{"id":25589,"date":"2019-05-07T18:26:35","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T23:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=25589"},"modified":"2019-05-07T18:33:43","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T23:33:43","slug":"martin-truex-jr-in-championship-form-with-new-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/07\/martin-truex-jr-in-championship-form-with-new-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Truex Jr. in championship form with new team"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – If there\u2019s something Martin Truex Jr.<\/strong> knows about \u2013 it\u2019s making the best of a good challenge.<\/p>\n

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Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #19 SiriusXM Toyota, poses with the winner’s sticker after the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Gander RV 400 at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2019 in Dover, Delaware. (Photo by Matt Sullivan\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Throughout his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> career he\u2019s been dealt wild cards and managed to play them to success. On Monday, he won the rain-delayed Gander RV 400 at Dover International Speedway after having to start from the rear after multiple inspection failures \u2013 his second rained-out Cup Series win at the track. And there is some important symbolism here \u2013 through the dark clouds Truex has emerged \u2013 again.<\/p>\n

Truex won the 2017 Monster Energy Series title with a small independent team in Furniture Row Racing based in Denver, Co. – 2000 miles away from NASCAR\u2019s Carolina hub. That team ceased operations following the 2018 season and Truex landed fortuitously at Joe Gibbs Racing. High expectations have followed the former champion to the multi-championship JGR team. And only 11 races into the new gig, Truex and his longtime crew chief Cole Pearn have apparently answered any questions about the transition \u2013 earning two victories in the last three races and hoisting a special golden trophy this Sunday at Dover.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #19 SiriusXM Toyota, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Gander RV 400 at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2019 in Dover, Delaware. (Photo by Matt Sullivan\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

If they can win a championship \u2013 and dominate a season \u2013 competing for a small, single-car team based two time zones away from the rest of the sport as they did in 2017, imagine the possibilities with the Gibbs team. And with two wins in the last month, those championship vibes turned up a notch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had some really strong race cars at a lot of race tracks but for a lot of reasons we haven\u2019t been able to show it,\u2019\u2019 Truex said Monday. \u201cWe\u2019ve been having issues that set us back. It\u2019s been tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last couple weeks I just feel it\u2019s execution. We\u2019re doing all the little things right. The pit crew is doing an amazing job getting us track position, keeping it when we have it. Our cars are fast. Hopefully we can just continue to do this.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of fun to come out here and win races.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #19 SiriusXM Toyota, leads Alex Bowman, driver of the #88 Nationwide Small Business Chevrolet, during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Gander RV 400 at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2019 in Dover, Delaware. (Photo by Chris Trotman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Truex has seven top-10s in 11 races driving the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, including a pair of runner-up finishes at Atlanta and Phoenix in addition to his two wins.<\/p>\n

And Truex\u2019 work now gives the Gibbs team three drivers with multiple wins not even a third of the way through the season. In addition to Truex, Monster Energy Series points leader Kyle Busch has three wins and their teammate Denny Hamlin has a pair of victories \u2013 including the season-opening Daytona 500. Gibbs drivers account for seven of the season\u2019s 11 wins.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re thrilled for this kind of start,\u2019\u2019 team owner Joe Gibbs said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big deal for us. As everybody knows in pro sports these things can go and come very quick. The hardest thing to do is to stay up there. That will be our goal for the rest of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got off to a good start. New racing package, a lot of new things. Going to tracks, sometimes not really knowing going in what the package is going to be like. Our guys have done a great job adjusting to it.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #19 SiriusXM Toyota, takes the checkered flag for his victory in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Gander RV 400 at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2019 in Dover, Delaware. (Photo by Chris Trotman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Truex and the Monster Energy Series head west to Kansas Speedway this weekend where he has two wins in the last four races \u2013 sweeping both races en route to his 2017 title.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old Truex has been especially good on the 1.5-mile Kansas oval. In addition to his two wins \u2013 he won the 2017 fall race from the pole position – he has three runner-up finishes, including this spring race last year when he finished a blink-of-an-eye 0.390-seconds behind winner Kevin Harvick.<\/p>\n

Certainly his past success gives Truex great confidence at Kansas, but he reminded everyone on Monday after his Dover race win that success coming through hardship and difficulty is a different, often more intense motivator. And he and his team are demonstrating the possibilities that exist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s real important,\u2019\u2019 Truex said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a credit to our leadership. It starts at the top. It\u2019s all about people. Coach (Gibbs) is a great leader. (Crew chief) Cole (Pearn) is a great leader. I try to kind of play off of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Cole and I both do a good job of setting the tone for our team. We have an awesome group of guys that are fired up and excited to be where they\u2019re at, working together, working on this race car.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know what we\u2019re all capable of together. That\u2019s what it takes. Hopefully, we can continue to deliver.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – If there\u2019s something Martin Truex Jr. knows about \u2013 it\u2019s making the best of a good challenge. Throughout his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career he\u2019s been dealt wild cards and managed to play them to success. On Monday, he won the rain-delayed Gander RV 400 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":25583,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[222,244,16],"class_list":["post-25589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-dover-international-speedway","tag-martin-truex-jr","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Dover_MENCS_WinnerSticker_050619.jpg?fit=4696%2C3131","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-6EJ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25601,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25589\/revisions\/25601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}