By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
On lap 41 of Monday’s Brickyard 400, Martin Truex Jr. was billowing smoke from his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota.
After less than a stage of racing, a brake rotor failure ended Truex’s day short after both practices and qualifying were canceled due to rain over the weekend in Indianapolis.
At first, Truex thought it was a cut tire as he entered Turn 1.
“Going into Turn 1, I thought, ‘Oh, this is going to hurt,'” Truex said. “But the car kept turning luckily and I kept the car off the wall. The brake rotor exploded, I don’t know what was going on with the brakes, we had major issues from the start of the race. That all compounded into a brake issue.”
Starting from third spot, Truex felt his No. 78 was strong in both traffic and in clean air.
“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “As hard as it is to pass here, we were getting there making our way to the front. Any time we got clean air, we had really good speed. I wish we could have raced all day to see what we could do with them.”
Speed is not a surprise to Furniture Row. However, after a week where the single-car team announced they will close their doors at the conclusion of 2018, a DNF will be particularly tough for Truex and crew.
“We got a great bunch of guys here, hardcore racers,” he said. “Nobody is going to put their heads down and give up I can promise you that.”
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