Heading into New Hampshire, Martin Truex Jr. and crew chief Kevin "Bono" Manion knew if they wanted to be a contender for the Chase this year, things were going to have to pick up. A great strategy call by Manion and a little bit of luck helped this team come home with a 4th-place finish and move them closer to that all-important 12th-place cut-off for the Chase.

Entering the weekend, the No. 1 Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats team was 17th in the series standings and in desperate need of a solid finish. Truex Jr. was coming off a string of mediocre finishes in which good runs had turned out less than expected.

Heading to a track that the team not only had success on in the past, but also had a personal connection to seem to have helped - the car was fast in practice and qualified in the eighth-spot. As the green flag dropped to start the LENOX Industrial Tools 301, Truex Jr. started moving forward. Just over fifty laps into the race, the No. 1 DEI Chevy was running in third and was one of the fastest cars on the track.

By lap 100, the handling had gone away and so had the track position. The team found themselves stuck in the pack, running outside the top-10 and struggling to hold on. With weather approaching and fuel mileage coming into play, Manion and Truex took a gamble and hoped it would pay off.

When the caution flag flew on Lap 270, Truex Jr. was running 19th. As the majority of the leaders came to pit road for fuel and - in some cases - tires, Truex Jr. followed Kurt Busch, Michael Waltrip and J.J. Yeley to the front by staying on track.

The race restarted on Lap 278 of the scheduled 301 with Truex Jr. running fourth and wicked weather approaching. When the final yellow flag flew and the subsequent rains came, the team's gamble paid off. Truex Jr. salvaged the day and came home with a much needed top-5.

After a number of disappointing runs, both Truex Jr. and Manion agreed the late-race gamble was well worth it.

"Yeah this year we'll take anything we can get," Truex Jr. explained. "We've been on both sides of this stuff before. Proud to get a good finish for all the guys, they're working hard. We had a good car at the beginning of the race, drove up to the front, was looking really good and the track just completely went away from us. We got so tight we couldn't do anything to fix it. That's kind of been the way it's been all year, we run really good at times we can't seem to finish the deal. We're gonna get back to work this week."

"We're at the point where this race always comes down to fuel so we just said well there's 150 to go and we can run approximately one more stop and we just took a gamble," crew chief "Bono" Manion pointed out. "For the first time this year it paid off. We're happy with the way the car started and ran in the beginning. Lost a little bit at the end but overall the finish is what we needed to bump start us to get in to Daytona and help us fight for that Chase."

As Manion explained, the fourth-place finish bumped Truex Jr. from 17th in the series standing (107 points out of 12th) to 14th, with just 71 points separating the New Jersey native from a spot in the Chase.

For Truex Jr. Sunday's results were a bit of a relief, "We've run a lot better than this all year and not finish good so what comes around go around I guess."

Now it is up to this team to continue its quest for the Cup. Heading into Daytona, Truex Jr. and his entire team need to take this weekend's finish and use it as motivation. Despite the great finish, Truex Jr.'s day did not go according to plan and was successful in a large part thanks to luck. Luck is not something that wins championships and if this team wants to be a contender for the championship, it is going to have to pick up the pace.