Truex picks track position over tires in victory
LONG POND, Pa. — At most NASCAR tracks, first place is the best place to be.
That seems sort of obvious, but it has been blindingly clear in the period of aero-push, a phenomenon that makes passing the lead car more difficult than it seems. It was underlined Sunday in Martin Truex Jr.’s victory in the Pocono 400.
Truex stayed on track during a caution period with 17 laps to go to stay up front, while Kyle Busch, who also had one of the race’s fastest cars, dropped onto pit road for four new tires.
In some scenarios, new tires rule. In this one, the wide-open spaces in front of Truex’s windshield looked better. Busch made up some of his deficit to Truex, but he ultimately hit a brick wall of air and finished third, which is basi- cally the same as last in Busch’s world.
The decision between tires and track position sometimes is a difficult one, and Truex acknowledged Sunday that he felt a bit nervous with fast cars and fresh tires behind him.
“But once we fired off and I saw the lap times and I knew what my car felt like, I was like, ‘Oh, we’re good; we’ve got them. It’s game over,’ ” he said.
“I mean, clear air, it is what it is. We’re going 205 miles an hour going into turn one. If you show me a world where we can go 205 and air doesn’t matter, then you’re going to surprise a lot of people. … Unless we go 80 miles an hour, clean air is going to be important.”
At least for the moment, the Truex win put some new headlines in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season. Kevin Harvick and Busch have been the big dogs for most of 2018, and Harvick seemed set to grab win No. 6 Sunday. But caution flags and pit stops changed the face of the race late in the afternoon, and Truex rose to the occasion.
Busch and Harvick could return to the forefront this weekend as the tour moves on to Michigan International Speedway, but Truex has made enough noise to prompt a detour in the thinking that the championship race might be strictly a Harvick-Busch affair.
At the same point last season, Truex also had two wins. He finished 2017 with the championship and eight victories.
“We go week to week, try to evaluate where you’re at, and you’re always trying to be out there winning races or challenging to win, and obviously you want to be at the top of your game when the last 10 races come,” Truex said.
The “top of the game” is a moving target, but Truex moved into the same room with Busch and Harvick Sunday.