- TRUEX AT BRISTOL DIRT: Martin Truex Jr. turned in a standout performance in last year’s inaugural dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway. After starting fifth, Truex led a race-high 126 laps and won stage one. He finished fourth in stage two and was positioned third before a flat tire on an overtime restart relegated him to a 19th-place finish. Earlier in the day, Truex dominated the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series dirt race at Bristol by leading 105 of 150 laps, winning both stages and ultimately capturing his first career Truck Series victory.
- MARTINSVILLE RECAP: Truex finished 22nd last weekend at Martinsville Speedway. After battling his way up to 12th during the final stage, Truex made a scheduled green-flag pit stop, but a right-front wheel issue upon exiting the pits forced the three-time Martinsville winner to make an unscheduled pit stop and dropped him two laps off the pace.
- AUTO-OWNERS: Auto-Owners Insurance will be featured as the primary sponsor of Truex’s No. 19 Camry TRD for Sunday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The Lansing, Michigan-based company offers multiple lines of insurance, including life, home, auto and business to customers in 26 states. 2022 marks Auto-Owners’ fourth year with Joe Gibbs Racing as they will once again be featured for eight races on the No. 19 Camry TRD. To learn more about Auto-Owners, visit www.auto-owners.com.
- JGR AT BRISTOL: Joe Gibbs Racing earned one top-five finish (Denny Hamlin, third) in the inaugural Bristol dirt race. Overall, the team combined to lead 134 of 253 laps. On Bristol’s traditional concrete oval, the organization has tallied 13 victories, 38 top-five finishes, 58 top-10s, 6,294 laps led and 11 pole awards.
- TUNE IN: Coverage of this weekend’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway begins Sunday, April 17, at 7 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN Radio, and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
Martin Truex Jr., Driver of the No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry TRD
What do you expect racing Bristol on dirt for a second time?
“There’s going to be a lot of differences, I think. They put progressive banking in to try to help the high side work and get more side-by-side racing. We’re obviously racing at night, so it’s probably going to be pretty cool and hopefully we’ll be able to keep some more grip in the track. Hopefully it doesn’t get so dried out and dusty like it did last year. And then we’ve got the new car, so we’ll have that change as well. It was a ton of fun last year. I’m really looking forward to trying it again.”
JGR PR
