DENVER (Oct. 7, 2014) — There’s nothing like seeing a goal come to fruition. Just ask Martin Truex Jr.
“Yes, we’re running better right now but more importantly we are on schedule with our recent goal,” said Truex. “When the Chase started we wanted to prove that we had the knowledge and talent to become a Chase contender in 2015. We knew the final 10 races would be a good barometer to start off the new season. But it’s one thing to say you can do it and another thing to actually do it.”
After four races since the start of the Chase, Truex and the single-car Furniture Row Racing team are doing it. And they’ve been doing it with an exclamation mark.
Truex, who is in his first year driving the No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet, is coming off a season-best finish of fourth. His finishing average since the opening race of the Chase is 9.25, which ranks fifth among all Sprint Cup Series drivers. He has had finishes of 14th (Chicago), 12th (New Hampshire), 7th (Dover) and 4th (Kansas).
“We’ve been on a roll lately and it is sure nice to get these decent finishes,” stated Truex, a Chase participant in 2007 and 2012. “We want to keep the momentum that we have established in the last four races. A lot of effort and a lot of patience have gone into our resurgence. Everything seems to be clicking much better right now and I look forward to taking advantage of what we have learned and trying to get a win.”
The next stop for Truex and the Sprint Cup Series is at Charlotte Motor Speedway for Saturday night’s Bank of America 500. Though Charlotte is an adopted home track for the majority of drivers, it hasn’t been the best of venues for Truex, who has four top-10s in 18 starts.
“Regarding Charlotte, it’s always fun to have a home game,” noted Truex. “The track is right down the street and you get to sleep in your own bed at night. We had a good run there in the spring. Actually, it was one of our best runs going but we broke an axle while running in the top-10 with seven or eight laps to go.
“We had great speed at Charlotte in the spring and look forward to going back to work on that package. Hopefully we can get the car setup a little better. Charlotte hasn’t been one of my best tracks during my career, but I was very pleased on how our Furniture Row Chevrolet drove there on Memorial Day weekend. Everywhere we go we’re just trying to improve the second time around.”
