Martin
Truex Jr. says his Furniture Row Racing team is overdue to show its talent on a
short track.
The
next opportunity for the Denver-based team to reverse its short track woes comes
Saturday night in the Toyota Owners 400 at the 0.75-mile Richmond International
Raceway.
“We
threw two strong performances and a lot of points out the window in the last
two short track races,” said Truex. “We had a couple of things happen to us
that knocked us from bringing home solid finishes at both Bristol and
Martinsville.”
At
the half-mile Bristol Motor Speedway in mid-March, Truex’s Furniture Row/Denver
Mattress Chevrolet was 14th and charging in the late stages of
the race. But a broken track bar mount sent him to the garage for repairs and an
eventual 36th-place finish.
“Our
Furniture Row Chevrolet kept on getting better and better at Bristol and I was
confident that we had a potential Top-10 performance, before the breakage,” said
Truex.
Two
weeks later at the half-mile Martinsville Speedway, Truex saw another strong
performance go for naught. After taking a couple of hard hits at the crowded
flat track, Truex kept plugging through the damage and was moving forward. But
a speeding penalty while running in the Top-10 sent him to the rear of the
field just past the halfway point. He attempted another late-race charge, but a
spin sent relegated him to a disappointing, 21st-place finish.
“Martinsville
was just another bad deal,” recalled Truex. “But the finishes we are capable of
having are coming, and hopefully it will start this weekend at Richmond. From
the way we ran at Bristol and Martinsville, we should be running up front on
Saturday night.”
Truex
has always had a fondness for the Richmond short track, where he has posted
three career Top-10 finishes.
“Richmond is just a fun
racetrack to go to and try to get a win,” he said. “Without a doubt, the whole
track is difficult. It’s hard to get a car working good there. You have to turn
in the center and have forward drive. Finding that balance to get the car
rolling in the center and try to take care of that forward bite is something
you really have to work on at Richmond.”
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