Michael Waltrip Racing/TireMonkey.com driver Martin Truex Jr. brought the No. 56 Toyota across the New Hampshire finish line in 22nd place on Sunday, bumping himself up to 18th place in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver standings.

Jimmie Johnson of the No. 48 Chevrolet won the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 race, his fifth win of the 2010 season. Tony Stewart of the No. 14 Chevrolet came in second place and Kurt Busch of the No. 2 Dodge grabbed third place.

A qualifying time of 29.167 seconds at 130.586 mph on the New Hampshire Motor Speedway put Truex in the 26th starting position for the race, but he soon struggled with his car’s handling. At first, the Chevrolet was too loose, but then the handling became too tight.

"We definitely need to be better when we come back here in the fall,” Truex said after the race. “Qualifying definitely hurt us because it was so hard to pass. It seemed as if nothing really worked out in our favor.”

At one point, Truex had crawled his way to 16th place, but he fell off the lead lap during lap 217 and then fell a second lap during lap 236. During lap 291, he had to pull into pit road for four tires and to have his crew make some adjustments to the car’s handling.

Truex’s next race is the Coke Zero 400 on July 3 at Daytona International Speedway.

Labels: Daytona International Speedway, Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch, Lenox Industrial Tools 301, Loudon, Martin Truex Jr., Michael Waltrip Racing, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, New Hampshire, Tony Stewart