With the spring came several more near misses for Truex and the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team. Bad luck and being snakebit -- another theme that would be constant in 2016 -- hit Truex at Texas and Kansas, two races where he led the most laps. However, Truex was about to cash in very big around the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
Truex had a performance for the ages in the Coca-Cola 600 over Memorial Day weekend. Truex led all but eight laps -- 392 out of 400 -- as he won one of the biggest races on the NASCAR calendar. Truex led 588 miles -- the most ever in a single race in the sport's history. The driver also showed plenty of emotion in Victory Lane when talking about the importance of girlfriend Sherry Pollex in his life.
In the midst of his strong year, Truex inked a two-year contract extension with Furniture Row Racing that runs through the 2018 season. In addition, Truex will be welcoming a teammate into the fold with Erik Jones set to drive the No. 77 Toyota. The technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing has had a big impact for the organization.
September was the Triumph of Truex and he kicked it off with a late surge at Darlington for the victory -- leading 28 of the final 29 laps. The win marked the second-straight year that the Coca-Cola 600 and Bojangles' Southern 500 were won by the same driver. Carl Edwards accomplished that in 2015.
Truex struck gold early in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup by winning the opening race of the Round of 16 at Chicagoland. Just like at Darlington, Truex and the 78 team came to life late, nailed a late pit stop and he bested Ryan Blaney on a NASCAR overtime finish for the win and a locked-in spot in the Round of 12.
Truex was already locked into the Round of 12, but padded his win total at Dover. The victory was a career-best fourth of the season for Truex -- giving him seven for his career and boosting Furniture Row's total to six wins. The Dover race saw Truex win at what is essentially the New Jersey native's home track for the second time in his Sprint Cup career.
Truex's championship dreams went sour due to an engine failure 41 laps into the Round of 12 finale at Talladega. The 40th-place finish took Truex out of the elimination-style Chase format, despite being one of the top drivers all season long. As it was said earlier, the 78 team's bad luck seemed to come and go all season and this was just the worst time for it to happen.
While Truex didn't make it back to the Championship 4 as he had in 2015, the 2016 season was still a big one for the veteran driver. He nabbed his career-best fifth pole award of the season in October at Martinsville. Truex's other top accomplishments in 2016 include winning four races, leading 1809 laps and making his 400th premier series start (at Kansas in October).
Info taken from NASCAR.com.
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