Martin Truex Jr. rolls up a piece of history with third-place run
One week after scoring his first victory of the year at Pocono Raceway, Furniture Row Racing's Martin Truex Jr. continued his strong start to the 2015 season in Sunday's Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway and raced his way into the history books while he was at it.
Starting ninth on the day, Truex quickly worked his way to the front of the field and remained a factor there for much of the rain-shortened race.
Despite a bit of a slow pit stop under the first round of stops, Truex said after the race that he was pleased with the car crew chief Cole Pearn gave him for Sunday's race.
When the skies opened up for the final time and the cars were brought to pit road on Lap 138, Truex was third behind eventual race winner Kurt Busch and second-place Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The top-five finish marked Truex's fifth top five and 14th top 10 of the season. Truex thus becomes the first driver since NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty in 1969 to record 14 top-10 finishes through the first 15 races of the season.
"Awesome race car and another great job by the team," said Truex. "Just missed it a little bit today, but really proud of our season, really proud to have obviously my name mentioned next to Richard Petty, The King. That is pretty special. I'm so thankful for my team and what they've done this year, and hopefully we'll keep this thing rolling."
