Truex in tight chase for start of round of 8 in Texas

FORT WORTH, Texas — Martin Truex Jr. remembers the hours of boredom watching television and the rain in Texas, then coming so close to another championship chance when that playoff race last fall finally ended three days after it began.

The forecast is much better this time, both weather-wise and for Truex’s playoff push, though things are tight and there are some changes in Texas.

Instead of being the middle race in the round of eight like Texas was in the past, Sunday is the first of the three races (Kansas and Martinsville to follow) that will determine the drivers that make up the championship four in the season finale at Phoenix.

“The round of eight is really as tough as it gets,” said Truex, the 2017 Cup champ who finished second in both 2018 and 2019. “All three races are equally as important. So it really doesn’t matter, you know, where they lie. Obviously the ultimate way to go about this is just go win the first one. But there’s a lot of guys with that in mind as well.”

Kyle Larson, who won the NASCAR All-Star race at Texas four months ago, is the points leader. While the Hendrick Motorsports driver has a significant edge over Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Truex, only eight points separate second-place Hamlin and defending champion Chase Elliott in sixth place. Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch round out the top five. Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, 16 points below the cutline, are the other drivers still in the playoffs.

Truex desperately needed a win last October in Texas, where he had to start at the back of the field because of an illegal spoiler and was docked 20 points. It was a crucial penalty given he was already out of the top four, in seventh place. He led 53 laps before a runner-up finish, less than a half-second behind Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Busch. Truex stayed seventh in points then, and the rest of the season.

“The race went really well. We were really strong and, you know, we were really one lap away from I think the 18 (Busch) running out of gas and us closing in for the win,” Truex said. “So it was definitely close. … Second is pretty good, but it’s not what we’re after. So try to win it this year, hopefully.”

Busch is one point out of fourth place going to Texas, where his only win all last season came in that Wednesday finish after he had already been eliminated from possibly defending his 2019 Cup title.

While Busch felt bad about denying his teammate a spot in the championship four, that gave Busch a victory in 16 consecutive seasons. He has already won twice this season to extend that impressive streak that is one shy of Richard Petty’s record 18 in a row (1960-77).

A four-time winner at Texas, Busch will be without crew chief Ben Beshore after his suspension for two loose lug nuts on the No. 18 Toyota after last week’s road-course race in Charlotte. Busch has two wins each at Kansas, including in May, and Martinsville.

“This round lays out very well for us. We have three tracks where we have had a lot of success at over the years,“Busch said. “We won at both Texas and Kansas within the last year, so I feel like that’s a good omen for us.”

FEUD FINISHED?

NASCAR held a conference call this week to squash a raging feud between Elliott and Kevin Harvick. Both teams were warned of severe consequences if the drivers continue their fight.

Harvick was eliminated from championship contention last week when he wrecked himself as Elliott closed in on his rear bumper. Harvick had wrecked Elliott earlier in the race at Charlotte as payback for Elliott costing him a win three weeks earlier at Bristol. After the crash at Charlotte, which briefly put Elliott in danger of playoff elimination, Elliott’s crew told him to wreck Harvick if given the chance.

DIFFERENT TIME AND TEMP

Until now, the highbanked, 11⁄2-mile Texas track had hosted the eighth of the final 10 races every year since first getting a fall race in 2005. That made it the middle race of the final elimination round since the introduction of the format in 2014.

Last October, only 52 of the scheduled 334 laps were completed after the race started on a Sunday. After no laps over two days with misty and cool conditions, the race finally resumed on a Wednesday, nearly 721⁄2 hours after it had stopped — with temperatures still in the mid-40s.

The forecast this weekend calls for partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the low 70s.

ODDS AND ENDS

Truex is 0 for 31 getting to victory lane at Texas. Busch (four wins) and Hamlin (three wins) will each make his 31st start at the track Sunday. Truex and Busch both have 17 top-10 finishes, the most among the eight playoff drivers, with Busch’s 11.0 the best average finish.