[autotag]Martin Truex Jr.[/autotag] led at the final restart and pulled away to a five-second lead with around 50 laps to go at Phoenix Raceway. However, Truex needed to pit for fuel and fresh tires with 40 laps to go in an effort to preserve a good finish. The driver of the No. 19 car didn’t have a good enough Toyota to hold off teammate Christopher Bell, but he did rebound for a seventh-place finish.
During the race at Phoenix, Truex still wasn’t having fun with his No. 19 car. According to SiriusXM NASCAR Radio’s Davey Segal, Truex said, “We can’t [expletive] pass with these cars.” The racing at Phoenix hasn’t been great, even before the NextGen car, and the hope was that NASCAR’s new short-track package helped the on-track product.
The package did slightly work, but not enough to the drivers’ liking. NASCAR will get a better look at the new package at Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend, as the NextGen cars have struggled on short tracks. If it doesn’t improve at Bristol, NASCAR could have an issue on its hands that is unsolvable without more horsepower.
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