CORNELIUS, N.C. — No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. has a simple plan for forgetting last weekend’s Infineon Raceway disappointment — win Sunday’s race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Truex saw a top-five run end after contact with Jeff Gordon dropped him back in the field exposing him to a multi-car accident that ended his race. The Mayetta, N.J. native hopes for a more pleasant outcome Sunday on the mile oval where he won in NASCAR’s K&N Pro Series East driving for his father Martin Truex Sr. The younger Truex also scored his first Nationwide Series victory there in 2005. In the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Truex has scored the ninth most points in the last eight races at the Loudon, N.H. track.
QUOTES
Martin Truex Jr. Keys to Running Well at New Hampshire: “It is a pretty flat, fast and hard braking track. You need good brakes. You need to carry a lot of entry speed to be able to roll through the center. That’s the main thing. Usually if you can turn better than everybody else through the center, you’ll be really good. When it comes to qualifying, I don’t think your qualifying spot is as important as it is at certain tracks. A lot of times the race there seems to come down to tire strategies. Do you get two tires, four tires or no tires? It’s just the way it plays out. You just need to be on the right pit cycle at the end of the race. If you have a good car there at the end and you can pit for two or no tires, the chances are good to get a decent finish.”
Truex on why New Hampshire fits his Driving Style? “I kind of cut my teeth there. It was my first big track I ever raced on. I raced in the Busch North (now K&N Pro Series East) Series and won some races in that division when I was driving for my dad’s team. I’ve even raced a modified there. My first big NASCAR win came at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the Nationwide Series and it led to a championship. It’s an important place in terms of my career. It’s a place I have raced a lot. I have always enjoyed it. When you like a place, usually you do better at it.”
Thoughts on the Infineon Raceway Incident: “It’s very frustrating that we put so much effort in what we do and it takes one guy’s mistake to screw it up for you. It is really going to hurt our chances to make The Chase. The 42nd-place finish is going to kill us. The NAPA team continues to do a great job. Our cars are running fast. It was by far the best car I have ever driven at Infineon Raceway. We had a great run going. I really thought it was going to be a good day for us. It just stinks when someone screws it up for you. I wish in our situation that things were different. I wish that we were in a position where what happened to us on Sunday wouldn’t cost us a chance to make the Chase. All we can do is go back to work and keep working hard. Hopefully this kind of stuff doesn’t happen again. We’ve had a couple of bad weeks. We didn’t run as well as we should have at Charlotte. We got in the late-race wreck at Pocono. At Michigan we didn’t run as well as we should have. This past weekend we were really good and were wrecked. It just seems like when we run well, we still do not get the finishes. That’s what we are missing right now. We still need to work on that.”
Notes
Truex Jr., Truex Sr. and younger brother Ryan Truex will hold a media availability session in the New Hampshire Motor Speedway media center on Friday at 1:30 p.m.
Truex competes in his 169th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Truex has eight starts at the 1.058-mile oval. His best start is second (Sept. 16, 2007) and best finish is third (July 1, 2007). He’s earned three top-five, four top-10 and seven top-25 finishes. His average start is 11th and average finish is 14th. He has completed 2,266 of 2,365 laps (95.8%). He’s led 47 laps in competition.
Take advantage of a great NAPA promotion this month. Consumers can visit a NAPA AUTO PARTS Store or a NAPA AutoCare Center, and get the following mail-in rebates—
$20 rebate on the NAPA Optima Heavy-Duty batteries, $15 rebate on NAPA Legend 84 month battery and $10 rebate on all NAPA LEGEND 75-month batteries.
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