Murphy’s Law and Martin Truex Jr

If something could go wrong for Martin Truex Jr. this year, it already has, and the streak of rotten luck continued Saturday at Auto Club Speedway.

Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet

Photo by: Covy Moore

After qualifying on the outside of the front row for the Feb. 23 Daytona 500, Truex was collected on the last lap of his Budweiser Duel 150-mile qualifying race. The car came to rest in the tri-oval grass, spewing flames, and Truex had to start NASCAR’s most prestigious race from the rear of the field in a backup car.

That was the first time, Truex said, he had ever had to use a backup car in the Sprint Cup Series. In the race itself, Truex retired with a blown engine.

In his first year with Furniture Row, Truex has a best finish of 14th at Las Vegas, and the wreck at Fontana only added to his misery.

“I hate it for the team, because we had a good race car there, and it’s been a really tough start to the year for us, with a lot of these types of things happening to us,” Truex said. “It’s unfortunate.

“The good news is, hopefully the bad luck’s out of the way for this weekend. We’ve got to start in the back, but hopefully we won’t finish in the back.”

On Twitter, Truex summed up his feelings in a single word. “Unbelievable...,” he wrote.

Truex wasn’t the only driver, however, who had issues with the left rear tire. Both Joey Logano and Penske teammate Brad Keselowski suffered flat left rears—Keselowski twice.

The combination of a taller spoiler (increasing downforce) and more latitude with rear camber had every crew chief in the Cup garage paying close attention to left rear tire wear, as final practice progressed later in the afternoon.

Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service