Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. could only smile and acknowledge that Saturday night’s regular-season finale, the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, was poised to be the biggest race of the season for the 42-year old former NASCAR Cup Series champion.
Truex goes into the race trailing Penske Racing driver Ryan Blaney by 25 points with two positions in the 16-driver Playoff field still to be determined. If either driver wins the race, the other should get in on points. If there is a first-time season winner, then Truex must make up the 25-point deficit to Blaney to qualify for the Playoffs.
“Obviously it’s not been the season we’ve wanted,’’ said the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion, who has three top-5 and 11 top-10 finishes and sits sixth in overall points earned—but is still winless.
“It would have been nice to be locked in. You never want to come here to Daytona and not be locked in and having to make something happen. So that’s why, we’ll just go race tomorrow night, see what happens and really (try) not to think about it either way, to be honest with you.’’
Truex has never won a race in 34 previous starts at the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway. He does have a runner-up finish in the summer race here in 2018 and was runner-up in the 2016 Daytona 500.
He comes to Daytona ranked sixth in the championship standings. However, 14 other drivers earned wins to take automatic bids into the Playoffs, which begin next week in Darlington, S.C.
Kurt Busch won a race at Kansas this summer—and therefore was Playoff eligible—but he announced this week that he was still not medically cleared to race after an accident in qualifying at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway in July. Consequently, two driver Playoff positions will be decided Saturday night.
“I think we had a really strong car here in February,’’ Truex said. ”Led a ton of laps, won two stages. Then we got kind of banged up and then finished kind of tore-up, so you didn’t have the speed at the end of the race.
“But I had a really strong day going and Talladega went good as well, so I feel like our car is really fast here. And hopefully we can take advantage of that. Would be a fun way to win one here with everything on the line.’’
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.
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