● Where We Stand: The New Jersey native sits seventh in the driver standings with 653 points, 96 behind leader Kyle Larson. All four Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) entries are currently inside the top-10 in the standings, with Denny Hamlin fourth, Christopher Bell eighth and Ty Gibbs 11th as the series heads to Richmond coming out of a two-week break for the 2024 Olympics.
● Playoff Watch: Just four races remain in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season with Truex sitting as the highest in points among the drivers without a win so far in 2024. Truex is 13th on the playoff grid with a 108-point cushion over 17th place. Twelve drivers have scored wins so far this season.
● Truex has three wins, 10 top-five finishes and 18 top-10s and has led a total of 1,587 laps in 36 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Richmond. Truex’s average Richmond finish is 15.0. In this year’s April race at Richmond, he led a race-high 228 laps and was leading with just two laps to go when the caution flag waved. The subsequent trip to pit road cost Truex his first win of the season as he looks to return this time and bring home the victory on Sunday night.
● Truex notched his most recent Richmond win in September 2021, when he led 80 laps en route to his third victory there. All three of Truex’s Richmond wins have come in a Joe Gibbs Racing car. In fact, in his last 11 races at Richmond, Truex has only finished outside the top-10 once.
● In his last 11 races at Richmond, Truex has amassed eight top-five finishes, which includes the aforementioned three victories.
● Laps Led: The 1,587 laps Truex has led at Richmond is the most he’s led at the active racetracks on the Cup Series schedule. His next-best track in laps led is Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway, where he’s led 1,067 laps.
● Looking for 35: Truex’s win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon last July 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 63 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 last August. Truex scored his third stage win of the season two races ago at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, 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
Once you began having success at Richmond, did it make a climb on the list of tracks you like?
“I’ve always really liked it, to be honest. From the first time I raced there in 2003, I’ve always enjoyed the track. There was a long period where I didn’t have great numbers there, but I felt like I loved the track and always ran well there and had a lot of crazy things happen there throughout my career. Once I got to Furniture Row (Racing), we started leading a ton of laps there. We also had a couple of heartbreaking finishes there where we should have won the race but didn’t, and I wondered if it was ever going to happen. Then we went on a streak there, so it’s been a great track and it’s a ton of fun. We had a great run going there in the spring and thought we had a shot at winning, then we were down a set of tires and the cautions didn’t go our way. I think we’ve improved our program a ton and have been putting on a show at some of the short tracks and places like Richmond. I hope for myself and my team we can get our Bass Pro Shops Toyota back in victory lane there like we’ve done before. We had such a dominant run there in the spring and the caution came out and our race went haywire from there. Would like to get back out front and stay there on Sunday.”
How do you view Richmond and your success there?
“The wins stick out as usual. Everywhere, the wins are huge. That place has been really, really good for us. And also very frustrating with the amount of times when we’ve dominated and came up short, including this season. It’s a very unique track, very old school track. Tire wear, you have to manage your stuff and that really plays into my strengths. It’s going to be different this time around with the tire combination from what we had in the spring. Going to have to figure out how to recapture it and hopefully come up with something that worked like it has in the past.”
This weekend at Richmond NASCAR is offering an option tire much like it experimented with at North Wilkesboro in May. What are your thoughts on the option tire and how it could change the racing at Richmond this weekend?
“The problem with options like that on a tire in the Cup garage is that everyone is so smart and people are on the same agenda. You are going to have to see a very specific set of circumstances to decide to put the soft tire on. You’re not going to be in the middle of a green-flag run and make a pit stop to pass a few cars because you’re going to wear them out and be in trouble. Tire wear at Richmond is a huge deal and most of the field is going to be on the same strategy until it comes down to some special circumstances. There’s still the potential that it could make some interesting things happen, it just depends on how the race plays out. You get a restart with 10 laps to go and everyone is going to put the soft tires on, and if it’s the end of the stage, then everyone is going to put the hard tires on like normal. We’ll just have to see how it plays out.”
What are the challenges that come with racing at Richmond?
“I love the track, it’s great. Been very successful there, especially lately with our Bass Pro Shops Camry. Been lucky enough to win some races there. I really enjoy the track because it’s kind of unique. It’s a short track, but it races like a bigger track than it is. You can really move around there the way the tires wear out and the track is really slippery, and that makes it fun and a challenge, and it’s always a good race for the fans.”
● Event: Cook Out 400 (Round 23 of 36)
● Time/Date: 6 p.m. EDT on Sunday, August 11
● Location: Richmond (Va.) Raceway
● Layout: .75-mile oval
● Laps/Miles: 400 laps/300 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 70 laps / Stage 2: 160 laps / Final Stage: 170 laps
● TV/Radio: USA Network / MRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
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