Martin Truex Jr.
Atlanta Advance
No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing
Event Overview
● Event: Quaker State 400 (Round 26 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Sept. 8
● Location: Atlanta Motor Speedway
● Layout: 1.54-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 260 laps/400 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 60 laps / Stage 2: 100 laps / Final Stage: 100 laps
● TV/Radio: USA Network / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Notes of Interest
● Playoff Reset: Despite a disappointing result in the final race of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season last weekend at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway, where he saw his day end after an accident on lap two, Truex was able to lock himself into the 2024 edition of the 10-race, 16-driver playoffs. Truex will start the playoffs this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway sitting 16th on the playoff grid with 2,004 points, 36 points behind No. 1 seed Kyle Larson.
● The Final Countdown: Truex announced earlier this summer that this will be his last year of fulltime racing in the NASCAR’s top series. In his final year, Truex made the playoffs for the 11th and final time when he clinched a spot in the regular-season finale last weekend at Darlington. He’ll hope to go on a magical run and add one more piece of championship hardware to his trophy case, where he already has a Cup Series championship from 2017, when he ran for Furniture Row Racing. Truex made his first playoff appearance in 2007 while driving for Dale Earnhardt Inc. He then returned to the playoffs in 2012 driving for Michael Waltrip Racing. After moving to Furniture Row Racing in 2014, Truex returned to the playoffs in 2015, when he made his first Championship 4 appearance in just the second year of the elimination format. In all, Truex has made five Championship 4 appearances, which ties him with two-time champions Joey Logano and Kyle Busch and 2014 champion Kevin Harvick.
● Atlanta Motor Speedway is a much different track today than what Truex had grown accustomed to racing on earlier in his career. The 1.54-mile oval was reconfigured after the final race of the 2021 season, and this weekend’s race will be just the sixth on the latest configuration. The banking was increased from 24 degrees to 28 degrees and the track was narrowed from 55 feet wide to 40 feet wide, and it was covered with fresh asphalt. The goal of the reconstruction was to recreate the kind of pack-style racing seen at the behemoth, 2.5-mile Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and the even bigger 2.66-mile Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. The New Jersey native’s best finish on the current configuration is a eighth-place run in the first race on it in the spring of 2022. Truex has two other top-12 finishes on the current configuration – an 11th-place finish in the second race there in 2022 and a 12th-place finish there earlier this year.
● Truex has three NASCAR Xfinity Series starts at Atlanta, all of which came prior to the reconfiguration. Truex finished no worse than 11th in those three starts, and his most recent outing there in the spring of 2021 netted him a second-place finish.
● Looking for 35: Truex’s win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon in July 2023 was his most recent Cup Series win, the 34th of his career, tying him with 2004 champion Kurt Busch for 25th on the all-time Cup Series win list.
● Ahead at this Stage: Truex has accumulated 63 stage wins since the beginning of the stage era in 2017. He is the only driver with 10 or more stage sweeps, with his latest sweep coming at Michigan last August. Truex scored his third stage win of the season in July at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, leading the field across the line at the end of Stage 1.
Martin Truex Jr., Driver of the No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry XSE
What are your expectations as you kick off the playoffs this weekend at Atlanta?
“In general, we’ve been consistently fast, which is good. If we can just put everything else together, we’re going to be in much better shape. It’s been frustrating the last couple of months and it’s not just been one thing. I made mistakes at both Michigan and Darlington that cost us a lot, we’ve had some issues on pit road at times, and there have been times where we just flat out had some bad luck, like cautions coming out at Richmond in the spring and then Kansas, where we looked like we had a shot at the win and those cautions hurt us. We know that this team is capable of getting the job done and we hope that we can get our Auto-Owners Insurance Camry up front this weekend and give us a chance and we can start the playoffs out on the right foot.”
What is the potential for your team as you head into the playoffs?
“I think we have the potential to finish off the year on a high note. We’ve got tons of speed, which we show a lot of weeks. We’re right there, we’ve been knocking on the door and it would be nice to win a couple before it’s all over.”
How difficult is it to win in the Cup Series with how competitive things are, especially when you are trying to get one in your final year?
“I try to always enjoy them all like they were the last because you never know. I think when we won our last race of the year last year, we probably thought we were going to win a couple more, at least, before I decided on retirement, it’s just been tough. We certainly have performed at the level we need to get it done, but just haven’t been able to finish the deal. It’s a tough sport and it’s tough to win these things because it takes a lot more than just a fast car, so we’ll just keep giving it all we’ve got.”
What has been the challenge at Atlanta since the repave and the superspeedway-style racing it now produces?
“Certainly, the challenge is being in the right position at the end and not getting caught up in a wreck, which takes some good fortune sometimes. We’ve had some fast cars there the last couple of years but seem to find our way into a wreck almost every time. Sort of what happens at those types of places – you can be in the best spot possible, but you have to count on other guys to help you and sometimes it just doesn’t work out. All I can do is hope we are in the same position this weekend with our Auto-Owners Insurance Camry XSE and maybe things will work out a little bit better in our favor and we can bring home the win.”
Has superspeedway racing changed in recent years?
“I think superspeedways probably haven’t changed much as opposed to some of the other types of tracks. Just the way you can bump draft with this car is totally different than the previous-generation cars. I think right now there are a lot more options as far as what lanes work. It used to be that you never wanted anyone on the outside, and now you can pass guys on the bottom a bit easier and that sets up some other opportunities. I feel like the racing has been fun on superspeedways, but you have to be really aggressive, as well.”
No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Team Roster
Primary Team Members
Driver: Martin Truex Jr.
Hometown: Mayetta, New Jersey
Crew Chief: James Small
Hometown: Melbourne, Australia
Car Chief: Chris Jones
Hometown: Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia
Race Engineer: Jaik Halpainy
Hometown: Blockville, New York
Spotter: Drew Herring
Hometown: Benson, North Carolina
Road Crew Members
Underneath Mechanic: Ryan Martin
Hometown: Mechanicsburg, Virgina
Mechanic: Todd Carmichael
Hometown: Redding, California
Interior/Tire Specialist: Tommy DiBlasi
Hometown: Annapolis, Maryland
Engine Tuner: Beau Morton
Hometown: Lake Havasu City, Arizona
Transporter Driver: Kyle Bazzell
Hometown: Fairbury, Illinois
Transporter Driver: Eddie DeGroot
Hometown: Baldwinsville, New York
Over-The-Wall Crew Members
Gas Man: Matt Tyrrell
Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Jackman: Caleb Dirks
Hometown: Riverside, California
Tire Carrier: CJ Bailey
Hometown: Outer Banks, North Carolina
Front Tire Changer: Thomas Hatcher
Hometown: Middleburg, Florida
Rear Tire Changer: Lee Cunningham
Hometown: Leaf River, Illinois
