As was the case in Saturday night’s Sprint Unlimited race, Martin Truex Jr. got wrecked again on the final lap in Thursday night’s Daytona 500 qualifying race while running up front.
At the time of the multicar accident, Truex, was running fifth in his No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Toyota. When the dust settled at Daytona International Speedway, he was credited with a 14th-place finish in the 22-car field.
Truex was not injured in the melee, but his car was totaled, forcing the Furniture Row Racing team to unload the backup car for Sunday’s 500 and start the Great American Race at the back of the 40-car field.
“We had a good car and everything was going according to plan, until that dreaded final lap,” said Truex. “To get wrecked on the final lap for the second time in as many races during Speedweeks is frustrating. But when you’re at a restrictor-plate race these things happen. We’ll take out the backup car and move on. We’ll get a better idea about the backup car when we run some laps in practice. The one thing that I do know is that our guys build good race cars."
Truex started the second qualifying race from the rear of the field and moved into the top-10 on Lap 15 and stayed there until he was collected in the final-lap crash.
The winner of the second qualifier was Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the top spot in the first qualifier.