The wreck occured when truex had position on the outside of Mike Wallace in the 38 car coming off of turn two. Wallace did not see Truex, and had no communication from his spotter that he was there. Wallace's car slammed full on into Truex's driver side, forcing hs car up the wall, where it rode perpendicular to the track the lenghth of the straightaway before righting itself.
Truex lost 16 laps making repairs, before returning to the track, and in the process, gained 4-5 positions (or 12-15 points) for finishing the race. Once back on the track, the aforementioned incident apparently occured under caution, but was not caught on TV. The car itself had been a top-5 car, having been black-flagged by NASCAR under green for one hood pin that had been sheered off by the 17 car of Matt Kenseth. He lost a lap under green heeding the black flag, and was racing Wallace for position.
Truex had led 2nd place driver Clint Bowyer by 94 after Richmond; now it is only 69 with 7 races to go in the 2005 season. Truex is the defending Busch Series points champion, and has dominated Busch series competition in 2005, with most wins (6), most top 5s (14) and top 10s (18).
The penalty was 25 driver points from Truex, 25 owner points from owner Teresa Earnhardt (DEI/Chance2), a $10,000 fine, and probation for the rest of 2005. It is a very similar penatly that was given to Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the cup series after his win at Talledega last fall, where he used a four letter word in regard to how little his accomplishment (5th win at that track) compared to his father (10 wins at that track) on the live TV interview in Victory Lane. In that case, Jr. was the points leader after the race, but the subsequent penalty bumped him to 2nd in the points, a position he would not recover.
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