Regular-season trophy small solace for Truex

Martin Truex Jr. wasn't in a celebratory mood Saturday night even though he was presented with the trophy for winning the regular season championship and goes into the playoffs as the number one seed.

"Tonight sucks, plain and simple," Truex said. "Just the way it ended up."

The way it ended was with a hard crash in Turn 1 on the final lap. To be more exact, it occurred on the last lap during overtime because the caution flew with four laps remaining in regulation, which erased Truex's lead and all but assured fifth win of the season.

It quickly went downhill from there as the No. 78 team lost the lead on pit road and Truex was hit by Toyota teammate Denny Hamlin to trigger his accident. But it was the caution for Derrike Cope that did not sit well with Truex afterward.

Related Stories

"You're out there dominating like this, you know your car is not very good on restarts for a couple laps. Caution for a guy that shouldn't even be out there is kind of ridiculous. I don't know. I don't really know what to say about all that," Truex expressed.

"It's unfortunate the way the race ended. I'm madder about the caution than Denny getting into us. We talked; I know he didn't do it on purpose. He jumped on the brakes, got on the splitter. Gave him room, but he was aggressive on the brakes. That stuff happens.

"Really upset about the caution. [Four] to go, it sucks. Two weeks in a row to be leading right at the end and lose it. That's the way it goes. That's racing. Good news is we're fast and we're doing everything right. We've got to work on our pit road a little bit; the last couple weeks has been a little slow. It's tough to lose 'em like that."

Truex was also denied a win last weekend at Darlington Raceway when he blew a right-front tire with two laps to go. In that race, he was also leading. But Saturday night seemed to sting just a little bit more.

"I just don't agree with the caution. I think it's ridiculous that, again, there's a guy out there that shouldn't even be out there, 20 some laps down, riding around," Truex said. "As slow as he is, he can't even hold his damn line. It's ridiculous. He scrapes the wall, they throw a caution. ... That's not what racing should be.

"I'm mad about that. But I have to go back and watch the tape, see how it exactly played out. I'm madder about all that than I am about losing. Just a hard way to lose."

The defending winner at Chicago, Truex goes into the Round of 16 (Chicago, New Hampshire, Dover) with a 20-point lead on Kyle Larson.