Martin Truex Jr.’s streak of 13 consecutive top 10s at 1.5-mile tracks came to an end in Sunday’s O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 at Texas Motor Speedway.
Truex, who was running second, hit the Turn 4 wall hard causing severe damage to his No. 78 Toyota and an early exit from the race on Lap 81.
“Not sure what happened there – if we run something over or what,” Truex Jr. said. “I think the first set of tires that came off the car looked great. We were just making our way towards the front. I think we were second when we blew a tire there. Would’ve been nice to have at least finished that first stage before it happened, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes.
“All in all we were going to be in for a good day. We were making the car better and still had room to go. We were as fast as anybody. At least that’s a positive and we’ll go on to next week and see what we can do.”
Since the start of the 2017 season, Truex had posted seven wins in his 13 previous starts at 1.5-mile tracks, which included 10 straight top fives up until today’s race. Truex has also finished in the top five in the previous five races this season.
It’s Truex’s first DNF since Talladega last fall.
