Truex misses out on another win: "I don’t know when our luck will change"

Martin Truex Jr. knows the story at heart, so much so he probably anticipates the questions before they’re asked after he saw yet another race-winning opportunity disappear Sunday in unusual circumstances.

"Too good" to not have a win yet

“I don’t know when our luck will change, all I know is that we’re bringing really fast cars to the track and contending for the win,” said Truex, who led 47 laps in Sunday’s AAA 400 at Dover (Del.) International Speedway.

“It’s got to turn around. We’re too good of a team not to have a victory by now.”

Truex remained in contention for a victory late in Sunday’s race but on a restart with 46 of 400 laps remaining, then race leader Jimmie Johnson had trouble with his gear shifter and dramatically slowed.

Truex, who was lined up behind Johnson, plowed into the rear of Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet, which ignited a pile-up than eventually involved 18 cars.

WATCH CRASH

His Furniture Row Racing team managed to fix his No. 78 Toyota enough for him to remain in the race and he was still able to finish ninth.

“We keep putting ourselves in position to win and something way out of the ordinary steps up and bites us. As much as I am disappointed with what happened to us, I am very proud of our pit crew,” Truex said.

“They did a great job all day and executed the repairs with perfection that gave us an opportunity to finish ninth. It sure didn’t look like we had a shot at a top-10 with the kind of damage we had to the car.”

Wrong place, wrong time

Sunday’s freak circumstance came one week after Truex dominated the race at Kansas only to have a brake head bolt break during a late-race pit stop, which required him to make a second stop on pit road for a loose wheel.

Truex was not nearly as dominant Sunday, but had worked his way into contention through improvements on his car and pit strategy.

“At the beginning of the race we were a fifth, sixth-place car. But we kept on working on it and there at the end we had the machine to beat,” he said.

“Just one of those deals, wrong place, wrong time.”

Truex did manage to gain one position in the Sprint Cup Series standings to ninth. He remains in good position to make the championship Chase if even he should not earn a victory by the season’s 26th race.