AjguhgdVONDALE, Ariz. (Nov. 9, 2014) – Martin Truex Jr. came home with a 12th-place finish in Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race at Phoenix International Raceway. But the Furniture Row Racing driver felt the final result could have been much better had it not been for an incident on Lap 213 of 312.

While running in the top-five, Truex’s left-rear fender took a hit by the No. 18 car (Kyle Busch) during a restart at the 1-mile oval. The accident brought out the yellow flag first and then a red flag. The damage forced Truex to make an unscheduled pit stop during the caution. The end result was Truex dropping 13 positions to 18th.

Truex, who started 14th, moved into the top-10 on Lap 39 and ran with the leaders until his No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet suffered damage. He ran as high as third when he passed Brad Keselowski for that position on Lap 168.

“We were right there running up front and feeling good about our performance today,” said Truex. “We were really strong on the long runs, but lacked speed on the short runs. All-in-all a good day with having to come from the back with 100 (laps) to go and getting run into as many times as we did.”

With one race remaining in the 2014 season, Truex is 24th in the point standings.

The Quicken Loans Race For Heroes winner was Kevin Harvick. Rounding out the top-10 in order were: Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth, Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle and Marcos Ambrose.

The four Chase drivers advancing to the final round of the playoffs were Harvick, Hamlin, Logano and Ryan Newman.