Furniture Row Racing driver to make 350th career Sprint Cup start
DENVER, Colo. (July 1, 2015) – The success that Martin Truex Jr. and Furniture Row Racing enjoyed in February at Daytona International Speedway to open the 2015 season turned out to be an omen for the single-car team.
Truex and his No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet sent an early message in the three races during Daytona Speedweeks. Truex finished second in the Sprint Unlimited and fifth in the 150-mile qualifying race, both non-points events. He ended Speedweeks with a strong eighth-place result in the Daytona 500.
“Those three races during Speedweeks told us that we were on the right course of what we were working on at the end of 2014 and during the offseason,” said Truex, who celebrated his 35th birthday on Monday (June 29). “Speedweeks also gave us a big confidence boost to start the season.”
Truex is off to his best start in the Sprint Cup Series. In the first 16 races he has one win (at Pocono), five top-fives, 14 top-10s and has led 486 laps. He has been second in driver points since finishing fifth at Talladega on May 3.
The above performance numbers are a vast improvement for the New Jersey native, who had one top-five, five top-10s and led only one lap in last year’s 36-race season.
Truex will be looking for another Daytona bounce as he returns to the hallowed superspeedway for Sunday night’s Coke Zero 400, which will mark his 350th career Sprint Cup start. He is coming off his worst finish of the season (42nd) after getting knocked off the track and into a tire wall by a fellow competitor at the Sonoma Raceway road course. The incident ended his day early — on Lap 28 of 110 — with severe front-end damage to his race car.
“After what happened to us in Sonoma we can’t wait
No. 78 Over-the-Wall Crew
Front-tire changer
Dave Collins, Hayden Lake, Idaho
Front-tire carrier
Craig Curione, Sanborn, N.Y.
Rear-tire changer
Kyle Turner, Yorktown, Va.
Rear-tire carrier
Adam Mosher, Fort Mill, S.C.
Jackman
Carey Wimbish, Granite Falls, N.C.
Gasman
Brian Dheel, Akron, Ohio
No. 78 Road Crew
General Manager
Joe Garone, Denver, Colo.
Crew Chief
Cole Pearn, London, Ontario, Canada
Car Chief
Blake Harris, Maypearl, Texas
Engineers
Jeff Curtis, Fairfax Station, Va.
Pete Craik, Melbourne, Australia
Spotter
Clayton Hughes, Thomasville, N.C.
Engine Specialist
Craig Griffitts, Thomasville, N.C.
Engine Builder
Earnhardt-Childress Racing
Shock Specialist
Nick Kerlin, Old Fort, Ohio
Tire Specialist
Tommy DiBlasi, Annapolis, Md.
Mechanic
Gary Frost, Romeo, Mich.,
Nino Venezia, Philadelphia
Technical Support
Ryan Kelly, London, Ontario
Transportation
Chuck Lemay, DeKalb, IL, Chris Burton, Cincinnati, Barry Huston, Bloomingdale, Mich., Roy Miller, Elkridge, Md., Henry Benfield, Statesville, N.C.
