Truex throws monkey off his back at Richmond
RICHMOND, Va. – Martin Truex Jr. didn’t need to convince himself he could run well at Richmond Raceway. He has several seasons’ worth of statistics to prove it, but he was never able to put it all together to win there.
Prior to Saturday night’s Toyota Owners 400, he dominated four of the last five races at the 0.75-mile track, leading more than 100 laps in four races since the fall of 2016. Across the previous three Richmond races, he led an incredible 40% of the laps but never finished higher than third.
But after 26 winless races at Richmond and an 80-race drought across the three short tracks in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Truex finally earned his first victory at a track smaller than a mile, surviving late surges from Joey Logano and Clint Bowyer, who finished second and third, respectively.
The victory was also Truex’s first with Joe Gibbs Racing, which he joined this season, and the 38-year-old driver struggled to articulate the sense of relief he and his team felt.
“To finally get that first win — not only on a short track but here at Richmond, a track where we’ve been so strong the last couple seasons and led so many laps and had some real, real heartbreakers,” Truex said after the race. “Those things are hard to get through. But they make you stronger and make you appreciate the good days.”
Saturday’s race, the ninth of the 2019 season, resembled Truex’s recent Richmond performances because, yet again, he led a race-high 186 laps, including the final 79.
This time there was no bad luck coming his way.
In September 2017, he led 198 laps in his then No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota, but a late caution and an eventual wreck on the penultimate lap shattered his hopes.
A year ago, his team had problems during a pit stop with nine laps left and finished 14th, despite 121 laps out front. And in last fall’s playoff race, a penalty dropped him to the back before he clawed back to finish third after leading 163 circuits.
Crew chief Cole Pearn, who transferred from Furniture Row to JGR with Truex this season, said when he saw Logano charge past Bowyer and run up behind the No. 19’s bumper, he thought, “‘Oh man, here we go.’ ”
“I was waiting to get passed because I didn’t think we were very good,” Pearn joked. “You’re worried about the good luck side or the bad luck coming in, but tonight it was just a matter of grinding it out.”
He and Truex are also pretty happy they don’t have to talk about being winless at short tracks anymore.
The victory was a “huge deal” for the team’s struggling pit crew, team owner Gibbs said. But it might have been bigger for Truex and Pearn.
“We wanted them to get that win because I think a lot of things this year haven’t gone well for them in races,” Gibbs said.
“We know how good they are. So they were the ones that were putting pressure on themselves; it wasn’t me. I kept trying to encourage them, and say, ‘Look, we’re gonna get this. Don’t worry about it.’
“But I know how competitive they are.”
When Truex was asked what achievement means the most to him — his first short-track win, his first win for Gibbs or his 20th career victory — he without hesitation simply said, “Yes.”