Martin Truex Jr. finished seventh in Thursday night’s Can-Am Duel qualifying race but his car, along with several others, did not pass post-race inspection. The result of the infraction means that Truex’s No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Toyota will start at the rear of the field in Sunday’s 59th running of the Daytona 500. Truex will start 35th, one row behind his new teammate, Erik Jones.
“Starting at the rear is not that devastating at a superspeedway,” noted Truex. “We’ll have the muscle to get back up front.”
Truex started the 60-lap, 150-mile race from the third position. He ran up front early on but then had some issues in the middle of the race before making a late charge to the front.
“With practice canceled due to rain on Thursday morning and the limited time we had on the track with our Daytona 500 primary car, I am happy how we did tonight,” said Truex. “We ran up front at the start but a few bad decisions on my part resulted in getting shuffled to the back of the pack.
“I thought we made some good moves late in the race to get back up there and finish seventh. We have some tweaking to do but I feel our Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Toyota had good speed.”
Before Thursday night’s race, Truex’s primary car only made three completed laps at Daytona International Speedway’s 2.5-mile tri-oval, and all of the laps were in qualifying trim.
The race winner in Truex’s Duel race was Chase Elliott. Rounding out the top 10 were: Jamie McMurray, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Matt Kenseth, Trevor Bayne, Truex, Aric Almirola, Joey Logano and Cole Whitt.
The race had two cautions for seven laps and there were six lead changes among three drivers.
Sunday’s Daytona 500 will air live on the Fox network, noon MT (2 p.m. ET).