Martin Truex Jr., the driver of the #78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota, talks with his crew chief Cole Pearn in the garage area during practice for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Tales of the Turtles 400 at Chicagoland Speedway on September 15, 2017, in Joliet, Illinois. Photo – Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Martin Truex Jr has a favorite saying that gives him the motivation to keep trying when trying times happen.
“We Never Quit”
His Furniture Row Racing team led by crew chief, Cole Pearn also finds a great deal of inspiration in that phrase. They’ve been together for three years and in the last two years, they’ve come close, but not quite there toward earning the NASCAR Cup Series championship title.
But this year is different. Now they are the NASCAR Cup Series champions for the regular season. And they understand there’s more work to do.
With their victory in the first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoff race, the team now has their sights set on earning the series’ playoff championship trophy at Homestead-Miami in November. Their team owner Barney Visser realizes he has a special combination of people with the right mindset for success.
“I think we all realize it’s just a unique time in history, in all of our lives, that this has come together,” Visser explains in his post-race comments. “It’s pretty rare that you can pull together a group of people this talented, and they will communicate well and get along as well as these guys do.”
So, what is it about this group and why do these talented individuals get along so well?
According to Pearn, it’s their collective career experience within the sport. In a way of speaking, it seems everyone on the team has learned how to deal with difficult times throughout their careers. And with experience, they know what won’t work and what does work.
“Yeah it just goes to our core,” says Pearn after winning at Chicagoland. “We’re all similar in age, and kind of all have gone through struggles in our career and have all kind of come together at really the right time in everybody’s lives.
“So, when you go through adversity like we’ve gone through, we don’t get at each other. We stay focused and that really just helps us get through it.”
Through their individual experiences, they have come together at Furniture Row Racing with a driver, who also knows what it means to deal with difficult times. It makes sense that the more times they overcome challenges, the more confidence they gain in knowing how to deal with those challenging times. Everyone on the team understands their mindset needs to match the toughness of their adversity.
“I mean, you look back at everything we’ve been through in the last month,” says Pearn. “Really as far as having races all locked up, then giving it away with two laps to go, we’ve been tested. And tested mentally for sure.
“So, I think being in contention to win a lot of races, it definitely helps thicken your skin and helps get you prepared for those scenarios when you’re going to have off days. I think having them early like we did, we knew we could rebound and we were able to pull it together.
“So I think for us, that’s just a good vote of confidence to get things back in the right direction and hopefully, we can keep it rolling here.”
Ever hear of this one? ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going.’
In the case of this Furniture Row Racing team, when the going gets tough, they embrace their driver’s favorite saying – ‘We Never Quit.’ They understand their success is not an individual pursuit. It takes mental toughness with a team that works well together and keeps their focus on what they all want – the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship trophy.