Most drivers navigated the same issue throughout Sunday’s race, but the difference was Truex was in the best position to catch Hamlin for the win. And it was close – so close.
Following an uncharacteristic round of green flag pit stops on the short track, Truex emerged running second to Hamlin with 47 of 500 laps to go.
The two swapped the lead briefly battling lapped traffic but Truex knew he was getting close to pushing his luck on how hard he was running to catch Hamlin. Hamlin ended up taking the checkered flag 1.083 seconds ahead of Truex.
“I guess this tire management thing fits into my wheelhouse here at Bristol. Man, the difference was just coming out of the pits so far behind Denny,” Truex said. “I had to use mine up more on the last run.
“I was right on his bumper when he pitted and when I came out, he was a straightaway ahead of us and just used my stuff up too much to try to get there. The last five laps, my right-rear was corded. It was close.”
Sunday’s race turned out to be a completely different affair with tires than last fall, which ended up helping Truex to just his third top five finish at the track in 34 career starts.
Extreme tire wear
Although Goodyear brought the same tire combination to this race as was used last fall, for some reason the tire fall-off laid no rubber on the track, which resulted in excessive tire wear.
Midway through the race, NASCAR allowed Goodyear to provide teams with one additional set of tires but with many teams only able to go between 47-50 laps before developing problems, that forced teams to greatly alter the pace of the race.
For a veteran like Truex, that turned into an unexpected advantage.
“Early in the race, went way too hard and realized your tires were gone. And then, it’s like ‘Alright, we can’t run as hard as we can.’ Just had to figure out how hard you could push it and what kind of lap times you could run throughout the run,” Truex said.
“Then we kind of just managed it from there. It was tricky, honestly, I barely pushed harder there on that last run for 10 laps, and you know, at the end, I was right-rear corded.
“There’s a fine line and fortunately for us, we had a lot of speed in our Toyotas today and we were able to save tires and stay up front. That was the key.”
Sunday’s runner-up finish continues Truex’s strong start to the 2024 season. He has one top five and three top 10 finishes in the first five races and is third in the series standings heading into next weekend’s race at Circuit of the Americas.
“I gave it a hell of an effort,” Truex said. “Our Toyotas are working really well right now. Had a lot of fun today.”
