DENVER (May 7, 2014) – For Martin Truex Jr. Kansas Speedway ranks as one of the favorite venues for the Furniture Row Racing driver.
In his last four races at the 1.5-mile oval, Truex has garnered three top-fives, including two runner-up results for an average finish of 6.75. He was second twice in 2012 and last year he posted final results of fourth and 19th. He has also led 251 career laps at Kansas, including 173 in the April 2012 race.
“Kansas is a track I’ve had a lot of success at so it’s definitely a place I look forward to going,” said Truex. “Though I’ve come up short there a couple of times with second-place finishes, I’ve learned what it takes to get the job done. This is one track that the driver and team have had shared success. We just need to step it up a little more to get that win.”
With Truex’s recent success at Kansas Speedway along with Furniture Row Racing’s runner-up finish last fall (with driver Kurt Busch), the New Jersey native is feeling upbeat about Saturday night’s 5-Hour Energy 400 Sprint Cup Series race.
“Right now we’re running better, but still looking to find that consistent rhythm with our Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet,” said Truex. “We’re close and Kansas will be a good test to see how close we are.”
Regarding the Kansas track, which is the closest venue to the team’s shop in Denver, Truex said, “Kansas has changed a lot after they repaved the track a few years ago. The surface is very smooth, very fast with a lot of grip. But the track doesn’t have a lot of banking, which is interesting. Kansas is more like a Las Vegas-type of track than anywhere else we go.”
Truex and the single-car team scored their first top-10 finish of the season two weeks ago at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. It appeared the team had another top-10 performance in Sunday’s race at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, but with two laps remaining Truex got stuck in traffic and went from eighth to 17th in track position.
“To string a pair of top 10s would have been a big lift to our team,” noted Truex. “But what Richmond and Talladega have told us is that we are capable of running up front. It’s a matter of putting all the pieces together.”
