Martin Truex Jr. lavished in a fairytale season that culminated into his first NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series Championship. From the beginning, Truex Jr. let it be known that 2016 wasn’t a fluke. In fact, he and his team were flat out the best in the sport. More importantly, the Northwest-based driver finished strong when he crossed the finish line at Miami-Homestead in front.
Overall, Martin Truex Jr. led the NASCAR world in wins (8), top fives (19), top 10’s (26), laps led (2,253), average start (6.8) and average finish (9.4). Now if that isn’t a dominant performance, I don’t know what is. Along with the victories, a big part of Truex Jr.’s journey his first title because his team adapted the best to the new format of stage racing. NASCAR implemented the format before the start of the 2017 season.
Besides his race at Miami-Homestead Speedway, Truex collected a total of 438 points in Stage 1 and 2 in 35 events this year. Those figures easily led all Monster Energy Cup Series drivers. The only reason he didn’t collect more in the finale’ is that he was part of the Championship 4 that competed for all the marbles. Amazingly, the #78 Furniture Row racer earned points in 54 of 71 stages throughout the year. Considering there were only 73 stages overall, the stats speak for themselves. To top it all off, the speedster also claimed 19 stage wins that were worth 10 points apiece.
“That played into the favor of the cars that were fast and the teams that performed well, performed at a high level throughout each week and each race,” Martin Truex Jr. said. “It was something that worked for us. There’s no telling how it will work for us next year. You’ve just got to be fast, qualify well and lead laps. That what we did this year.”
Martin Truex Jr.’s first stage triumph of the year came at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He didn’t stop there. The veteran driver went on to win the second stage along with the race. In doing so, he became the first Monster Energy Series Cup driver to sweep both stages along with taking the checkered flag out in front.
“To win a race that early in the season was huge,” Martin Truex Jr. said. “We’d never won early in the season before. To get that out of the way, know that we can just push, try to go out and just win races from there was a big relief. It was a big confidence booster for us.”
The dominant performance at Las Vegas set the tone for the rest of the season. In June, Martin Truex Jr. won two more stages at Dover International. He also repeated that performance in the same month at Michigan where he finished runner-up. Once again, the momentous driver swept an entire race at Kentucky Speedway in July. In early September, Truex Jr. showed plenty of muscle by winning two more stages at the famed Darlington Speedway.
Because of all the stage points that he accumulated throughout the year, Martin Truex Jr. moved into second place in the series standings after the ninth race of the season at Richmond. In that battle, the #78 Furniture Row phenom took 10th. After his race at Richmond, he never fell lower than that position and took the top spot in the standings after his victory in Kentucky. From there, he was in first in the standings all the way through the rest of the regular season.
The road to his first championship wasn’t without inner battles that were fought off the track. Longtime girlfriend Sherry Pollex is a mainstay on the close-knit Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Unfortunately, she was missing from his pit box because she was recovering from surgery for a recurrence of cancer. Instead, she tweeted her congrats to Martin Truex Jr. from her hospital bed after his third win of the year.
If that wasn’t enough of a test, he also honored Jim Watson after he swept his second race at Kansas. Watson, a crew member, died of a heart attack the night before the race got underway. The victory was a challenging and emotional one for Martin Truex Jr. The Furniture Row Racing team overcame an early restart violation and an unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel to snatch the victory.
“We couldn’t believe some of the things that were happening and thought there was no way that we were going to win that race,” Martin Truex Jr. said afterward. “I can’t believe how this day went. That’s why you never give up, ’cause you never know what could happen. We were definitely racing with heavy hearts, losing Jim. He was a heck of a guy, a great worker and put a lot of speed in these Toyotas. So glad we could get him one here.”
Martin Truex Jr. drove into the playoffs at Chicagoland Speedway as the top seed. He held a 20-point advantage over Chevrolet driver Kyle Larson. Truex Jr. won the race at Chicago for his first of four triumphs in the playoffs. Truex led the series in average finish (4.3) and top fives (nine) in the 10 playoff races.
In the Round of 8, Martin Truex Jr. captured his place in The Championship 4 based on points after posting two consecutive runner-up finishes. In the championship race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, Truex staved off a determined Kyle Busch while leading the final 51 laps to win the championship. Believe me, I was there and it was quite the emotional moment for everyone involved with the Furniture Row Racing team. Fans, crew members, families and drivers alike celebrated for Truex Jr.’s first NASCAR title.
“I found a line that worked for my car with 20 laps to go that I couldn’t find all day long,” Martin Truex Jr. said after the race. “I had searched for it all day, could never find it. Then all of a sudden with 20 to go, I found it. Not only did it help my car, but it hurt Kyle’s car. He got to second and when he did. He was three or four tenths faster than I was before I found the line. That was the difference.”
The win in Miami lowered Martin Truex Jr.’s average finish to 2.5 in the 11 races at 1.5-mile tracks in 2017. Furthermore, he was victorious a record seven times at those types of tracks in one season. That also included a stretch were he won four-straight.
Martin Truex Jr. Bio:
Martin Truex Jr. competes full-time in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series for Furniture Row Racing. Truex has 15 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victories. He also was the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion. Truex is a two-time Xfinity Series champion, winning the series in 2004 and then again the following year. Overall, he has 13 career wins in the Xfinity Series.
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