● Five to Go: After a 11th-place finish last weekend at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, Truex sits 14th in the driver standings with 2,130 points heading to this weekend’s race on the Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval.
● Truex has two top-10 finishes and has led a total of six laps in six career NASCAR Cup Series starts on the Charlotte Roval. Truex’s average Roval finish is 15.7.
● Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400k at Charlotte marks the final race of five road-course races on the 2024 Cup Series schedule. Truex finished 10th in the first road-course race of the year March 24 at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, before finishing 27th on June 9 at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway, where he was running second when he ran out of fuel on the last lap. He was 33rd in the series’ second visit to the downtown Chicago street course on July 7, then finished 20th in September at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International.
● Road-Course History: Truex has a total of five wins, 13 top-five finishes and 19 top-10s at the three permanent road-course venues on the Cup Series schedule – Sonoma, COTA and Watkins Glen. Four of those wins came at Sonoma and one at Watkins Glen.
● Looking for 35: Truex’s July 2023 win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon was his most recent Cup Series win, the 34th of his career, tying him with 2004 champion Kurt Busch for 25th on the all-time Cup Series win list.
● Ahead at this Stage: Truex has accumulated 64 stage wins since the beginning of the stage era in 2017. He is the only driver with 10 or more stage sweeps, with his latest sweep coming at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn in August 2023. Truex scored his fourth stage win of the season last month at Watkins Glen, leading the field across the line at the end of Stage 1.
Martin Truex Jr., Driver of the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry XSE
Back when the Roval was first announced, did you think it would be as cool as many thought it would be today?
“Yes, I remember all of it. I remember testing on the track for the first time when it was even a different configuration than we ended up with. There were no curbs, no grass, no paint, there was just dirt and old pavement. They just kept spicing it up and adding curbs and paint and all this stuff and it turned out to be a pretty cool-looking racetrack, especially on TV with all the paint, and it had a bit of an F1 feel to it from that standpoint. Still think it was kind of wonky and weird, but I also think it’s what makes it what it is. It’s very unique, it’s different, it’s challenging. They went out on a long limb when it was created and it’s turned out to be pretty cool.”
Did you feel that the Roval was going to be difficult? And what did you think of it after running it a few times?
“I would say so. I was one of the first guys to test with just an infield road course with grass all around. I was wondering, since it was small and narrow and not sure how we would race on it beforehand, but it turned out to be quite the show. You have to be open-minded and embrace the challenges and try to do the best you can with it. That was how I viewed the Roval at the beginning, and how we tried to approach the Chicago Street Race, as well. We almost won the Roval the first year, so we ran well there and would love to get that win there this weekend with our Bass Pro Shops Camry.”
What type of track causes the most chaos in the Cup Series these days?
“The obvious answer to most is the superspeedways and how things happen and how it can take out a lot of cars quickly. However, road-course restarts have become the next-craziest part of what we do. Looking back at last year, we crashed on one of the restarts with guys going five- and six-wide and guys trying to make up eight to 10 spots in one corner. I think that’s the biggest change in our sport the last few years.”
Is it still possible to win a bunch or even half of the playoff races in this era?
“I think it’s definitely harder to do than it was. It’s all because of the car. Definitely. You used to be able to find advantages easier with cars and builds than you can now. You’ve sort of seen it so far here in the playoffs, not only have we seen several different winners, but we’ve also seen several guys who have won who are not currently in the playoffs.”
● Event: Bank of America Roval 400 (Round 32 of 36)
● Time/Date: 2 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Oct. 13
● Location: Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway Roval
● Layout: 2.28-mile, 17-turn road course
● Laps/Miles: 109 laps, 252.88 miles
● Format: Stage 1: 25 laps / Stage 2: 25 laps / Final Stage: 59 laps
● TV/Radio: NBC / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
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