Toyota Racing – Martin Truex Jr.
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series (MENCS)
Charlotte Motor Speedway – May 23, 2019
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. was made available to the media in Charlotte:
MARTIN TRUEX JR, No. 19 Bass Pro Shops / Tracker / USO Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing
Do you feel like other teams are catching the JGR and Penske cars in performance?
“I think it’s a little bit hit and miss for everybody I feel like from what I can see. It certainly has been for us. For the 19 team, we’ve been really good at places and off at places. It’s just been one of those things that’s been hard to hit consistently. It’s just the package – we’re going to new tracks that we haven’t been to with it before. We’re going on new tires it seems like almost every time. We just don’t have a lot of information, there’s been a lot of guessing going on and for whatever reason, it seems like the balance on these cars is really, really temperamental and real sensitive. If you get off a little bit, I feel like you pay a lot bigger price than maybe what you did before. It’s harder to drive through problems when you have to run wide open.”
Is there something you would like to say about the tires?
“I don’t really have any issues with the tires. I was just talking about how it’s been a challenge that we’ve been on new ones this year to go along with the new package and how it’s been really hard to just be consistently good. You go to a track and you’re way off. I don’t know why we didn’t seen this coming, we’ve been through this quite a few times this year. Just a lot of new stuff we’re still trying to figure out this year. I always still like faster tires that wear out and we seem to be going the opposite way. That’s part of the package as well, we have so much downforce and our corner speeds are so high that you don’t want to risk blowing tires. It’s a tough balance for Goodyear to juggle for sure.”
Do you expect Michigan to mirror California?
“No, Michigan is Michigan. It’s so different and the only thing the same from Michigan to California is the length of the race track and the somewhat shape — the curved frontstretch. They couldn’t be any different. Michigan is just super high-grip, new asphalt and California is the oldest place we go, which is what I like about it. Michigan has just typically been a single to maybe two-lane at best track and that’s going to be a challenge for us.”
How hard is it to acclimate to the reduced horsepower?
“It’s been a challenge and it’s so different, just the whole approach to the weekend from a driver’s standpoint — the way you drive these cars, the way you manage traffic – all the things that we have to do right now is a lot different from last year and the last couple seasons. It’s been a challenge just to figure it out. At the end of the day, it is what it is and we get paid to win races and try to put ourselves in position to win a championship. We’re just constantly searching and at the same time, that’s what makes this sport so fun and challenging is that it’s always changing. I tell people all the time, you watch other sports and it’s always the same. You go to a different stadium, but it’s still the same field or size field. If you’re good at baseball, you’re good at baseball. If you’re good at football, you’re good at football. If you’re good at soccer, you’re good at soccer. In racing, there’s a lot of different things you have to be good at and they get changed on you constantly, which is frustrating, especially when you have something really figured out like the low downforce stuff – we were really dialed in. I really liked that package and it suited my style really well and this has just been a huge learning curve. Just trying to figure it out, work hard and keep chipping away at it.”
What do you think of when you hear ‘Coca-Cola 600’?
“2016 — the domination. Just to be able to do that at this level is something you dream of. The fact that no one will probably lead more laps than that ever, ever, ever and that’s just crazy to think about. Pretty cool and I wouldn’t say we need to duplicate that, but would like to try to win another one. It’s a special race to win, it’s one of the crown jewels.”
Do you know how you dominated that race?
“We just hit it. Charlotte is a track that’s like that. When you hit it, you can knock it out of the park here. It’s so hard to get your car doing the things you want it to do that most guys are probably off more than at a normal track. When you do hit it right, we’ve seen it here before, but never like that and it was pretty cool.”
Do you have to use more finesse with less horsepower?
“I would say less finesse. I feel like now it’s more – if you went to the go-kart track and they slowed them down and you had rubber rails all the way around and you’re playing bumper cars, I feel like it’s more of that. We’re stuck together, you can’t get away from each other – that kind of thing. The challenge is the dirty air that these cars produce because of the big spoiler and the high downforce and all that. You’re stuck together, but you can’t be close together in the corners so you just have to give a lot. You’re trying to find space all the time. At the same time, you’re driving the car super aggressive so it’s a weird balance and it’s so much different that it’s hard to even explain.”
Did you notice a difference from what you drove at All-Star to what you had in today’s practice?
“The challenges we have of running behind cars is still there and that didn’t really change. I thought that the splitter sensitivity was better, if you feel the splitter hitting the track a little bit then it wouldn’t go straight. It was a little bit more consistent from a travel standpoint, which I think is better for racing and the teams for sure. The regular splitter is 30-thousandths of an inch from being good to being junk. That’s a big challenge for these guys so that helps for sure. We still have to work on somehow making these cars stick to the track behind a car. We would be able to put on better races if we can.”
What will the challenge be like at Pocono not being able to shift?
“I really wish I could answer that. They’re all tricky, they’re all tough and they’re all important. You look at the competition today – years ago you would go there and you’d hear guys say they were focused on turn three as the most important and today if you go there and you don’t have all of them really, really good, you’re going to get your butt kicked. That’s honestly the way it works. I’m sure they’re all going to be a challenge, the package itself is going to be a challenge I think and just not knowing is going to be so different. We used to go there and run 210 down the straightaway before and we used a ton of brake and you downshift. Now it’s going to be asking if we can even run wide open. I don’t know. It’s just going to be like everywhere else, it’s going to be a lot different than what we’ve been doing for so long.”
How important would it be to win at an intermediate track with this package?
“I think it would be good for us just to have some confidence with it. It’s been our biggest challenge this year, no question. Kansas, historically one of our best race tracks and we go there and kind of struggled. We know where we missed it, the problem is that you have to show up at a track where you haven’t raced this package before and do the right things. That’s still a challenge and we know what we missed in practice and we know how we missed it at the All-Star race last week, but the hard part about this sport is being on top of it when you show up. Unloading good – you have to kick your weekend off right because you only have 50 minutes of practice on Friday to qualify good. If you don’t qualify good, your weekend starts off on a bad note. Just still searching for that confidence as a team of what we need to show up at these tracks with. I feel like we’ve gotten better each week as we’ve went, we just haven’t hit it off the hauler. This week feels different. I was really happy today and I felt like it was one of the best practices we’ve had all year. Hopefully that will continue throughout the weekend.”
What advice would you give rookies to the 600?
“Take it easy for the first 500, let everybody pass you – including me. It’s a long race and I think the biggest thing is that guys get that first 100 miles – if you can get through that with the heat of the day and the track being slick and just the danger of that on restarts and things. Usually if you can get through the first 100 miles, you can figure out where you settle in. Then the track starts to somewhat settle in and then you go to work on it.”
When did you know your car was so strong in 2016?
“Honestly, I think I knew it was pretty good throughout practice and qualifying. We got the pole. You never know in this series. I’ve had places where we’ve ended practice and said, ‘This thing is crazy good and I don’t want you to do anything to it.’ Then you start the race and it’s not as good as you thought. I don’t think you ever settle. Yeah, we’re leading, but you still, if it needs a little something, you work on it because if you don’t you’ll get beat. You just never take it for granted. You just push all the time and try to get better as the race goes on.”
