TOYOTA NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS)
Martin Truex Jr. Notes & Quotes
Daytona International Speedway – February 12, 2016
Furniture Row Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. was made available to the media at Daytona International Speedway:
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/TRACKER Boats Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
How do you feel heading into the Sprint Unlimited?
“Looking forward to it. It’s always a fun race and really a neat race to kick off the season – you don’t worry about points or anything and just go out there and try to win, so be a fun night for everybody. Everybody’s been kind of ready to go here for a few weeks and we’re pretty antsy, so hopefully it will be a good show, it will be a fun race and we can get there and knock the rust off and get the pit crew involved and get them going in preparation for next week. Looking forward to figuring out our new Toyota and getting a glimpse on how Speedweeks is going to look for us.”
How much difference is there in switching cars?
“That’s a good question. I think we’ll find out as we go here more – more than I can really answer to right now. I think that here on the restrictor plate tracks, I don’t think you’ll see a whole lot of difference feel wise. Of course, when we go to downforce tracks and we get to Atlanta, we’ll probably know a little bit more on exactly what’s different and how things feel different. When you have a pretty big rules change thrown in there as well, it’s a good time to make those changes and switch things up because you’re going to get a different feel regardless of staying with the same manufacturer or not, so kind of a good time to change I think when there’s a bit of a learning curve for everybody coming up.”
Is there extra stress on the team moving to new equipment?
“Sure, it was definitely a busy offseason. I think Cole (Pearn, crew chief) was probably a lot busier than certainly last winter. I think that the guys at the shop really pulled a lot of overtime and worked a lot of hours to get four cars ready to come here. Honestly, we tested December 14 at Homestead with the Toyota, so it’s been a really busy offseason getting things switched over and certainly it’s going to take us a little bit of time to get caught up here, but feel – Cole feels really good about the way things are going and direction and everything and if he feels comfortable with it than I sure am too.”
What is your goal for the Sprint Unlimited?
“Winning – that’s really what it’s all about. It’s about – really I mean, it’s about knocking off the rust. Practice here at Daytona, it’s hard to get a good feel for just how the racing is going to play out, so you get in a real racing situation like the Unlimited where guys are putting it on the edge and willing to make big moves like they would in the Daytona 500, it gives you a really good outlook on, ‘Okay, there are the things I can expect next week,’ because it’s really hard to learn those in practice. It gives us a really good sense of who’s strong, who’s not, possibly who you can work well with and really just gives you a good sense on kind of where you stand with your race car against the competition and it gives you a direction to work on throughout next week in practice and leading up to the 500.”
How much offseason time did you spend on a computer to get a feel for the rules changes?
“None. We tested Homestead December 14 and aside from Kentucky last year and Darlington, those are the only three times I’ve driven with the lower downforce package – with the testing rules the way they are now, some guys I think tested Vegas a few weeks – so Homestead and Vegas were the two tire tests this winter and that’s really the only guys that have a sense of exactly how it’s going to feel leading into this season. Everybody in this garage is really good and really smart and we’ll all get it figured out pretty quick I think.”
Do you have a feeling that the Denver community has an appreciation for you being there?
“I certainly think we did and I think the biggest way to see this thing’s impact was getting voted the Colorado Athlete of the Year by Mile High Sports magazine and it was – it came as a really big shock. For me, I thought the coolest part was that we don’t race in Denver – there’s no NASCAR track in Colorado. For those guys to recognize mostly our team for that accomplishment was really a big deal to me and I thought it was a huge honor. To beat out guys on the Broncos especially with the year they’re having was kind of insane to me to think about when you look back and the awareness we kind of raised there in Denver about NASCAR. The author said typically on Monday mornings they were talking about football games and hockey games and things like that and last season Monday morning they’d be standing around the water cooler talking about how the 78 car did on Sunday. I think that’s a huge deal. It means a lot to our team. It means a lot to Barney (Visser, owner) for all he’s put into NASCAR racing out of Denver and it’s just a huge honor for me.”
What were the emotions like in the Chase last year?
“I really had a lot of fun last year in the Chase and I think it was an exciting time for the whole group to be able to be in the position for the first time and for me to be in that position for the first time. Having a chance at a championship in the Sprint Cup Series was a dream come true. We didn’t quite do as well as we hoped. This year, we’re out working hard so we can get back in that same position and do a better job. That’s our goal as of today and we’re just looking forward to the season and seeing what we can do. The rules changes I think are all positives. I think I like the green-white-checkered rule. The overtime rule, I think it’s a really good idea. We’ll just have to see how it all plays out. I think definitely it was a move in the right direction.”
What do you think about Daytona Rising?
“Well, it’s an incredible project and just the amount of money spent and thought and detail put into it, it really changes the game on what people are going to expect when they come to the race track now. From the fans’ perspective, it’s really the first motorsports stadium that we’re going to and definitely raised the bar. I think fans are going to love it. I’ve only seen a little bit of it, but I plan on getting out there this weekend and really checking it out and getting into it. A lot of exciting things are happening and obviously hopefully the fans will enjoy it and it will be a great race for them Sunday as well.”
Have you noticed any changes during your move back to Toyota?
“Nothing really by surprise because I’ve dealt with and had a relationship with those folks before, but I think the biggest thing that sticks out is just how involved they are in what we’re doing. Everything we do, they’re right in the middle of it with us and certainly the relationship with JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) is new and different, but I can’t tell you how pleased I’ve been with how that relationship has looked so far between our guys and theirs and how much help they’ve given us that’s kind of getting us off the ground with all this stuff. They’ve been a huge part of making the transition and trying to get things right. Hopefully, we’re going to find out exactly how it looks here pretty quick on the race track. So far, things have gone well and I’m excited about the partnership and getting in there and learning from their guys and trying to kind of be a part of their team and showing that hopefully we can give as much as we take. I think that’s going to be important for the relationship is for us to show them fairly quickly to gain their trust that we’ve got a really good, solid team and solid operation and we can bring something to the table as well to help them.”
Has Peyton Manning asked to friend you on Facebook or followed you on Twitter?
“No, I don’t think so. Not that I’ve noticed. Yeah, John Elway did tweet us for Homestead – that was really cool wishing us good luck, so that was awesome. But no.”
