(Photo: Sam Draiss | The Podium Finish)
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — The 2022 season certainly hasn’t gone the way that Martin Truex Jr. has wanted.
Although Truex Jr. is fourth in driver’s points, he’s winless and on the outside looking in toward the playoffs. If he doesn’t find a way to win either Watkins Glen or Daytona, he’ll likely miss the playoffs.
However, he could still point his way in. Truex Jr. is in a rock fight with Ryan Blaney for the final spot on points, but he sits 26 points back of him.
“This is just another race,” Truex Jr. told the media in a scrum on Saturday. “We’re doing the best we can. Like, there’s no magic bullet. So we just got to go race hard and try to just be the best we can.”
Truex Jr. has had some previous success at Watkins Glen, winning the 2017 race. But, everything is completely different with the Next Gen car.
Like at previous road courses this year, Toyotas have struggled. Just one Toyota qualified in the top 10 at Watkins Glen (Kyle Busch) while the front rows are dominated by Chevrolet. Truex Jr. qualified 25th, right next to Blaney.
But, Truex Jr. has more laps at The Glen compared to other drivers, which may be an advantage. Earlier this summer, he participated in a tire test at the track.
While he struggled at that test, Truex Jr. felt they were better there than now.
“Tried to do the test here tire test here a while back and felt much better than I feel [this weekend],” he said. “We tried some new things, tried to implement some of the things we feel like we’ve gotten better at in the road courses throughout the year.”
“Pretty much the whole year on road courses we’ve been perplexed. So not really that surprising.”
Road course races present different strategy opportunities, including short-pitting stages. Alternatively, drivers can stay out at the end of stages to earn stage points.
Truex Jr. doesn’t have a set strategy. It could change based on how cautions fall and what Blaney does.
“We’ll just have to see how it all plays out,” Truex Jr. said. “Hopefully, we can get on the right side of strategies. It’s always big here. Track position is going to be huge. I think if you can gain some track position through strategy, you’ll be able to keep it.
“If it presents itself, we’ll certainly go after the stage points. And if it doesn’t, we’ll go the other direction.
“It’s hard to go into these races with a set strategy unless you’re up front. We’re just gonna have to play by ear and kind of live on the fly and try to get what we can because of other people’s decisions.”
If Truex Jr. can’t score a win at Watkins Glen, he’ll have one more opportunity to do so at Daytona. He led laps in the Daytona 500 and is encouraged about his chances next weekend.
He’s never won a superspeedway race, so it would certainly be a timely first victory.
“We led a whole bunch and won the first two stages [in the Daytona 500],” Truex Jr. said. “Had a bad pitstop, went to the back, and then it all blew up around us. So in typical Daytona fashion, we went out in a ball of flames.
“We’ve been more competitive than years past… I think we’ll have a great shot, but it’s Daytona, so you never know.”
Sunday’s Go Bowling at The Glen is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET on USA Network. Kyle Larson won last year’s race and also won Saturday’s Xfinity race.
