Truex felt 'helpless' on decisive restart

Martin Truex Jr. had a "look in the mirror" moment after his second-place finish in the Pure Michigan 400.

The leader on the race's final restart, Truex was bested by Chip Ganassi Racing driver Kyle Larson. It was a difficult loss as Truex had dominated the second half of the day at Michigan International Speedway. Truex won stage 2 – his 15th of the season – and led the second-most laps (57).

Yet it ended up being the restart that mattered most – and that's where Truex had his first and only stumble of the day.

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"Kyle laid back a car length coming into the restart zone, so I waited later in the zone to go, waiting for him to catch up to me, and I actually wanted him to hit me," said Truex. "And when he did, I tried to go and it spun the tires. I did everything right; it just caught me by surprise because I hadn't spun the tires all day long."

Although he felt he had had decent restarts up until that point, Truex acknowledged double-file restarts can be either hit or miss. It's also easier for the drivers on the front row to spin the tires.

"Did not expect to have an issue with it, and when I did, there was nothing I could do. I was just helpless," Truex said. "(Larson) had the momentum and did what everybody else would have done. It's just my screw-up gave him the win, basically."

The final caution with five laps to go set up overtime. Truex and his Furniture Row Racing teammate Erik Jones were the top two. Starting on the outside of the second row, behind Truex, was Larson, who was going for three straight wins at Michigan.

Larson timed the restart perfectly and jumped to the inside of Truex going into Turn 1. With the clean air, Truex could only chase him to the checkered flag.

"We got beat fair and square. That's the way it goes sometimes," said Truex. "We had that red flag and just sat there (getting) the tires cold and then only had one lap to come to the green and get some heat back in them. Then I just struggled to get going – just spun the tires.

"Double-file restarts are tricky – sometimes you do them right, sometimes you screw them up, and unfortunately I screwed the one up that mattered the most today. But, proud of our team for the run we had and both cars running strong up front all day and both having a shot at the win. Hate it for my guys, obviously, but that's the way it goes sometimes."