Martin Truex Jr. is focused forward after surviving the first two rounds of the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs and is confident all it’ll take is a good day to get things clicking again for his Joe Gibbs Racing team.
Las Vegas Motor Speedway could be the place where it happens. Truex was seventh fastest in Saturday’s lone practice session and then qualified fourth for the opening race of the postseason’s third round. It is the first race since Bristol that Truex is starting inside the top five and just the third (of seven) playoff races he’s doing so.
“We’re in a good spot to start this round,” Truex said about whether he needed to see that pace. “All that, the last six races are done and over with and we’ve turned the page. We started this weekend off good. We had a great day today in practice and qualifying, and that’s all you need to get things going.”
Truex’s average finish through the first two rounds was 21.3 without a top-10 finish. The best result for the No. 19 team in the first six races was 17th at Texas Motor Speedway, but through the bonus points of winning the regular season championship, Truex advanced into the Round of 8.
Not all of the struggles were a surprise. They knew there would be challenges at certain racetracks, and Truex is much more confident and eager about how the third round of the postseason stacks up. The intermediates of Las Vegas and Homestead-Miami Speedway give him a great chance to clinch a spot in the championship round early.
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Truex has two victories at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. In the last two races at the track, he’s finished seventh.
“I felt like the guys did a great job having a good car to unload with and felt really good throughout practice,” Truex said. “In the first round of qualifying, thought maybe we could get a little bit better, and I did a little better. They made the car a little better, and we came real close there. I just had to crack the throttle a little bit in (Turns) 3 and 4. I got a little tight, but aside from that, it was a really good lap, and … it should be a good starting spot. Excited for tomorrow.”
Sunday’s race will have much different track and air temperatures. Cup Series teams practiced early Saturday morning under very cool conditions (and an eclipse). It is forecast to be in the upper 80-degree range for the 400-mile race, and Truex isn’t concerned about losing the performance in his Toyota through the change in conditions.
“We kind of planned for all that, I think, and knowing the conditions would be different,” he said. “I think they have a good idea of where we need to go with the car direction-wise, and it’s just really all about hitting the pace. How much is the track going to be slower tomorrow? That kind of dictates what they change on the car, and as always, they’ll run 8 million laps on the computer tonight and hopefully nail it for tomorrow.
“It had really good stability and really good speed, and that’s something you can always work with to start the weekend.”