CONCORD, N.C. -- The only reason Martin Truex Jr. didn’t get a shot at celebrating his second Coca-Cola 600 win was because the guy who finished in front of him - Kyle Busch - was “flawless.”
That’s how Truex’s crew chief, Cole Pearn, described Busch’s night.
Truex’s 600 miles were anything but.
The No. 78 Toyota finished second in Sunday night’s race despite qualifying 15th and suffering consecutive pit road penalties, for speeding on Lap 203 and an uncontrolled tire on Lap 227.
The speeding penalty came after Truex entered and exited the pits in second.
Then there was the pit guns.
Pearn told NBC Sports the team went through three pit guns during the 400-lap race. One mishap resulted in the second penalty.
“The gun screwed up on the right rear and the front (tire) changer left and left the tire sitting there, cause usually the rear carrier comes to get it,” Pearn said. “But we went through three guns tonight ... The whole reason we got the uncontrolled tire was cause the gun screwed up.”
Truex said the pit gun problem was “one of those freak things” where it reversed on the changer as he was hitting the fifth lug nut and he had to manually switch it back.
The No. 78 also had one unsecured lug nut following the race.
Even with the issues, Truex said it was a “solid day overall” for his team, which earned its third consecutive top five.
As for the speeding penalty?
“I can’t wait to see the time,” Truex said. “It couldn’t have been much. But I just hit some of those bumps a little bit wrong and got going a little too fast and tapped the brake just a split second too late. I typically don’t get a lot of speeding penalties, so Cole won’t ride my butt too hard this week about it.”
Truex said his team “cleaned it up well” after that.
The final restart came with 93 laps to go and Truex restarting eighth. With 55 to go he was in second, but lost multiple spots during green flag stops.
But he was back in second with 34 to go.
That’s when Pearn and his team started “praying” for a restart.
“I thought we were really equal to them the last few runs of the race,” Pearn said. “It was just a matter of track position and chasing from behind.”
Two years after Truex led 392 laps to capture his Coke 600 win, Busch led 377 while sweeping all four stages.
It was also the first time Truex hadn’t led a lap in the race since 2014.
“At the end of the day, we ran second,” Truex said. “He kicked everybody’s tail. That’s just the way it goes.”