MWR All Star Race Report

Martin Truex Jr., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry - finished second in the All Star race after winning the Sprint Showdown.


David Reutimann, No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota - finished 19th after a multicar wreck, just as the final segment started, ended his chances.



Martin Truex Jr. Race Summary: Martin Truex Jr. saved the best for last Saturday night and walked out of Charlotte Motor Speedway with a second place-finish in the Sprint All Star race. Not a bad night for the No. 56 Napa Toyota driver who won the Sprint Showdown earlier in the day to transfer into the All Star race. Truex enjoyed a relatively calm All Star Race until the final 10-lap segment when he came alive and charged to the front of the field. He started the final green-white-checkered finish in fourth and moved to second before running out of laps to catch the race winner Kurt Busch.



Truex Quotes: “I could smell it (the money.) A couple more laps and I would have been right there. What a great night. We had a lot of fun. Second isn’t what we came here for, but we just came up one spot short. So proud of everyone here at Michael Waltrip Racing. We have a lot of work to do for next weekend but this was a great night for the NAPA team.”



Showdown Victory: “That was fun. We knew it was going to be a challenge coming in. We had to start in the back because of the (last night’s) rain. We knew it would be challenging because when you get on these big tracks you get in the dirty air. It’s really, really tough. In the beginning we got back in traffic, made a few adjustments then got some track position when we took two tires. They had a bit of a skirmish down there with (Gilliand) and that helped us Showdown the door. Once we got up and in clean air our car was really good.”



Truex Notes:

Truex Jr. finished second—his best finish at a Charlotte Motor Speedway race.

A green-white-checkered finish saw Truex jump from fourth to second but couldn’t mount a challenge to Kurt Busch.

Truex was steady all night. At the end of the first 50-lap segment he raced in 11th.

Finished the second segment (lap 50-70) in ninth.

Finished third segment in tenth. After the mandatory pit stop, Truex restarted the final segment (lap 90-100) in 10th.

Truex avoided a multicar wreck seconds after the green flag fell and appeared destined for a fifth-place finish when a caution came out creating a final three-lap shootout.

Jimmie Johnson spun as the field was about to take the white flag so the field embarked on a green-white-checkered finish with Truex lined up fourth. He drove past Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin but ran out of laps before catching the leader.

Earlier in the day, Truex won his second Sprint Showdown of his career enabling him to transfer to the All-Star race for the third time in his career.



David Reutimann Race Summary: No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota driver David Reutimann couldn’t have been at a worse place at a worse time. A seven-car accident ended Reutimann’s Sprint All-Star race Saturday night at Charlotte Motor Speedway just as the field took the green flag for the final 10-lap segment. The accident left the Michael Waltrip Racing driver with a 19th-place finish. Until the wreck, Reutimann raced at the front of the field and despite some mechanical issues appeared to be one of the fastest on the track. Reutimann never got a chance to show his speed in the final segment.



REUTIMANN: "That was disappointing because we had a good Aaron's Dream Machine all night and were able to run pretty well. My car was great through the corners, but we had a carburetor issue that was hurting us down the straightaways. We fixed in during the break and it seemed to be really good on the restart. I just wish we would have had a chance to compete for it at the end. Not really sure what happened in the wreck. I just saw (Mark Martin) come across my nose and didn't have anywhere to go. It was just guys racing hard."



Reutimann Notes:

A seven-car accident ended Reutimann’s night just as the field took the green flag for the final 10-lap segment leaving him with a 19th-place finish.

Until then Reutimann ran at the front of the field . At the end of the first segment (lap 1-50) Reutimann raced in sixth.

Finished the second segment (lap 50-70) in sixth. Finished third segment in eighth but ran out of gas on the track.

Was allowed to keep his spot in the lineup as the No. 00 crew changed carburetor before final segment.

After the mandatory pit stop, Reutimann restarted the final segment (lap 90-100) in eighth.

Seconds after taking the green flag, a seven-car wreck ended the night for Reutimann when he slammed into a spinning Mark Martin.



RACE NOTES:

Kurt Busch won a wild Sprint All Star race edging Martin Truex Jr. by .358 seconds.

Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart rounded out the top-five finishers.

Truex and Greg Biffle transferred into the All-Star race by finishing first and second in the Sprint Showdown.

Carl Edwards garnered the most of the 1.4 million fan votes transferring into the race.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to action Thursday qualifying for Sunday’s Coke 600.