Martin Truex Jr. called it ‘crazy bad luck.’ The Furniture Row Racing driver was referring to a peculiar incident that short-circuited his performance in Monday’s rain-delayed and rain-shortened Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway. Truex, who started the 138 lapper from the pole, was owning the race early, leading the first 16 laps to raise his season laps led total to 1,005. But following a Lap-15 competition caution and a two-tire pit stop, trouble struck Truex’s #78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota, which posted an unsettling 38th-place finish in the Pennsylvania 400.
As Truex was coming off of Turn 2, his right-front tire blew, sending him into the wall, resulting in heavy damage to his car. What caused the tire to go flat on Truex’s Toyota early in the race was an oddity to say the least. A lug nut that came off the old set of tires bounced off the ground, flew through one of the wheel holes, then lodged between the caliper and the wheel, knocking off the tire’s inner stem valve.
Truex suffered a similar fate at the June race in Pocono. Following a pit stop on Lap 118 his right-rear tire blew as a result of a flying lug nut that got stuck behind the wheel, which eventually sheared off the inner stem valve. ‘I think it’s weird to have a lug nut get stuck behind a wheel, but even more weird that it happened both times at Pocono this season,’ said Truex. ‘I don’t have an explanation. I’m just calling it bad luck.’(Furniture Row Racing)
