Truex honored as newest champ

It was fitting for Martin Truex Jr. to be introduced as NASCAR’s newest champion by his buddy Dale Earnhardt Jr.

It was Earnhardt who helped Truex venture out of New Jersey to give it a go in NASCAR. Now, nearly 15 years later, Truex was on racing’s biggest stage.

As much as this final week of celebration tilted toward Earnhardt, NASCAR’s retiring superstar, he made sure to turn the spotlight on his “good buddy” Truex during Thursday night’s Las Vegas celebration.

It ensured Truex, a journeyman driver who has battled more than his share of adversity on and off the track, got his proper due.

“To me and many who know him, he’s a champion in so many ways,” Earnhardt said in his introduction. “Like when his professional career turned challenging, his options limited, he blamed no one. He kept his head high, he persevered because he’s a champion person. While the love of his life battles the most evil of diseases and he stands with her to make her fight his fight, he’s a champion partner. When he’s away from the track, perhaps enjoying his true passion for hunting or fishing, you realize this, he’s a champion friend. He’s the man. The champion in so many ways and no one more deserving of this night.”

Truex was wiping away tears before he reached Earnhardt and the Monster Energy Cup trophy.

His story has been well-documented. Despite winning two second-tier titles while driving for Earnhardt, Truex’s Cup career hit bump after bump because of a changing economy and a cheating scandal in which he played no part butt nearly cost him his career.

When Michael Waltrip Racing manipulated the finish of a 2013 race at Richmond to try to get Truex into the playoffs, it set in motion a chain of decisions that first cost Truex his job and ultimately put MWR out of business. He had just one option: Denver-based Furniture Row Racing, an oddity in NASCAR. The Barney Visser-owned team was small, based in Colorado, and had only that season turned a small corner toward progress.