finished second, 11th, 29th, 36th and eighth for a 17.2 average finish. That’s 43.3 percent worse than his career average.

    He’s also not won at Bristol in Cup since 2011.

    He does, however, tend to be up front near the lead at Bristol. In his last five starts, he’s led 56, zero, 73, eight and 192 laps.

    So while I expect him to be in victory lane at Bristol in the XFINITY Series, Sunday will be more of a toss-up. Given the run he’s on as of late, I would be wrong to discount him on Sunday.

    The next driver on my list at 7/1 is Joseph Thomas Logano.

    In 14 career starts at Bristol, the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford has amassed two wins, three top fives (21.43 percent) and four top-10’s (28.57 percent) for an 18.6 finishing average. While that doesn’t sound all that great, all those top fives and three of those top-10s have come during his time with Penske. In his time with Penske, he’s finished 17th, fifth, 20th, first, 40th and first for an average finish of 14th. That’s 24.73 percent better than his career average.

    Interestingly, none of them have come in the spring race at Bristol.

    He’s no stranger to being in the lead at Thunder Valley with a career total of 408 laps led. The only other track where he’s led more is Martinsville. The last time we visited Bristol, he led 176 laps on his way to scoring the victory.

    I expect to see Logano fighting for the win on Sunday.

    The next driver to watch at 7/1 is Kevin Michael Harvick.

    In 30 career starts at Bristol, the driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet has amassed one win, 10 top fives (33.3 percent) and 13 top-10s (43.3 percent) for a 14.6 career finishing average.

    His stats are even less impressive when you use the sample size of the last six races. In the last six, he’s finished 14th, 38th, 39th, 11th, 38th and second for a 23.7 finishing average. That’s 62.33 percent worse than his career average.

    Why I bring him up is because even with the poor finishes, he still has a strong car that’s up front. In the last six races at Bristol, he’s led zero, seven, 28, 75, 184 and zero laps. That’s an average of 49 laps led per race. He was in control of this race a year ago before being caught up in a late-race wreck with David Ragan (who was subbing for Busch at the time).

    I expect Harvick to be a contender on Sunday.

    Next at 8/1 is Bradley Aaron Keselowski.

    In 12 career starts at Thunder Valley, the driver of the No. 2 Penske Ford has amassed two wins, four top fives (33.3 percent) and five top-10s (41.67 percent) for a 14.3 career average.

    For Keselowski, Bristol has been either hit or miss. That’s clear in his last six starts with finishes of third, 30th, 14th, second, 35th and sixth for a finishing average of 15th. That’s 4.90 percent worse than his career average.

    Unlike the others on this list, Keselowski is the one driver I’m iffy on. Granted, his record is comparable to Harvick’s. But Harvick has been bringing strong cars to Thunder Valley the last two years while Keselowski has been bringing cars that are just good at best.

    While I expect to see Keselowski get a top-10 finish, I don’t see him winning on Sunday.

    The final driver at 10/1 is Matthew Roy Kenseth.

    In 32 career starts at Thunder Valley, the driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota has amassed four wins, 13 top fives (40.63 percent) and 20 top-10’s (62.5 percent) for a 12.8 finishing average.

    In his last six starts at Bristol, he’s finished 35th, first, 13th, third, first and 42nd for a 15.8 finishing average. That’s 23.44 percent worse than his career average.

    In his last six starts, he’s led 85, 149, 165, 62, 47 and zero laps for a combined total of 508 laps. That’s 35.53 percent of the nearly one-thousand 500 laps (1430) that he’s led overall at Bristol.

    It’s also worth noting that this season has been anything but kind to Kenseth after eight races with only one top-10 finish.

    If there’s one track that’s been kind to him over his career, it’s Bristol. After the monsoon of last April, Kenseth had enough fuel to end a 53-race winless drought and scored the victory.

    I expect Kenseth to get it together sooner rather than later and there’s a good chance that he does it this Sunday at Thunder Valley.

    You can catch the Food City 500 this Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on FOX and on the radio via the Performance Racing Network and Sirius XM (subscription required for the latter). Since this is my home track, I’ll be on location starting today bringing you all the happenings from the media center and press box at Thunder Valley.

  • NASCAR Racing Schedule for Bristol

    NASCAR Racing Schedule for Bristol

    The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and XFINITY Series travel to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend. The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is off. Please check below for the complete schedule of events.

    All times are Eastern.

    Friday, April 15:

    On Track:
    11 a.m.-12:25 p.m.: Sprint Cup Series Practice – FS1
    12:30-1:55 p.m.: XFINITY Series Practice – FS1
    3-3:55 p.m.: XFINITY Series Final Practice – FS1
    4:15 p.m.: Sprint Cup Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying – FS1

    Garage Cam:  (Watch live)
    10:30 a.m.: Sprint Cup Series
    2:30 p.m.: XFINITY Series

    Press Conferences:  (Watch live)
    9:30 a.m.: Chase Elliott
    10 a.m.: Ryan Reed
    10:15 a.m.: Ryan Blaney
    10:30 a.m.: Kyle Busch
    12:30 p.m.: Carl Edwards
    1:30 p.m.: Dale Earnhardt Jr.
    3:30 p.m.: Todd Gilliland
    5:30 p.m.: Post-Sprint Cup Qualifying (time approx.)

    Saturday, April 16:

    On Track:
    8:30-9:25 a.m.: Sprint Cup Series Second Practice – FS1
    9:30 a.m.: XFINITY Series Coors Light Pole Qualifying – FS1
    11-11:55 a.m.: Sprint Cup Series Final Practice – FS1
    12:30 p.m.: XFINITY Series Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 Heat #1 (50 laps, 26.65 miles) – FS1
    1:10 p.m. (approx): XFINITY Series Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 Heat #2 (50 laps, 26.65 miles) – FS1
    1:45 p.m. (approx): XFINITY Series Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 main race (200 laps, 106.6 miles) – FS1

    Press Conferences: (Watch live)
    3:30 p.m.: Post-XFINITY Race (time approx.)

    Sunday, April 17:

    On Track:
    1 p.m.: Sprint Cup Series Food City 500 (500 laps, 266.5 miles) – FOX

    Press Conferences: (Watch live)
    4:30 p.m.: Post-Sprint Cup Race (time approx.)

    Additional Info:

    Complete NASCAR TV Schedule

    Special NASCAR Programming:

    • Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chase Elliott and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on “Dude Perfect” – Thursday, April 14 at 9:30 p.m. ET on CMT
  • Loose Wheel Robs Edwards of Chance at Victory

    Loose Wheel Robs Edwards of Chance at Victory

    A missing lug nut cost Carl Edwards a chance at victory in the Lone Star State.

    After starting on the pole, the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led a good chunk of the front-half of the Duck Commander 500. After leading 124 laps and coming off a fast stop, he was in position for a duel to the finish with Martin Truex Jr.

    But prior to the restart, he felt a vibration and opted to ignore it. After the race restarted on lap 222, he started to slow down and made an unscheduled stop because of a loose wheel.

    “I felt a problem right away,” Edwards said. “My mistake was I should have pulled to pit immediately. I was still in denial, (thinking) ‘Maybe I’m imagining something…maybe something got stuck on the tire.’ Then I realized, ‘This was not good.”‘

    He rejoined the race in 19th one lap down.

    Thanks to the misfortunes of others, he was able to salvage his race and bring his car home to a seventh-place finish. But that was little, if any, consolation to him as teammate Kyle Busch stole the race from Truex in the closing laps and scored the victory. He jokingly said he was “about done being happy for Kyle.”

    “Nah. It’s awesome for JGR,” he said. “Our car is fast. That’s what it’s about. We run like that long enough and we’ll be fine. It was fun.

    “It’s just racing. Look, I’m as disappointed as anybody but there’s nothing we can do about what happened. If we race like that regularly, we’re going to be great.”

    For the most part, Texas Motor Speedway has been kind to Edwards over the years. In 23 career starts at the 1.5-mile circuit, he’s finished in the top-10 in over half his starts and in the top-five in just over a quarter of his starts. His 124 laps led were the first laps he’s led at Texas since 2013.

    Despite the respectable numbers he’s put up, he’s yet to win at Texas in eight years.

    “It’s been a good track for me,” Edwards added. “We’re doing great. We had the fastest qualifier, led the second-most laps. We were going for it tonight. It just didn’t work out.”

    Edwards leaves Texas sitting fourth in the points 18 back of teammate Busch.

    The next stop on the schedule is Bristol Motor Speedway, a track which he’s had some great runs at in the last two years.

  • Multi-Car Wreck on the Backstretch Collects Over a Dozen Cars

    Multi-Car Wreck on the Backstretch Collects Over a Dozen Cars

    A spin on the backstretch turned into a multi-car wreck in the closing stages of the Sprint Cup Series race in the Lone Star State.

    Exiting turn 2 with 47 laps to go in the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, Austin Dillon was tapped from behind by Jimmie Johnson and sent sliding into the wall. After touching it with the right-rear corner, the driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet overcorrected and turned back into the outside wall.

    His car then slid down the track where it was clipped by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. He continued down and tapped the inside wall.

    Because Dillon was running toward the front when he spun, his car came down just as the rest of the field was hauling the mail down the backstretch. As a result, a number of cars spun out in a chain-reaction, trying to avoid the lifeless No. 3 car.

    “I haven’t seen (the replay) yet,” Dillon said after being released from the infield care center. “We were on older tires and I was trying to get all I could there. It’s part of trying to win a race. We put ourselves in a position to be out front, thinking that two laps wouldn’t mean much, but it did. That’s part of it. The good Lord kept me safe tonight and gave me a good race car. You have to be gracious in defeat. We’ll come back next week with another fast car and hopefully we can do the same thing we did today, and that’s run up front.

    “It tore up a bunch of race cars. We had a good car. I just wish we could re-do it. But heck, we’re learning. We had another fast race car. We’ll go on from here. I don’t know why they put us a lap down for a speeding penalty. Usually, a speeding penalty is like the tail end of the longest line. So, that lost us some more spots there at the end. But, we’ll take it and go home.”

    “Tonight wasn’t our night,” Ryan Newman said. “We started off the run tight and as more rubber was laid down, we got loose. There weren’t a lot of cautions, so we made green-flag pit stops and fell a lap down to the leader. With most of the stops under green, we didn’t have many opportunities to get our lap back, especially after we got caught up in a wreck towards the end of the race. The right-side of the car was tore up but not enough to take us out of the race. The Caterpillar team never gave up, that’s something to be proud of.”

    In total, 13 cars were caught in or sustained damage from the wreck. The cars involved were Michael Annett, Trevor Bayne, Clint Bowyer, Dillon, Johnson, Matt Kenseth, Paul Menard, Newman, David Ragan, Brian Scott, Regan Smith, Stenhouse and Brian Vickers.

    The damage was fatal to Bowyer’s and Vickers’s cars as they were unable to finish the race.

    “It was a long day,” Vickers said. “That wreck just finally ended it for us. It’s unfortunate. I was really proud of the effort by the guys all weekend. We never really had the car we wanted. We fought hard for it. It was great having TaxAct Military Files Free on the car. We just didn’t have it tonight. We worked hard on it. The guys kept making it a little better we just couldn’t get what we needed. It just wasn’t our night.”

    “It looked like at first I thought he (Dillon) was gonna come down the track and then it looked like he was gonna stay up on the top,” Stenhouse said. “I kind of committed to turning underneath thinking he was gonna stay at the top, then all of a sudden he came down and I got as much brake as I could and avoided him as much as I could. We just barely clipped him ever so slightly and it got us too much damage.”

    Landon Cassill, who was caught right in the eye of the storm, managed to snake his way through the gaggle of cars and emerge without a scratch on his No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford.

  • Dominant Drive by Truex not Enough to Win

    Dominant Drive by Truex not Enough to Win

    Despite having the strongest car in the race, Martin Truex Jr. was not able to take his car to victory lane in the Lone Star State.

    The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota seemed poised to score his fourth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory in the Duck Commander 500 at Texas Motor Speedway, but two late race cautions and almost everyone behind him opting to pit led to him losing the lead with 32 laps to go and finishing sixth.

    “We just ran out of tires, you know,” Truex said. “Made it through (turns) one and two side-by-side, got to three and just didn’t have the grip. Then we fell back because we were sliding around. Everybody had new tires, we ran under caution for a long time, they keep building air pressure and losing grip. Pretty big disadvantage, but can’t say enough about the guys for the race car they brought here and the weekend we had. It hurts. It’s happened a few times to me here. Hurts a little bit, but we’ll get over it and we’ll move on and we’ll take the positives out of it tonight.”

    He led 142 of the 334 laps and was in control until the sixth caution of the race flew with 47 laps to go. When he opted to stay out, everybody expected Austin Dillon to pit.

    “It’s just the way it goes,” he 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. Just sliding around.

    “It’s frustrating, but that’s racing. 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. I don’t know. 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.”

    Despite the disappointment of coming up short, Truex leaves Texas 11th in points trailing Kyle Busch by 72.