Martin Truex Jr. regular season was one he could be proud of. Truex won the regular series title on the strength of three wins, nine top five and 15 top 10 finishes.
His Playoffs, however, have left something to be desired. His best finish in the Playoffs so far was 17th at Texas. He finished 19th Sunday at the ROVAL. Despite this Truex will be moving onto the next round. Sunday, he said he was ready to put the ROVAL, the final road course in the Playoffs behind him.
“Yeah, 100%. I’m definitely excited we’re not coming back here again,” he said. “This track has just been a thorn in our side. Feel good about moving on and feel good about what we can do the next three races. Some good tracks for us and hopefully we can get something going. It’s been a pretty tough Playoffs so far.”
And while his record might now show it, Truex made it to the next round running slow and steady, especially when it comes to Stage racing. While he did finish the race 19th he was 4tth in Stage 1 and 8th in Stage 2. And that’s the key according to Truex.
“Stage points and bonus points,” he said. “I didn’t create the system. We used it to our advantage. That won’t get us through the next one. The next one, you’ve got to be running up front. Two winners of the next three races are probably going to be Playoff guys that are still going. Need to turn it up and we need to figure it out quickly.”
And now the next round will see the points reset and a clean slate for the 8 drivers remaining, including Truex.
“That’s the beauty and that’s the thing that sucks about this deal, you know what I mean?” he said. “I’m sure there’s guys that are upset. They outran us enough to get in, but they didn’t have the bonus points. It is what it is. I hate that we didn’t run better today or finish better at least. I thought the first two stages maybe our car was pretty decent, but, man, I don’t know what happened. Need to go back and look at that. It wasn’t much fun, but we made it so here we go. We’ll try three more.”
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
- Biffle, Dorton, Sprague join NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2025 nominees for the first time - April 24, 2024
- NASCAR will experiment with different tire compounds for the first time at All-Star Race - April 23, 2024
- Legacy Motor Club reserve driver Corey Heim to sub for Erik Jones at Dover - April 23, 2024