Truex gets heated at his hometown track

What does Martin Truex Jr. have to do to win?

For the third-straight points race, the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevy led the most laps in a Sprint Cup event and only has another top 10 to show for his effort. 

While he raced among the top five throughout the entire Fed Ex 400 at Dover International Speedway on Sunday, Truex had to settle for sixth after Kasey Kahne blocked him on the final restart. 

He ran me down on the apron, so, I either had to let off or wreck all of us.

Martin Truex Jr.

Truex started the race second. He took the lead for the first time on Lap 41 and led three times for a total of 131 circuits at the point. Truex lined up third for the finish, but Kahne, who restarted second, slid down in front of the No. 78 Chevy. 

“He ran me down on the apron, so, I either had to let off or wreck all of us,” said Truex, who gave Kahne the chrome horn following the race. 

“He was back behind me to get a run on me, obviously; the spotter said I was clear, so I just went to the bottom getting into (Turn) 1,” said Kahne, who finished fourth. “I think he was a little upset. He gave me a bump after the race. But I don’t know. I didn’t really know what else to do other than to go there with guys on my outside, and stuff.

“But we had a pretty good car. We made good adjustments. The guys did a nice job. I wanted more. It’s cool that Hendrick Motorsports won. We had a nice package, but just didn’t pull it off.”

Car was good, not great

After finishing sixth — Truex’ 12th top 10 in 13 races — the driver acknowledged his car was good “but it was never right.”

“We were never right yesterday all through practice,” Truex added. “We made some changes today and we made some gains on it, but never really got it where we needed it. 

“Clean air was huge. When we were out front, we were okay. It just never turned good all day long. It just eventually caught up to us.”

Still, Truex retained second-place in the Sprint Cup point standings. His 389 laps led this season is already the third highest in his career after just 13 of 36 races.