Truex looks to continue hot streak
Today, green flag at 1:30 p.m. Central, Chicagoland Speedway, Joliet, Ill. (NBCSN)
JOLIET, Ill. — Martin Truex Jr. just celebrated his 38th birthday. He has won two of his past three races. He is spending this weekend at one of his favorite tracks.
So yes, life is quite good at the moment.
Truex appears to be picking up some momentum as he tries to become the first repeat NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series champion since Jimmie Johnson won five in a row in 2006-2010. He goes for his third consecutive victory at Chicagoland Speedway today.
“This track has always
been really good for me. Obviously, the last two years, it’s been really good,” said Truex, who turned 38 on Friday. “I had to overcome a lot of issues here both years it seems like to be able to get the win. That’s kind of neat looking back on our two races here, what we had to overcome to win. This year is going to be different, I think.”
Truex had to deal with a completely unraveled tire on his way to the Chicagoland victory in 2016. He had an early pit-road penalty last year, but he led for 75 laps and finished more than 7 seconds ahead of second-place Chase Elliott.
Truex and the rest of the drivers face a different challenge on this visit to the bumpy 1.5-mile oval. Chicagoland was being staged in September as NASCAR’s playoff opener, but it has a mid-summer date this season and the forecast calls for temperatures in the 90s.
“Grip’s been tough to find this weekend for a lot of guys,” Truex said Saturday. “New tires as well, so I mean there’s a lot of new things going on. It’s definitely going to be tougher, I would imagine that the groove’s going to be probably on average a little bit higher than when we run here
in the fall. I think more guys are going to get the top working. It’s definitely going to be different, but how much it’s hard to say right now.”
Truex is coming off a victory last weekend at Sonoma, Calif., outdueling Kevin Harvick on the road course for his third victory of the season. He also won at Pocono on June 3, holding off a hardcharging Kyle Larson.
Truex, Harvick and Kyle Busch have combined for 12 victories in the first 16 races of the season. The other winners this season are Austin Dillon, Clint Bowyer and Joey Logano.
With his three victories, Truex could use the rest of the summer to experiment with his car ahead of the playoffs. But Truex called that strategy “a little bit overblown.”
“The experimentation thing I think is something that is more old school,” he said.
“This day and age you want to have confidence in the things you’re doing and continue to do them. So that’s kind of the approach we’ll take.”
Johnson is still looking for his first victory this season, and Chicagoland is one of three tracks on the Cup schedule where he has not
won. He finished second in 2004, 2008 and 2012. But the track also is the site of his only victory in 83 starts on the XFinity Series. He has 83 career Cup victories, one away from matching Hall of Famers Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip for fourth on the all-time list.