Just when it looked like the season was about to turn around for Martin Truex Jr. and the No. 1 Dale Earnhardt Inc. team, things shifted back to the bad with less than fifty laps to go at Kansas.

All weekend long, Truex Jr. appeared to have one of the fastest cars in the garage, with many pointing to him as a potential sleeper to take the win. The No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Chevrolet was fastest in Friday's opening practice and qualified in the fifth-spot for Sunday's race. This non-Chase team showed they were a threat for the win by taking the lead on Lap 42. The DEI driver went on to lead a total of twenty-seven laps and remained in the top-10 for the majority of the afternoon.

However, a broken transmission ended what was a season-best run and instead relegated the team to a 43rd-place finish and only his third DNF of the season. Using a newer style transmission, what Truex Jr. originally thought was just a broken shifter turned out to be much worse.

"I've never seen this happen before," a clearly disappointed Truex Jr. said from the garage Sunday after pulling behind the wall. "This is a new top-loader transmission and the whole top of the case broke off, I'm not sure. It's just a freak thing. The guys do a great job with this stuff at the shop. It's just one of those freak deals. This is just how our year has went, if it can go wrong it will go wrong."

With the last-place finish, Truex Jr. dropped one spot in the series standings to 16th.

A penalty handed down by NASCAR in July at Daytona essentially ruined this team's Chase hopes, but all in all, 2008 has in no way gone according to plan. Contract negotiations and other off-track distractions seemed to play a role in this team's performance; however luck has never truly been on their side.

"That's a perfect example of why we're not in the Chase," Truex Jr. explained. "We've been bringing good cars to the track, but our luck has been awful. A twenty dollar piece of equipment broke in the car and ruined our day. I don't know what we need to do to turn our luck around."

Heading to Talladega this week, anything can and probably will happen. The key for this team is to avoid the "Big One" and find that perfect drafting partner at the perfect time. There was once a day when Dale Earnhardt Inc. ruled the restrictor plate tracks, yet for Truex Jr. and the rest of his No. 1 team they are simply looking for a solid run to salvage their more than disappointing season.