Truex basks in success with everything at stake

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — NASCAR’s four championship contenders were seated elbow-to-elbow previewing their upcoming title race when they were asked to give one word to describe the season.

“Amazing,” said Martin Truex Jr.

Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick both said the season was “long,” while Kyle Busch went with “trying.” But Truex? Well, he’s got nothing to complain about.

Truex goes into Sunday’s finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway as the clear favorite to win the title. He has a series-best seven wins, six of them at 1.5-mile tracks, as Homestead is.

He leads the series in nearly every meaningful statistic, and if the points earned all season weren’t reset for Sunday’s finale, he’d have already won his first Cup title.

“If it wasn’t set back at zero, we’d probably all be congratulating Martin right now,” said Keselowski. “But it is.”

So it’s winner-take-all race, and everything Truex has built this season is on the line. He faces three former series champions, each of them looking for his second title.

For Harvick, it would be the first in Stewart-Haas Racing’s new partnership with Ford. Keselowski is seeking a crown to go with his 2012 title, which was not won under this format.

If Harvick or Keselowski wins, it would be the first title for Ford since 2004. They are up against two Toyotas, the dominant manufacturer this season.

Busch is seeking a repeat of his 2015 title. He’s chasing Truex, who has taken his Furniture Row Racing team to a level beyond the alliance it has with Joe Gibbs Racing.

Busch has been good this season, but he has not had anything close to Truex’s year.

With Truex the clear favorite, it made for a quiet media day — except when Busch and Keselowski were asked why they have never quashed their rivalry.

Keselowski tried to downplay a feud. Busch didn’t mince words.

“Sometimes you just don’t like a guy, fact of the matter,” Busch said. “I never ran into Matt Kenseth, I don’t think Matt Kenseth ever ran into me, so there is a respect factor out there on the race track and you certainly do a better job sometimes when you’re around some of those guys that you may or may not necessarily like. But as once a wise man told me, I think it was Chase Elliott, I race those like they race me.”

Elliott used that line last week to address his aggressive racing with Denny Hamlin that cost Hamlin a shot at the title. It was retaliation for Hamlin wrecking Elliott out of the lead at Martinsville earlier in the playoffs.

How aggressive can the contenders be Sunday to win the championship?

“I mean, I’m willing to try to go win the race,” said Keselowski. “When it comes down to the end of the race, I don’t think anyone really knows that answer until it’s right in front of them.”

Truex knew what the crowd wanted to hear.

“I’ll wreck any one of these three,” he joked.