Truex still winless after first Top-5 finish since May
KANSAS CITY, Ks. — For a few laps Sunday, it looked like Martin Truex Jr. was going to finally get a win in his swansong 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season.
After finishing eighth in each stage and running third during a 65-lap green flag run in the final stage, Truex’s crew reeled off a quick pit stop that put him in the lead among the drivers on fresh tires with 26 laps to go in the 267-lap race.
Truex took the lead from Brad Keselowski, who stayed out on 18-lap older tires, and went running away from a very hungry Ross Chastain.
Chastain salivated while Truex panted as another caution flew with 24 to go. On the restart, Chastain pulled off the perfect move to get to the inside of Truex. Chastain took off with the lead with Byron in tow, while Truex dropped to third.
Truex mounted a charge near the end, running three tenths faster than Chastain and Byron for the final few laps, but he fell nine tenths short of a win.
“I just didn’t quite get the restart I needed or the help on the restart that I needed. Just not quite good enough on the short runs all day on the restarts. It took us 10 to 15 laps to get going. A couple of those guys could get by us, so that’s kind of what happened there. The 1 and the 24 got away and then we were catching them back, but just ran out of time,” Truex said.
Truex now has five Top-5 finishes and 10 Top-10s on the season. His last Top-5 was 18 races ago at Kansas Speedway. He finished fourth with a front-row view for the closest finish in series history.
More recently, Truex’s last Top-10 was nine races ago at Pocono Raceway. He finished eighth after leading 14 of 160 laps.
Truex sits 14th in points. Since he is no longer in championship contention, it is all about winning.
Next up is Talladega Superspeedway. Truex won there multiple times in the NASCAR Xfinity Series but never in the Cup Series. He has three Top-5 finishes — three fifth-place finishes (Fall 2006, Spring 2015, Spring 2022) — and nine Top-10 finishes overall. His most recent finishes are 11th, 18th, 27th and 26th.
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Jonathan Fjeld View All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com