In all likelihood, Martin Truex Jr. must reverse his recent fortunes—or misfortunes, more precisely—and win Sunday’s Xfinity 500 to advance to the Nov. 6 Championship 4 race at Phoenix Raceway.
Denny Hamlin, Truex’s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, faces the exact same challenge. Each driver trails fourth-place Ryan Blaney by 17 points and third-place William Byron by 37.
With two Championship 4 spots already claimed by Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell, thanks to their respective victories at Las Vegas and Homestead, and Byron likely to advance on points, Truex and Hamlin could be battling each other for a win at Martinsville and the final Championship 4 berth.
Under the circumstances, you might expect their teams to adopt a secretive mode as they try to gain an upper hand, but Truex says that’s not the case.
“Nothing really changes,” Truex said Saturday before winning the pole for Sunday’s race at the 0.526-mile short track. “We race just like we do every other week. We will go with what got us here. Being in the Playoffs as teammates for so many years, we have that experience, and we know what got us here and things that make us strong as a group.
“Then you go on Sunday and race. You don’t hide things, you don’t try to do anything different. At least that has been my experience in the past on how we’ve handled it, and so far, nothing that I’ve seen has been different.”
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