Tag Archives: Furniture Row Racing

Truex Exudes Confidence as he Comes to Home Track

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Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota, speaks with the media after practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Citizen Solider 400 at Dover International Speedway on September 30, 2016 in Dover, Delaware. Photo - Sean Gardner/Getty Images

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota, speaks with the media after practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Citizen Solider 400 at Dover International Speedway on September 30, 2016 in Dover, Delaware. Photo – Sean Gardner/Getty Images

If you don’t consider Martin Truex Jr. one of the favorites to win this year’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship, you haven’t been paying attention to the first two races in the Chase.

Truex won the Chase opener at Chicagoland Speedway and had perhaps the fastest car a week later at New Hampshire, though he dropped to seventh at the finish after a late restart.

Now he comes to Dover, the track closest to his childhood home in Mayetta, N.J., full of confidence—and not just because he’s locked into the Chase’s Round of 12 by virtue of the win at Chicagoland. Dover gave Truex his first Sprint Cup victory in 2007; in addition, he notched two poles and ten top-tens at the track. Continue reading →

Truex and Kenseth Stage Intense Late-Race Battle – But in Vain

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LOUDON, NH - SEPTEMBER 25: Matt Kenseth, driver of the #20 Dollar General Toyota, leads Martin Truex Jr, driver of the #78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota, and Chase Elliott, driver of the #24 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Bad Boy Off Road 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on September 25, 2016 in Loudon, New Hampshire. Photo by Rainier Ehrhardt/NASCAR via Getty Images

LOUDON, NH – SEPTEMBER 25: Matt Kenseth, driver of the #20 Dollar General Toyota, leads Martin Truex Jr, driver of the #78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Toyota, and Chase Elliott, driver of the #24 NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Bad Boy Off Road 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on September 25, 2016 in Loudon, New Hampshire.
Photo by Rainier Ehrhardt/NASCAR via Getty Images

For all appearances, Matt Kenseth and Martin Truex Jr. were going to settle Sunday’s Bad Boy Off Road 300 between them.

Truex led a race-high 141-of-300 laps at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Kenseth led 105.

From a restart on lap 249 until the fifth caution of the race on lap 285, the Toyota drivers ran 1-2, with Kenseth playing defense from the lead and Truex trying every trick he knew to get past Kenseth’s No. 20 Camry. Continue reading →

Truex Triumphs in Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Opener at Chicagoland

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You could see it coming from a mile-and-a-half away.

On new tires, Martin Truex Jr. rocketed around the outside lane after a restart in overtime at Chicagoland Speedway and pulled away to win Sunday’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 400, the opening race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

With the victory—his first at the 1.5-mile track, his third of the season and the sixth of his career—Truex also rocketed into the Chase’s Round of 12. But Truex wasn’t satisfied with a ticket into the next round and the prospect of racing stress-free at New Hampshire and Dover, the final two Round of 16 events. Continue reading →

Opportunistic Truex Gets Coveted Win in Bojangles’ Southern 500

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Martin Truex Jr.’s luck changed. Kevin Harvick’s didn’t.

And that was the difference in Truex’s unexpected victory in Sunday night’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Truex led 28 laps, all after passing Ryan Newman for the top spot on lap 339 of 367.

Harvick led a race-high 214 laps, bringing his career total to 10,068. But where Truex’s much-maligned pit crew performed its finest stop when it counted most—under caution on lap 351—Harvick’s crew experienced the sorts of problems that have become chronic this season.
 Continue reading →

Upcoming Kentucky Test Adds New Variables to Lower-Downforce Equation

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Photo - Robert Laberge/Getty Images

Photo – Robert Laberge/Getty Images

For more than a third of active NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers, there will be no rest for the weary.

One driver from each Cup organization is eligible to participate in a test of newly repaved Kentucky Speedway on Monday and Tuesday. The test is a continuation of NASCAR’s proving-out process for a new lower-downforce competition package earmarked for 2017.

Last year, as the sanctioning body solidified the rules for 2016, races at Kentucky and Darlington were used as benchmarks for the progression toward lower downforce for the Cup cars. This year, in selected events, NASCAR is taking an additional 500 pounds of downforce and 125 pounds of sideforce away from the cars by chopping the size of the spoiler, reducing the surface area of the splitter, tapering the rear deck lid fin and eliminating rear axle offset. Continue reading →