Truex’s team, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing, has been pretty fast this year. He’s been ahead in almost every race so far, leading for a total of 352 laps. But last Sunday at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, he finished in 18th place, his worst this year, and the only time he wasn’t on the lead lap at the end.
Despite this, he’s still doing well in the series standings, coming in second with 295 points, just 14 behind Kyle Larson, who’s in the lead. Even though he hasn’t won yet this year, he’s had five top-10 finishes. All four JGR drivers are doing well, with two of them (Denny Hamlin and Christopher Bell) having already won races.
Truex thinks his team is capable of going from doing well to actually winning. He’s optimistic, saying, “I feel good about where we are at. We’ve had a top-three to top-five car every week, every race, with the exception of Martinsville last week. We haven’t quite capitalized on that over the course of some of these races, some of it in our control and other stuff that just hasn’t worked out.”
He believes they’ve been consistent, but they need to fix some mistakes, especially with pit stops. He’s hopeful they’ll get their first win soon.
The upcoming race at Texas Motor Speedway looks promising for Truex. He’s usually done well on 1.5-mile tracks like this one. Out of his 34 career wins, 12 have been on similar tracks.
Although he’s had good finishes at Texas, including three-second places, he’s never won there. Truex remains optimistic, saying, “It’s always been a good track for us. In 2022, we were leading, and we blew a tire. It’s been one of those places where we have been snakebit a lot. We’ve had some good runs; we’ve had some struggles at times since they repaved it.”
He’s had some tough breaks there before, but he’s confident they’ll do well this time.