CORNELIUS, N.C. — No. 56 NAPA Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. returns to Charlotte Motor Speedway for Saturday night’s Bank of America 500-mile NASCAR Sprint Cup race. In May, the New Jersey native won the Sprint Showdown and finished second in the All-Star Race on the 1.5-mile oval. The Michael Waltrip Racing driver hopes for similar results this weekend. Truex is 22nd in the standings with a pole, one top-five, six top-10 and 20 top-20 finishes in 2010.
Truex will also compete in Friday night’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race driving the No. 00 Toyota for Diamond-Waltrip Racing. It marks only the second time he’ll race against his younger brother Ryan who drives the No.99 Diamond-Waltrip Toyota.
QUOTES
Truex on Returning to Charlotte: “I’m hoping the home cooking and being at Charlotte Motor Speedway this week will help us change our luck. We won the Showdown and finished second in the All-Star Race. We had a good car in the Coca-Cola 600, but then had some bad luck. I am looking forward to going back and turning things around for us.
“I’m not sure what this team has to do to get a little bit of luck on our side. It seems as if something always goes wrong. We had another fast car last weekend in California and ran up in the top 10 before getting wrecked on pit road. To finish 18th with a wrecked car says a lot about how good this team is and the kind of cars we build at Michael Waltrip Racing. This years it seems like if we have a really good car, something strange happens and we finish 20th. If we have a bad handling car, we still finish 20th. It’s disappointing, but it’s racing. What’s important is we have good cars. We’re going to keep going back and it will all work out. It’s going to turn around. There is no way it can keep going like this.”
ADDITIONAL NOTES OF INTEREST
• Join over 30,000 fans who’ve registered at www.nascar.com/napatruexscanner or www.NAPAonline.com to listen to the No. 56 team’s in-car audio. The free offer is good through the remainder of the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
• Saturday marks Truex’s 184th Sprint Cup race and 11th at Charlotte Motor Speedway. His best start is 12th (Oct. 17, 2009) and best finish is seventh (May 29, 2005). He’s earned two top-10 and eight top-25 finishes. His average start is 23rd and average finish is 20th. He has run 3,441 of 3,566 laps (96.5%) and led nine laps.
• In six Nationwide starts at Charlotte, Truex owns a top-five and three top-10 finishes.
• Truex will sign autographs 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday at Walker Auto Stores, 705 E. Six Forks Road in Raleigh, N.C.
• Pick up NAPA’s All Out for the Cure™ limited edition hat this month at a participating NAPA AUTO PARTS Store, AutoCare Center or Michael Waltrip Racing for just $3.99. Proceeds benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
