Truex fights back to fifth at New Hampshire

The result sheet will say Martin Truex Jr. finished fifth after leading 112 laps at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Don't be fooled, it was no Sunday drive for Truex.

It did start out that way for the No. 78 Toyota, though. Truex dominated the first half of the race by winning stage 1 – his 19th stage win of the year – and was well on his way to winning the second stage. Then a wall of smoke appeared off Turn 2 on the final lap, blocking his path back to the start/finish line. Truex, who was leading, went for a spin and a car that looked like it could be a winner needed repairs.

"I could not see anything, and I was just approaching the smoke, and I'm like, 'Oh no, where am I going to go?' I mean, literally couldn't see anything and my spotter said go low. By then, it was kind of too late, and I was already to the smoke, and I couldn't commit," said Truex. "I just kind of like just kept slowing down and the 33 [Jeffrey Earnhardt] just came by me on the outside and hit me and spun me down through there, so just unfortunate.

"We were coming to the green-checkered to win the second stage, which would have been another bonus point, which would be helpful and, of course, we had damage and had to fight from the back of the pack the rest of the day, so proud of our effort to run fifth after all that, but it definitely hurt our day."

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Following repairs, Truex restarted 18th but quickly worked his way to just outside the top 10. Over the course of the final stage, Truex steadily crept back toward contention before using pit strategy on the race's fourth caution to retake the lead. But on two tires, Truex was quickly dispatched on the restart and never seriously contended for the win.

While he didn't win both stages at New Hampshire, one stage victory does give Truex yet another playoff point. Already locked into the Round of 12 via a win last weekend at Chicagoland Speedway, Truex will carry at least 59 playoff points with him into the next round.

However, he can add to that in the elimination race at Dover. Truex is, after all, the defending race winner, as he dominated at the "Monster Mile" one year ago.