Martin Truex Jr. pleased with progress at Michael Waltrip Racing

By Bob Pockrass

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Martin Truex Jr. is 24th in points, but content with how things are progressing in his first season with Michael Waltrip Racing.

Walter Scriptunas
NASCAR Illustrated

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CONCORD, N.C. – Martin Truex Jr. sits 24th in the Sprint Cup standings, and the newest driver in the Michael Waltrip Racing stable is happy.

Well, not exactly happy with the points but happy with his first four races since leaving Earnhardt Ganassi Racing for MWR.

After finishing sixth at Daytona, engine troubles relegated him to 39th at Auto Club Speedway in California, a mediocre day resulted in a 20th-place result at Las Vegas and then getting involved in a late accident dropped him to 27th at Atlanta.

“I’m very happy with it,” Truex said Wednesday following a news conference to promote the Sprint All-Star Race. “My team is awesome. Obviously with the points situation [we’ve had a] couple of bad races – we had an engine problem at California and last week getting wrecked with a strong car.

“We’ve been competitive. I think we could be in the top 10 or 15 in points, which would be a good start for us. But obviously the bad luck has taken away points. I think we’re gaining on it each week.”

Truex is in his first season not driving a car affiliated with Dale Earnhardt Inc., which owned half of the Busch Series team (with Dale Earnhardt Jr. owning the other half) that Truex drove for in winning the 2004 and 2005 Busch Series titles before moving into a DEI Cup car.

He opted to go to MWR to take over the seat available following team co-owner Michael Waltrip’s retirement from full-time racing. The organization hired Pat Tryson from Penske Racing to be his crew chief.

“We had a shot to win right out of the box at the 500,” Truex said. “We ran up front and we were close. Since then we’ve been OK. I was happy with the way Atlanta went. [It was] a top-10 run and that’s something to build on.”

MWR is looking to have one of its drivers make the Chase For The Sprint Cup for the first time in its four-year history. Truex made the Chase in 2007.

“I think we are OK, but we need to be better,” Tryson said. “We haven’t been able to dominate a race yet, which is what we need to do.”

Bristol might not be the place for that to happen. Truex has never led a lap in his eight Cup races at the track and his best finish there is 11th.

He did, though, win his first career NASCAR national touring series race there in March 2004 when he started second and won the Busch Series event.

“I really enjoy Bristol,” Truex said. “It’s a great place to go. The races there are awesome and exciting and it’s a great place to race. For us, it’s going to be our first time as a team at a short track. We did a little bit of short-track testing over the winter and I felt really good about it. Until you go there, you don’t know and Bristol is a one-of-a-kind place.”

For Truex, he just hopes he takes another step in the learning process of working with a new team and crew chief.

“We’re still learning a lot,” Truex said. “We have a long way to go but so far, the potential seems great and I’m excited to be part of the team and I think we’ll be getting better and should have a great season.”