Martin Truex Jr. Michigan Preview

CORNELIUS, N.C. — NAPA Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. will spend a few days of rest and relaxation with family this week before he heads to Michigan International Speedway for Sunday’s 400-mile NASCAR Sprint Cup race. After racing and fishing, Truex’s great passion in life is his Philadelphia Flyers who hope to avoid elimination in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals against Chicago on Wednesday. The Mayetta-N.J. native attended Games 3 and 4 of the finals in Philadelphia last week as well as a conference final against Montreal hours after the Dover race.

Truex is excited about more than just his Flyers. His Michael Waltrip Racing team enjoyed some great runs in May and ran well in Pocono before a last lap crash ruined a chance for a top-10 finish. Truex likes the two-mile, D-shaped oval in Michigan where he finished second in both 2007 races.

QUOTES

Martin Truex Jr. on Philadelphia Flyers: “I remember going to the old Spectrum when I was four or five years old. I’ve been a fan for a long time. They are an awesome team to watch and they play with a lot of energy and so much heart. To comeback they way they did when so many wrote them off says a lot about The Flyers. They won all three big games that Sherry and I went to so I will feel awfully bad if they lose on Wednesday night.”

Truex on Michigan: “Michigan is one of those tracks that I like. I didn’t like it much last year because I didn’t run well, but in the past I’ve has some really good runs. One of the things that makes Michigan fun is it’s really a wide racetrack and has a bunch of grooves available. You can run all the way down to the white line and up to the fence. It’s probably one of the widest tracks we go to. Because of that, I don’t think where you qualify is indicative to your chances to win the race. If your car is good, you can usually catch guys pretty easy.”

Crew chief Pat Tryson on Michigan: “Hopefully we have a shot to win it or a top-five. We’ve been running well lately, but still don’t know what happened at Charlotte. Other than that, we have been good so it’s important for us to get some points back this weekend after the wreck last week. To me, you need to be able to run the top at Michigan, but you also have to be able to run the middle and the bottom to pass people. A lot of guys end up going to the top including Martin. When I won the race with Kurt Busch (2007), we could run the top, but move to the middle and bottom to pass. I think to win, your car has to be able to move to the middle and bottom in order to get around guys.”

ADDITIONAL NOTES OF INTEREST

The driver of the No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota will be competing in his 167th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway (MIS).

Truex has eight starts at MIS. His best start of fifth came last season (Aug. 16). In 2007, he recorded back-to-back second-place finishes at the two-mile oval. He’s earned two top-five, two-top 10 and six top-25 finishes. His average start is 15th and average finish is 18th. He has run 1,526 of 1,535 laps of competition (99.4%) and has led a total of 54 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.

Martin Truex Jr. - Pocono Race Report

• Martin Truex Jr., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry - Finished 25th - now 15th in points

Martin Truex Jr. Race Summary: Martin Truex Jr. had a solid run spoiled after a last lap incident caused major damage to the No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota. Truex started 27th but was quick to report a loose-handling Toyota. The first caution flew on lap 15 and Truex hit pit road for service. He restarted 26th and began slowly working his way through the field. By the halfway point he was in the top 15 and then was listed in the top 10 with just under 50 laps remaining in the 500-mile event. With pit strategy starting to play out near the end of the race, crew chief Pat Tryson summoned Truex to pit road for fuel only on lap 168. Truex was forced to restart deep in the field with only 30 laps remaining in the event because some teams opted to stay on the race track. The veteran driver sliced and diced his way through the field and was in the top 12 when a caution flag flew with just two laps remaining in the race forcing a green, white, checkered finish. Unfortunately, Truex was involved in a massive incident on the final lap and he limped the No. 56 Toyota to a 25th-place finish.


Martin Truex Jr., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota

• Truex finished 25th and is now 15th in championship point standings. He is 65 points out of 12th.

• Fought a loose handling No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota for the majority of the event.

• Worked his way into the top 15 by the halfway point

• Truex reported the car was starting to come to life on lap 125

• Listed in the top 10 with just under 50 laps remaining in the race

• Ran as high as eighth at one point in the race

• Truex pitted on lap 168 for fuel only

• Truex was involved in a massive incident on the last lap of the race and limped to the finish line

TRUEX QUOTE: “There’s not a whole lot I can say about today. It’s a shame to race your way up into a top-10 position and have the race unfold the way it did. We got back up to 14th and then we got involved in the last lap crash. To have a good run taken away like that is tough. I don’t like races like this . We has a good NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota and the guys did a great job. We didn’t deserve a 25th-place finish today.

RACE NOTES:

• Denny Hamlin won the race under caution over teammate Kyle Busch

• The win is Hamlin’s fourth of the season.

• Kyle Busch, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Jeff Burton rounded out the top-five

• The race lasted three hours and forty-four minutes in front of an estimated crowd of 105,000

• The race featured 14 lead changes among seven drivers

• The race was slowed by eight cautions for a total of 27 laps

• The start of the race was delayed nearly two hours due to rain and track drying

• The next race is June 13, 2010 at Michigan International Speedway.

Martin Truex Jr. - Pocono Raceway Qualifying Report

Martin Truex Jr., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry - Qualified 27th
Summary
Michael Waltrip Racing drivers Martin Truex Jr. and David Reutimann both experienced issues during Friday’s qualifying effort for the Gillette ProGlide 500 at Pocono. Martin Truex Jr. experienced some sort of mechanical issue that caused his car to skip down the front stretch and caused the No. 56 team to qualify 27th with a time of 53.824 sec.
Meanwhile, David Reutimann also experienced difficulty, but his came in the way of a handling issue caused by bottoming out over a difficult racing surface. Reutimann said that as the splitter would hit the track over a particularly rough stretch between turns one and two it caused the nose of his Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota to take off on him and lose speed. Reutimann qualified 29th with a time of 53.855 sec. This week’s qualifying effort snaps a streak of four consecutive points races where an MWR driver has started from a top-five position.
Both teams practiced well in race trim on Friday’s only practice and should be able to gain positions throughout Sunday’s 500 mile event at the 2.5 mile Pocono Raceway.
Sunday afternoon’s running of the Gillette ProGlide 500 presented by Target gets underway on TNT, MRN Radio and SiriusXM Satellite Radio 128 starting at 1 p.m. ET.
Friday Recap
Kyle Busch won the Coors Light Pole Award for the second time in four weeks with a time of 53.102 sec.
Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-five.
Points leader Kevin Harvick will start 22nd
Bowyer is making his best Cup start (second) of 2010
JTG-Daugherty Racing driver Marcos Ambrose qualified the No. 47 Toyota 16th

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota Camry, Qualified 27th

What happened with your car during your qualifying lap?
“I’m not real sure. We only have one box and one battery for qualifying so I can’t switch. It was strange. Just all of the way down the front straightaway was skipping real bad and it wouldn’t turn any RPM. Then it mysteriously went away off of turn one and down the backstretch. Not real sure, but the NAPA Toyota was driving real well. I thought it was going to be a good lap without that. The guys did good. We’ll just have to go back and figure out what happened and race them all Sunday.”

Martin Truex Jr. Pocono Preview

CORNELIUS, N.C. — NAPA Racing’s Martin Truex Jr. and crew chief Pat Tryson are ready to take on Pocono Raceway—the next stop on the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit. The Michael Waltrip Racing duo knows the 2.5-mile tri-oval known as the “tricky triangle” presents teams with unique challenges. After just 13 points races together, Tryson and Truex are building a chemistry sure to pay even bigger dividends as the season progresses. Both have enjoyed success at the Pennsylvania track. Truex finished third in this race in 2007 while Tryson, a native of nearby Malvern, visited victory lane at Pocono in the fall of 2007.

QUOTES

Truex on running long races back-to-back at Charlotte and Pocono: “They are both very long races, but the race at Charlotte is different because it starts in the day and ends at night. Charlotte is one of the places that changes the most when taking the track temperature and weather conditions into consideration. It’s really tough. At Pocono, it is a long race, but it starts and ends in the afternoon. Teams deal with the same conditions all day long so it’s really not like Charlotte at all.”

Truex on which turn is the toughest to tame at Pocono: “The hardest thing about Pocono is it’s not really just one corner that is hard. All three corners are very different. That’s what makes the track challenging. If I had to pick one, I would say Turn 1 is the most difficult. It’s really slick and the bumps are really, really bad in Turn 1. They also put a new strip of asphalt down in Turn 3 a few years ago and that has really made things a handful. The rest of the track is all worn out. With the brand new strip of asphalt in Turn 3, you are constantly fighting a tight condition. In Turn 1, you are super loose. It is very challenging. You are all over the place there.

“I’ve seen drivers run well in all three corners. The key is to be a little bit better in each corner than the next guy. It is so competitive out there that you can’t just focus on one turn or throw a turn out. If you do either one or both of those, you won’t stand a chance. You’ve got to make some compromises, but you still have to be good everywhere. You need good grip and drive off in all of the corners. And it needs to turn well through all of the turns. It’s all tough to do, but I think we can get it accomplished this weekend.”

Crew Chief Pat Tryson on keys to running well at Pocono: “For me, I like to focus on Turns 2 and 3 more so than Turn 1. That’s because the straightaway is so long that you do most of your passing on the straightaway. If you can go through the Tunnel Turn pretty easily, then you should be good and good enough to compensate Turn 1. To me, it’s more about getting your car to handle well in Turns 2 and 3 to have a chance to win at Pocono.”

ADDITIONAL NOTES OF INTEREST

The driver of the No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota will be competing in his 166th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday at Pocono Raceway.

Truex has eight starts at Pocono Raceway. His best start and finish is third (June 10, 2007). He’s earned one top-five, and six top-20 finishes. His average start and finish is 17th. He has run 1,505 of 1,506 laps of competition (99.9%) and has led a total of four laps in competition.

In the last eight races at Pocono, Truex ranks 14th in the most points earned amongst the drivers. In the last five NASCAR Sprint Cup races, Truex ranks 12th in the most points earned.

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.

Martin Truex Jr. - Coca-Cola 600 Qualifying Report

 

Martin Truex Jr., No. 56 NAPA Batteries Toyota Camry - Qualified third, Inside Row Two

 

Summary

 

For a short time on Thursday afternoon it looked like it could be an all Michael Waltrip Racing front row to start the Coca-Cola 600, as Martin Truex Jr. and David Reuitmann were sitting one-two after more than half the field had attempted their qualifying laps. But, as the track cooled in the late afternoon some of the later qualifiers were able to drop the pair out of the front row. Both Michael Waltrip Racing Camry’s will start in the top-six.

Martin Truex Jr. paced the Michael Waltrip Racing Camry’s with a time of 28.848 seconds on Thursday afternoon at Charlotte Motor Speedway and will start Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 in the third position. David Reutimann also posted a top-six lap of 28.904 seconds to start Sunday’s race in the sixth position. Sunday night will be the fourth consecutive points race that MWR has a Camry starting from a top-five position. (Truex won the pole award at Dover, Reutimann 2nd at Richmond, 4th at Darlington).

Sunday afternoon’s running of the Coca-Cola 600 gets underway on FOX, PRN Radio and SiriusXM Satellite Radio 128 starting at 5:45 p.m. ET.

Friday Recap

• Ryan Newman won the Coors Light Pole Award for the second straight Coca-Cola 600 with a time of 28.793.
• This is Newman’s first pole and seventh top-10 start in 2010.
• This is Newman’s ninth pole in 19 races at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
• Kurt Busch, Truex Jr., Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson round out the top-five.
• JTG-Daugherty Racing driver Marcos Ambrose qualified the No. 47 Toyota 34th

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 56 NAPA BATTERIES Toyota Camry, Qualified Third
Is this qualifying run momentum from the All-Star race? “Business is picking up.  The NAPA Toyota is really good here.  It was good last week, obviously.  It was good to get some momentum through the All-Star race, the Showdown win and all that kind of stuff.  The big thing is that these guys are just doing a phenomenal job.  Pat (Tryson, crew chief) and all these guys bring me good race cars and we’re really starting to click.   I’m starting to have fun again and it’s been cool.”

 

How do you feel your car has been today in practice and qualifying? “It’s been a good day.  We had a good practice, but like we talked about earlier, it was tough to gauge exactly what you had because the track was so hot.  You knew you were going to have to pick up seven or eight tenths of a second.  It was difficult to really know what you had, it was just going out there and looking for that feel and a good balance with your race car.  We were able to get that this afternoon and go out there and lay down a good lap.  I was proud of the team and all their work.  Charlotte has always been a tough track for me, but I’m really starting to come around and warm up to it.”

 

How do you think the Coca-Cola 600 will progress? “I think you’ll see comers and goers.  Fortunately for us we were able to run in the Showdown this past weekend and that started about the same time our race is going to start Sunday.  That will be a little bit of experience for us as far as the conditions and we were pretty good in the Showdown and then went on to be the best we were at the end of the All-Star race.  I think we understand a little bit of what it takes to go through that transition of what our car is going to need.  I think we will have a little more of a heads-up on what the conditions are going to be like and the kind of adjustments we’re going to need to do.  It’s going to be a big help for us having that experience.  It’s going to change drastically for everybody and the guys who can stay on top of it and have a car that is able to be adjusted.  Sometime you have a car that you can try all night long and it doesn’t cooperate with what you are trying to do.  So if you have a car that you’re able to adjust on, which we were able to do last weekend then it will help you.  I’m looking forward to that and I think it will be a good positive for us.”

 

How much progress have you see your team make in recent weeks? “This has been a lot of momentum in progress for us.  We have been constantly chipping away at it and been coming together as a group.  Still an awfully new team.  Pat (Tryson, crew chief) is doing a great job with the cars and we’re just constantly building and getting better each week.  If we continue to do that, we’ll be challenging for race wins every week.”

 

Do you have a top-five car for Sunday? “I think we do.  It seemed like in race trim, we weren’t the quickest car.  We were right up there with the good cars.  It just seemed like on the longer runs we were really good.  That’s where we were pretty good the other night.  Obviously, the best we were all night were in the last 10 (lap) segment, but we did some adjusting for the short run.  It seemed like for most of the night, actually the long run is where we were our best.  I think we do.  I think we got a car that can run in the top-five all night, hopefully.  It’s just about being around at the end when it’s time to go.  With the pit crew I have on pit road and Pat (Tryson, crew chief) calling the race.  He does a super job with that.  And the guys on pit road are flawless.  Hopefully, we’ll just hang around the top-five all night, lead some laps, have some fun and when it comes time to race, we’ll be there with them.”

Martin Truex Jr. Coke 600 Preview

CORNELIUS, N.C. — So far Charlotte Speedweeks has been very good for NAPA Racing’s

Martin Truex Jr. He’s coming off a Sprint Showdown victory and a runner-up finish in the All-Star Race. This weekend all eyes will continue to be on the Michael Waltrip Racing driver. He’s good with the attention especially since his NAPA ride will sport a special look for the Coca-Cola 600. The well-known NAPA shield will be joined by NAPA Batteries. The high-energy paint scheme kicks off a great promotion for consumers. In June, 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.

QUOTES

Truex Jr. on momentum heading into Coca-Cola 600: “We felt good coming into last week’s events a Charlotte because of the test we had and what we learned. The last few weeks we seemed to be getting better and better. We thought we were going to be real good coming here, so it wasn't unexpected. It wasn't like we just came out of the blue and won the Showdown. We've been competitive. But momentum is a big thing in this sport. You see it all the time. It worked for us a couple years ago. It seemed to just give us that confidence in each other and know that we can get it done. Hopefully it will do the same thing. But time will tell. I am looking forward to the 600 this week. I think we'll have a good car. The NAPA guys will obviously work on it and work on the issues we had during the All-Star Race. We’ll get it better. We'll come back and try to do what we can do. It should be fun.”

Truex on the challenges of the event: “The Coca-Cola 600 is different in that it is so long. It starts in the daytime and ends at night. Charlotte is one of the most notorious tracks for changing with the weather conditions and even throughout the day. There are so many changes. You almost get to the end and forget about the beginning of the race. It feels like it’s just a night race because it is so long. You just go out there and try and stay on the race track. Just keeping up with its changes are what makes it one of the most difficult tracks on the circuit.”

Truex on the Charlotte track: “I got my best finish at Charlotte last weekend. It’s not been one of my better tracks. The last couple of years we have had some really good runs. I feel with Pat Tryson and the guys on the NAPA team, they have been giving me great cars – but really, Charlotte is just different. It is very fast and I enjoy the challenge. Turns 3 and 4 and Turns 1 and 2 are completely different. That’s what I think is the biggest challenge with it besides the fact that it changes more than anywhere we go.”

ADDITIONAL NOTES OF INTEREST

• The driver of the No. 56 NAPA Batteries Toyota will be competing in his 165th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday at Charlotte.

• Truex has nine starts at Charlotte Motor Speedway. His best start is 12th (Oct. 17, 2009) and best finish is seventh (May 29, 2005). He’s earned two top-10 and seven top-25 finishes. His average start is 25th and average finish is 19th. He has run 3,041 of 3,166 laps of competition (96.1%) and has led a total of eight laps.

• Truex has scored the seventh most points of all drivers in the last five NASCAR Sprint Cup races. As driver of the No. 56 NAPA Toyota in 2010, he has earned one pole, one top-five, four top-10, and 10 top-20 finishes.

• MEDIA AVAILABILITY: Truex will be stopping by the media center at 5:10 p.m. on Thursday as part of NASCAR’s Top-12 driver press conferences.

Martin Truex Jr. Sprint All-Star Preview

CORNELIUS, N.C. — It’s a no-holds-barred race weekend for Martin Truex Jr. and his NAPA Know How Crew as it’s finally time for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star Race. Truex has not been shy about campaigning for the Fan Vote as he’s made it known he’s not watching the event from his couch. Truex likes his chances of racing his way in through the Showdown after coming off his first Coors Light Pole Award at Dover as well as two top-10 and four top-15 finishes in the last five races.

QUOTES

 

Truex Jr. on the Sprint Showdown: “I think the Showdown will be an awesome race for fans to watch. The drivers in the Showdown over the last few years have made it tough to earn one of the two transfer spots. There are drivers who have won multiple races in a season, but for some reason, they haven’t won in awhile. To earn a spot this year will certainly be an accomplishment in itself. It just shows you how hard it is to win a Sprint Cup race. I am really looking forward to it.

 

“I really want to be in the Sprint All-Star race. The reason why I want to be in it so bad is I think we can win it. The NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota has been really fast lately. We had a really good test at Charlotte (March 23 & 24). The performance of my NAPA Know How Pit Crew has been excellent and they are getting recognized for it so I like our chances.”

 

Truex on the Fan Vote: “I think for an event like this, it really is important to get the fans involved. It’s cool how they’ve gotten into it. The amount of votes that have come in already is pretty astonishing. I’ve even had a lot of fun this year campaigning for the Fan Vote. Kyle Petty and Rutledge Wood helped me when Pat Tryson and I were contestants on NASCAR Smarts. Then we did a bunch of You Tube Fan Vote videos and they’ve gotten a lot of play on the internet and television. The fans even Twittered about it and that’s the whole point of why we do this. I know some drivers want race their way in and not lobby for the Fan Vote, but heck, if the fans want to vote me in, I would be proud to represent them. It’s great what Sprint and the fans do for us so the Fan Vote should be a part of the All-Star deal.”

ADDITIONAL NOTES OF INTEREST

• The driver of the No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota has earned starting positions in the Sprint All-Star race all three ways — The Fan Vote (2006), the Sprint Showdown (2007) and a Sprint Cup victory (2008, Dover 2007).

• Truex has scored the seventh most points of all drivers in the last five NASCAR Sprint Cup races. As driver of the No. 56 NAPA AUTO PARTS Toyota in 2010, he has earned one pole, one top-five, four top-10, and 10 top-20 finishes.

 

• The NAPA Know How Pit Crew will be competing in Wednesday night’s NASCAR Sprint Pit Crew Challenge at the Time Warner Arena in uptown Charlotte. It will be broadcasted on SPEED starting at 9 p.m. ET

 

• MEDIA AVAILABILITY: Truex will be stopping by the media center at 2:10 p.m. on Friday as part of NASCAR’s Top-12 driver press conferences.