DENVER, Colo. (June 4, 2014) – There’s something about performing at home when competing on a national stage.
Martin Truex Jr., driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet, will once again be at a track he calls home.
“Dover is considered my home track since it is a little closer than Pocono to where I grew up in Mayetta, New Jersey,” noted Truex. “Next to Dover, Pocono is my second home track. Hopefully we can pull off another strong performance as we did last week in Dover by finishing sixth.”
Truex and the single-car Furniture Row Racing have shown improvement over the past two Sprint Cup Series weekends and the extra speed that they have found has been a morale-boosting experience.
“We’re running so much better lately and the bad luck didn’t bite us on Sunday in Dover,” said Truex. “The week before Dover we had a top-10 car at Charlotte but a freak breakage with nine laps remaining in a 400-lap race did us in. The big difference is that we have found more speed in our Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet. We’ve been searching for that sweet spot all year and we’re almost there. You have to remember we’re a new team and it takes time to put all the pieces together.”
Now that Truex is running closer to the leaders he knows that to make the Chase the team needs a victory.
“We need a win to make the Chase, but before you win in the Sprint Cup Series you need to start running close to the front,” explained Truex, a two-time Chase participant. “That will be our goal for Pocono. We conducted a two-day test in Pocono last week and hopefully that will enhance our performance this weekend.”
Truex has positive vibes about the 3-turn, 2.5-mile Pocono track, known as the tricky triangle. He enters Sunday’s Pocono 400 with a high degree of confidence.
“Pocono is not as tricky as it used to be, but it is still a difficult track,” said Truex. “It’s a big challenge for the crew chiefs and engineers. Personally, I like Pocono, it’s fun and we get to shift there. My experiences at Pocono have been really hot or really cold. I am ready and confident for a really hot performance on Sunday.
In 16 career starts at Pocono, Truex has run every lap but one –2887 out of 2888. The one lap he missed was his first race at Pocono in 2006.
His Pocono record also includes two top-fives and five top-10s.
