Truex wants to be a king of the 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 (Calif.) Raceway as the only two true road courses on the Cup schedule.

Gordon, with nine career road course victories, won six consecutive races from 19972000. His streak included three victories each at Watkins Glen and Sonoma. Stewart, with eight career road course victories, won three consecutive 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 consecutive. 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 Saturday, insisting he could be going for four consecutive if not for an engine failure at Sonoma last year. His Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota led 25 laps in that race 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.

Truex is part of the “Big 3” in NASCAR that is dominating the season. Truex, Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch have combined to win 16 of the 21 Cup races. Truex has four victories, but three of those have come in the last eight outings. The Sonoma victory was by a margin of over 10 seconds and was aided by crew chief Cole Pearn’s gamble to pit off-sequence from the rest of the leaders.

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 as the race wound toward the checkered flag.

“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.”

Opportunities to win have been rare this season because of the Big 3 and Joey Logano doesn’t expect those drivers to give an inch today on the high-speed road course. Busch, Harvick and Truex are the only active drivers in the Cup Series with previous victories at both Sonoma and Watkins Glen.

“I still expect the same cars to be fast,” Logano said. “It wouldn’t be surprising to see those three cars being three of the fastest.”