Truex chasing title as racing’s king of the road
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, who qualified fourth at Watkins Glen on Saturday, is seeking his third consecutive victory on a road course Sunday. The 11-turn, 3.4-mile circuit joins Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway as the only two true road courses on the Cup schedule.
Denny Hamlin won the pole at 125.534 mph, ahead of ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch. Chase Elliott will start third and Kyle Larson rounds out the top five.
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 road course 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 right-hand turns.
“It’s a unique set of circumstances. It’s an extraspecial feeling to win on tracks that are completely different like this,” Truex said Saturday, insisting he could be going for four straight if not for an engine failure at Sonoma last year.
“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.”
Truex is part of the “Big 3” in NASCAR this season. Truex, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch have combined to win 16 of the 21 Cup races. Truex has four victories, three of those in the last eight outings.
The Sonoma win was by a margin of over 10 seconds and was aided by crew chief Cole Pearn’s gamble to pit off-sequence.
Pearn was pivotal last year at The Glen when the No. 78 won a strategic fuel mileage race. Truex held off Matt Kenseth on the final lap after Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney were forced to pit for gas.
“You do what you can do,” said Keselowski, a three-time runner-up at The Glen, “if it takes strategy to win, you play strategy. If you can win on speed, you try to win on speed.”