Truex the next king of roads?
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Martin Truex Jr. has a chance to join former NASCAR greats Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart as kings of the roads.
Truex is seeking his third consecutive victory on a road course in NASCAR’s stop today at Watkins Glen. The 11-turn, 3.4-mile circuit joins Sonoma (California) Raceway as the only two true road courses on the Cup schedule.
Gordon, with nine career road course victories, won six straight races from 19972000. His streak included three wins each at Watkins Glen and Sonoma. Stewart, with eight career roadcourse wins, won three straight from 2004-05.
Truex won at Watkins Glen last summer, in California in June, and now is chasing Stewart and Gordon for the mark of three straight. The reigning Cup champion figures he’s successful on road courses because he enjoys the challenge of the rare right-hand turns.
“It’s a unique set of circumstances. It’s an extra-special feeling to win on tracks that are completely different like this,” Truex said, insisting he could be going for four straight if not for an engine failure at Sonoma last year when his No. 78 Toyota led 25 laps before the engine blew.
“I think we should have three in a row already with the trouble we had at Sonoma last year, but that’s
kind of the way it goes in racing,” he added.
Today will be a marathon for NASCAR and the teams because inspection this week was moved to prior to the race. At Pocono, a twoday “enhanced weekend” like Watkins Glen, the inspections were performed after Saturday qualifying and it took hours with several cars failing.
“You adjust your game plan accordingly if something does happen to go awry,” Busch said. “It’s going to be a quick turnaround for people to figure out their game plan.”