Martin Truex Jr. would love nothing more than to win his fourth Cup race at Richmond. (Photo: Mitchell Richtmyre | The Podium Finish)
RICHMOND, Va. – Since joining Joe Gibbs Racing in 2019, Martin Truex Jr. has simply been one of the best around Richmond Raceway (3:30 p.m. ET on FS1 and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Namely, Truex is in the midst of a eight race streak of finishing seventh or better at the 0.75-mile speedway. While the streak started in his final season with Furniture Row Racing’s No. 78 entry, the Mayetta, New Jersey native is as game as anyone can be for the win in Sunday’s Toyota Owners 400.
Save for 2020, in which Richmond had only one Cup race due to the COVID-19 pandemic rescheduling, Truex has a win, fifth and fourth in his past three spring starts. Moreover, he is a beast when it comes to leading laps at Richmond Raceway. In his past 33 starts, Truex has led 1,285 laps while completing 12,888 of a possible 13,229 laps.
By all means, if there is a driver who seems like a surefire bet for a strong result in Sunday’s 400-lap race, look no further than Truex. No matter if it is his former crew chief, Cole Pearn, or James Small, who presently leads the No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry team, the rhythm track suits the smooth, calculating racer.
Admittedly, the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season has not gone off to a smooth start with only a top 10 finish at Las Vegas that stands out thus far. Otherwise, Truex has finishes of 15th, 11th, 17th, 19th, and 17th, good enough for the 12th place points standings ranking.
Namely, Truex and Small have not cut back on their efforts. If anything, they are giving it their all against the fast, competitive rivals laden in Chevrolet and Ford bodies.
“We run a number of different race tracks (but) last weekend, Toyota ran real good,” Truex said. “I feel like we’ve been off a little bit on speed and, you know, it’s not like we can just change things on this car. We can’t go back to shop and work on it. You got what you got so, yeah.
“Hopefully, it tracks and we can figure out how to be better on the set ups and figure out some things we can do with a car a little bit it’ll be able to be better, but that’s quite a ways down the road.”
Slow starts are not totally atypical for Truex as he started the 2020 season rather auspiciously. That said, he rallied back with a Martinsville victory and seventh place points finish.
Moreover, Truex hopes for a much better season after a funky 2022 campaign void of victories and a 17th place points finish. On multiple occasions, Truex was in position to win races before mechanical failures or circumstances out of his control took him out of contention.
With his focus on making the best of the 2023 season and the Toyota teams picking up with their pace in recent weeks, perhaps the veteran stock car racer will be in position to score the manufacturer’s second win of the year, especially if his Richmond track history speaks volumes.
Editor’s Notes
Trish McCormack contributed to this article directly on-site from Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Virginia.
