CRANDALL: The man in the catbird seat

Martin Truex Jr. experienced as many ups and downs Sunday at Sonoma Raceway as there were corners.

To start, Truex had the dominant car, and he led the most laps (25). He also won the first stage in the Toyota Save/Mart 350, his unbelievable 11th stage win the season. In doing so, the Furniture Row Racing driver pocketed yet another playoff point.

Unfortunately, Truex left California empty-handed. After making his final pit stop with 40 laps to go – a slow stop because the team again struggled to get the right front wheel off – Truex found himself second behind Kevin Harvick.

Even worse, as the No. 4 started to drive away, Truex radioed the words no team wants to hear: the engine was blowing up. Eventually he had to pull off the track, and finished 37th of 38 cars.

"It's very disappointing," Truex said in the garage. "I mean, sitting there running second on seven cylinders and stayed right with the leader. This Toyota was so good today. Everybody at Furniture Row did an awesome job with it. Everybody back in Denver (Colorado), thank you guys for just crazy fast cars.

"TRD (Toyota Racing Development) stuff has been really good for the past year and a half. You know sometimes these things happen, so appreciate all their effort out there at TRD. Make good power; it's just this one wasn't ready to go the whole distance today."
So, a potential third this season wasn't in the cards. However, Truex is still winning in the bigger picture.

With 10 races left before the playoffs start, Truex is the only driver within striking distance of Kyle Larson (BELOW) for the point lead. The reason why that's important even in the era of the playoffs is that this year, NASCAR will reward the driver leading the standings after the final regular season race at Richmond International Raceway.

Said driver will receive 15 extra playoff points over the field; second place will receive 10 points, third place eight, fourth place will receive seven and so on down the line to the 10th-placed driver. The points lead is something Truex will be chasing over the next few months to separate himself even further from the field.

But Truex has done an incredible job of that already. For instance, if the NASCAR post-season started today, Truex would be seeded at the top with a total of 2,031 points. While that would only be three points over second, which would be Kyle Larson, his gap to third would be 11 points.

Speaking of 11, Truex's 11th stage win at Sonoma bumped his playoff points to 21. He leads the series in that category with Jimmie Johnson the next highest at 16. Also, remember that all the playoff points a driver earns – through stage wins (one point) and race wins (five points) – will stay with them through the first three rounds of the post-season should they advance.

The way things are going, that won't be a problem for the No. 78 team.

In fact, with all the points Truex has earned, and with the many more he's bound to pick up before Sept. 9 at Richmond, Truex looks like a sure bet for one of the final four spots at Homestead-Miami Speedway. And unlike last year, when Truex failed to make it to Homestead because of one bad race, a slight stumble this year won't be as catastrophic, because he would have these points to fall back on.

"After we made that last pit stop, when we lost the lead to (Kevin) Harvick, soon as I left pit road, I lost a cylinder," Truex said. "I was surprised we were able to keep up with them as well as we could on seven, but just shows how strong the car was. Just wasn't meant to be today."

Chin up Martin, because while you might not have the race trophy, the work you put in early on Sunday moved you another step closer to the big prize.