SAD NEWS: NASCAR announced that Michael Jordan is Leaving immediately after Facing…..
NASCAR determined that Truex’s Michael Waltrip Racing team conspired between its No. 15 and No. 55 teams to manipulate the outcome of the race at Richmond to ensure that Truex would make it into the NASCAR Cup Series Chase for the Championship.
As a result, Truex was assessed a 50-point penalty, and removed from the Chase field. Newman would lock into the Chase as a result, and NASCAR would take the unprecedented move in adding Jeff Gordon as the 13th Chase contestant that season (the Chase was only supposed to have 12 drivers under that season’s format). It was an absolute disaster situation for everyone involved.
Due to the negative publicity from the penalty, and Truex no longer being a Chase contender, Truex’s primary sponsor NAPA Auto Parts opted to not return to Michael Waltrip Racing for the 2014 season, and as a result, Truex was once again left to look for a new place to race.
Truex would land at Furniture Row Racing, a team that was once the butt of a lot of jokes in the NASCAR Cup Series garage but had just made the Chase for the Cup with Kurt Busch as its driver the season prior. Truex and Furniture Row Racing’s team owner Barney Visser had high hopes for the 2014 season, but ultimately, Truex and the No. 78 team underwhelmed massively.
Truex recorded just one top-five finish, and five top-10s on his path to a 24th-place finish in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings — his lowest ranking of any full-time season in his career.
