Toyota Racing – Martin Truex Jr.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Texas Motor Speedway – November 2, 2018
Furniture Row Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. was made available to the media at Texas Motor Speedway:
MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 78 Bass Pro Shops/5-hour ENERGY Toyota Camry, Furniture Row Racing
What were you hoping to get out of texting Joey Logano?
“When things calm down, you think about it a little bit. I didn’t expect to hear from him, so I wanted to tell him how I felt.”
What came from that?
“I wanted to get his point of view and what he was thinking. What he thought about it. Now I know.”
What are your thoughts on racing drivers like you have been raced?
“Honestly, I haven’t thought about it a whole lot. We got three races to go. We have two important races here where I am in a position to run for a championship. I am not going to let what happened last week take my focus off of that. I think it’s something that stays on the top of your mind. If you get in a certain situation where it would be wise to remember what happened, that’s there. I really haven’t thought past that. I know what’s on the line this weekend. It takes a lot of focus and mental strength to do this job. And to do it at a high level. I am going to approach this weekend like I do any other.”
Are you going to race differently going forward?
“It’s so situational. I think it depends on what situation you’re in. What the situation is. What is on the line. How people respond to it. I try to do things the right way. I try to race the way I want to be raced. Sometimes I get taken advantage of because of that. At the end of the day, I know when I beat a guy, it’s because I outdrove him and didn’t run into him. That’s my way of thinking and some people disagree with it. Some people think it’s perfectly fine to knock a guy out of the way to get a win. My opinion it’s not. We all think differently. It’s the not the way I have ever done it. Whether it’s Go-Karts or Modified cars. No matter what it was, that’s the way I was taught to race. You race fair. You race clean and you race as hard as you can straight up. I can say that every single win I have had, I earned it. That’s just the way it is.”
Was the Toyota Motorsports Day fun for you yesterday?
“It’s incredible to see what they have. We have so many friends there. They have become like a family for us over the years. It’s really special to be able to go to their headquarters here in Texas. I went there in December to celebrate a championship and that was special to bring that trophy there. They do so much for us. They give us the opportunity to race and give us great race cars to go after championships. To be a part of the Toyota family, it’s always special to go see those folks and thank them, and then see what they’re up to. They got some really cool stuff coming car-wise.”
Would you ever switch cars with another driver like Jimmie Johnson is doing?
“For sure. Some day. There are a couple of things I’d like to try. There’s a lot of racing I haven’t done that I would like to mess around with. I was talking to one of the Toyota Formula DRIFT drivers at Motorsports Day. They do a drift race at Wall Stadium, which I grew up racing Modifieds there. They asked if I would ever like to try it. I told him some day but just not in the next couple of years. There’s a lot of stuff I’d like to do. It will be interesting to see what Jimmie and Alonso do.”
How do you think the new Phoenix track configuration will be next week?
“It will be interesting to see how it plays out. It’s a lot different. Particularly on restarts if it gets three, four or five-wide on that dogleg on the backstretch. It gets hairy going into Turn 3. Now that we’re coming off what was Turn 2, that will be Turn 4 to come to the green, I don’t know where the start-finish is exactly. You have to be side-by-side when you get to the start-finish, that’s when you can open it up and make moves. That line will dictate that. I feel like restarting going into the old Turn 3 will be a little bit more wild. That end of the racetrack seems to get more wild. Especially throughout the race. You can use the apron and things in the old Turn 1. It will be different, we will just have to see how different and see how it plays out. The other thing that will be different is qualifying. The way the dogleg comes into play. The way you get your momentum on the opposite side of the track.”
