Truex expects more success after big win

One-car ‘dream team’ shows it can compete for Sprint Cup titles.

Martin Truex Jr. believes big things are ahead for him, even bigger than his record run at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Truex ruled the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday night, leading 588 of 600 miles to set a NASCAR Sprint Cup record. It was his fourth career victory and first in nearly a year, although he’s come close in several other races.

Truex thinks his single-car program at Denver-based Furniture Row Racing has the potential to win championships, like the very best teams in NASCAR.

“This is one of those dream teams that if you stay together five, six or seven years, you could start doing things like Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus have done,” Truex said Sunday.

“We want to win races, we want to win championships, we want to win every single week.”

Charlotte was an eye-opening start.

Truex led 392 of 400 laps in NASCAR’s longest race.

Usually, Truex said, Charlotte is a hot, grueling affair where drivers jostle with rivals, deal with changing conditions from late afternoon to evening and wonder when the finish will come.

This time, Truex was surprised at how quickly the laps passed and how he found all that open space.

Not everything was perfect: Truex had a mid-race wobble that NASCAR greats turned TV analysts Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Gordon speculated was a blown tire.

(It turns out it almost was, according to Truex crew chief Cole Pearn.)

There was also a moment after the third restart when Johnson briefly moved in front.

Truex just swung around the six-time Sprint Cup champion and took control for good in the No. 78 Toyota.

“It seemed like the 78 must have led the whole race,” runner-up Kevin Harvick said. “Those guys definitely have had some fast cars this year.”

Truex was a few feet from winning NASCAR’s signature race, the Daytona 500 in February, where he fell short to Denny Hamlin.

Truex led the most laps in Texas and Kansas, yet was waylaid by bad pit strategy in the first one and wheel problems in the second.

“I mean, they have had a few runs where they have just been the class of the field and things have kept them from Victory Lane,” said Johnson, who finished third Sunday night.

“Tonight he wasn’t going to be denied . ... I kind of felt like he was playing with us. He was so fast.”