DARLINGTON, S.C. — Martin Truex Jr. qualified for the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs after some nervous moments when he crashed out on the third lap of the Southern 500 on Sunday.
Truex slid up into defending champion Ryan Blaney and both cars went to the garage. But after two stages (230 laps) at Darlington Raceway, NASCAR announced that Truex, the 2017 series champ, was locked into the 16-driver field.
Truex is in his last full season as a driver for Joe Gibbs Racing. He started the race 58 points ahead of the cutoff line to reach the playoffs, which start next week at Atlanta, and he said Saturday he felt good about his position at 14th on the playoff grid entering the weekend.
The wreck left Truex watching the race unfold and hoping others behind him wouldn’t do enough on the track to knock him out.
“It was all my fault, all my doing,” Truex said outside the infield care center.
Truex said he had a run on William Byron‘s No. 24 when the car got away from him.
“I thought everything was going fine and I ran into him. Obviously, that was on me,” he said.
Blaney, like Truex, was taken to the care center. The Team Penske driver said he was hurting at first, but felt like he’d be OK going forward as he prepares to defend his series title beginning next week in Atlanta.
“I saw Martin get loose, and I thought he was going to spin to the bottom, so I kind of gassed up to get around him, but it was just terrible timing,” Blaney said. “He overcorrected, and we were just right there.”
Truex’s JGR teammate Ty Gibbs entered without a win in 15th, while Chris Buescher of Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing was on the playoff bubble in 16th.
Bubba Wallace, who started from the pole, was the first man out of playoff position, 21 points behind Buescher when the race began.
Truex’s wreck shuffled him out of playoff position temporarily. Despite getting in, he knows he’ll need to turn things around to make a deep playoff run.
“It sucks. We just had a miserable two months,” he said. “Tonight was on me, sorry to my team and all the guys who work so hard.”