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Cole Pearn announces departure from Joe Gibbs Racing, NASCAR

On Monday, Joe Gibbs Racing announced on Facebook that Cole Pearn, Crew Chief for the No. 19 Toyota NASCAR Cup team, will be stepping away not only from the JGR organization but from NASCAR as well. The decision was effective immediately.

“This was an incredibly difficult decision,” Pearn said. “At the end of the day, I really want to spend time with my family and actually see my kids grow up. Being on the road, you are away from home so much and miss a lot of time with your family. I don’t want to miss that time anymore.”

“I want to be there for all the things that my kids are going to experience while they are still young. I love racing and there isn’t a better place to be than Joe Gibbs Racing, but I don’t want to look back in 20 years and think about everything I missed with my wife and kids while I was gone. They are what is most important to me.

Following a brief career in the NASCAR Pinty’s Series where he made 27 starts in four years, Pearn worked for Richard Childress Racing from 2007 to 2009 as an engineer for Kevin Harvick’s team before going to Furniture Row Racing in 2010. He spent 2011 with JTG-Daugherty Racing before returning to FRR, where following the 2014 season he was promoted to Crew Chief for Martin Truex Jr. and the No. 78 team. The pair earned 24 wins together and the 2017 Cup Series championship.

“I cannot say enough good things about Cole and what he has meant for my career,” said Truex. “I appreciate his hard work and dedication to our race team over the past six years going back to when he was my engineer at Furniture Row. Our friendship is what matters most to me and I’m happy that he is doing what’s best for him and his family.”

JGR will announce a Crew Chief for the No. 19 at a later date.

December 9, 2019
Hot 20 – The impending demise of Furniture Row Racing overshadows Sunday’s Brickyard 400

I had such high hopes for NASCAR, at least since July. That is when NBC came on board and presented the long sought after broadcast crew that could keep fans glued to the track simply by the strength of their commentary. We have waited years for that to happen, and it is crucial for a sport that has yet to solve some on-track competitive issues and more than a few off it. If the racing is not spellbinding, then the commentary damn well better be if you hope to have anyone watching.

The broadcast team could not solve the biggest off-track issue. Economics. Long gone are the days when Bob bought or borrowed a car and went racing. It costs big money to build the big cars with the big engines supported by big technology and hauled around by big trucks. Long, long gone. If you are in Denver, Colorado, it might cost a few more ducats to do so. To be competitive, to be the reigning Cup champion, you better believe the dollars are big. Without sponsorship, even a successful company with a successful sibling enterprise to help shore things up, cannot long last. This week, we discovered exactly how long.

Furniture Row Racing, established in 2005, Cup champions in 2017, will not be around come next season’s Daytona 500. With 5-hour Energy heading to the exits, and with no sugar daddies waiting to take their place, the cash had simply run out. A defending champion who cannot get proper sponsorship. If that is not a wake-up call for the sport, you might as well let them sleep in.

If nothing else, it should make for a very active silly season. Martin Truex Jr. and pit boss Cole Pearn, according to Dale Earnhardt Jr. and other published reports are bound in tandem for the mothership. Like Erik Jones before him, a move from Furniture Row to Joe Gibbs Racing is being claimed. If those reports are accurate, Daniel Suarez will take his dance to another ballroom, and it probably will result in a step down in his equipment. The really bad news is that one premier ride is disappearing and what, if anything, replaces it will feature a team destined to sit outside the top twenty-five next season. That will not bode well for the sport.

However, NBC does. Indianapolis might, depending on if the Brickyard 400 has solid rubber to avoid the debacle of 2008. At least the cars are different from the time of that disaster, and I am sure Goodyear has better rubber. I am not sure even this broadcast team could save a race where drivers are pitting every 10 laps to keep their tires from exploding.

This marks the final chance for those outside the Chase to win themselves in. All Jimmie Johnson has to do is come home 19 positions better than Alex Bowman, though Bowman could eat that up in a hurry by winning both stages. All Bowman needs is do, other than that, is to keep those behind him away from Victory Lane. Not likely one will slip by, but it could happen. There are some other possibilities when you see that past winners include such outsiders as defending race champ Kasey Kahne, Ryan Newman, Paul Menard, and Jamie McMurray. They could yet upset the apple cart. However, I do not have much hope of that happening.

Did I mention the outstanding broadcast team to take us through all the action on Sunday?

1. KYLE BUSCH – 6 WINS (1038 Pts)
With a “regular season” pennant, he should enter the playoffs in the top spot.

2. KEVIN HARVICK – 6 WINS (1 E.W. – 999 Pts)
He is retiring…from Xfinity racing.

3. MARTIN TRUEX JR. – 4 WINS (883 Pts)
Defending champion now in a lame duck situation.

4. CLINT BOWYER – 2 WINS (777 Pts)
Hoping some of A.J. Foyt’s No. 14 magic at Indianapolis might rub off on him this week.

5. KURT BUSCH – 1 WIN (835 Pts)
Nothing definite yet as to where he will run in 2019.

6. JOEY LOGANO – 1 WIN (818 Pts)
Penske finishes last week’s classic 1-2, and that has to have Roger feeling pretty good.

7. BRAD KESELOWSKI – 1 WIN (785 Pts)
As demonstrated at Darlington, this truly is a team sport.

8. CHASE ELLIOTT – 1 WIN (737 Pts)
At 22, the young gent is not retiring from anything, including his Saturday ride at Indy.

9. ERIK JONES – 1 WIN (679 Pts)
Can Erik now be called the original Furniture Row refugee, or is that Kurt?

10. AUSTIN DILLON – 1 WIN (496 Pts)
Daytona (twice), Fontana, and Michigan. Outside the Top Ten everywhere else.

11. KYLE LARSON – 783 POINTS
0.6 seconds. Everything went right last week, except for 0.6 seconds.

12. RYAN BLANEY – 755 POINTS
Still seeking his first Indy Top Ten.

13. DENNY HAMLIN – 738 POINTS
In a dozen starts, has finished on the lead lap at the Brickyard in all but one.

14. ARIC ALMIROLA – 681 POINTS
Do not expect much, as his best finish in six starts at Indianapolis is 13th.

15. JIMMIE JOHNSON – 605 POINTS
If Bowman wins the opening two stages he might start getting nervous.

16. ALEX BOWMAN – 586 POINTS
He does not care who wins on Sunday, as long as it is not one of 14 particular drivers of interest.

17. RICKY STENHOUSE JR. – 518 POINTS
Not exactly hot with Top Ten finishes limited to Bristol, Talladega, and Charlotte in May.

18. RYAN NEWMAN – 503 POINTS
Coming back home again to Indiana, he needs to race like it is 2013 and Jim Nabors is singing.

19. PAUL MENARD – 493 POINTS
Needs to race like it is 2011.

20. DANIEL SUAREZ – 487 POINTS
Reports claim he is about to play off-season musical chairs.

September 5, 2018
The Final Word – Sonoma, where even the winner wound up tied for third best in points

Stage points? We don’t need no stinkin’ stage points. Pit late, then say hello to my little friends. Fresh tires. Now, they proved to be the key to victory at Sonoma.

Sonoma is the most visually appealing track on the circuit. You would not want to walk it. Too damn many hills. When it comes to a little left, a lot of uphill, and a right…just to start with…you had something special going on in California wine country.

It was a special start for Kyle Larson after winning the pole. That dream went up in dust about four laps later when Martin Truex Jr. took the lead. Larson tumbled down the ladder to finish outside of the Top Ten.

Truex, now he was something special. So was Kevin Harvick. So was Clint Bowyer. So were Kyle and Kurt Busch. They were the boys up front for most of the opening stage. Then they gave it all up to pit, giving up the bonus ducats to ensure track position in the middle stanza. A.J. Allmendinger claimed the stage, followed by Brad Keselowski, Jimmie Johnson, and Chase Elliott. However, when they waved the green again, they were all sitting between 14th and 18th.

By this time, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Bubba Wallace, and Kasey Kahne were not even among our best 30. They were soon joined by Allmendinger, as the road course ace blew the call and his transmission with a missed shift. About that time, Harvick took over the top spot from Truex, while Jamie McMurray hit the garage with oil pump issues. As we witnessed earlier, in the final laps of the segment, the best came in and the rest managed at least a few points for their efforts.

When the green waved again, Keselowski, Johnson, and Elliott all had 16 bonus points in the bank. None of our previous race winners this season, all six of them, had any. However, up front, there was Harvick, Truex, Bowyer, and them Busch boys. At least they all had power steering. That was more than Ryan Blaney had, as his hopes for even a Top Thirty got dashed.

With under 40 to go, it was time for a final pit stop. Atop the Truex pit box, Cole Pearn called for his boy to come in. Harvick’s team heard the call and beat him to the pits. By a lot. It would seem Pearn lied. He had changed his mind and kept Truex out. In fact, Harvick was in eight laps before the defending champion, who even had six lap fresher rubber than Bowyer. That proved to be the key move of the event.

Eight laps after pitting, Truex used the extra grip he had beneath him and moved past Bowyer into second. Just two circuits later, and Harvick was the next to fall. Those two ducked into the pits for even fresher tires, but now they needed a caution to bunch them all up. It was a caution that never came.

Truex won his third of the season, the 18th of his career, and his second on the track just outside of San Francisco. As for the runners-up, no harm, no foul. Harvick and Bowyer got back to where they started from before they made their bids for redemption.

Bonus points did play a role in making it a good day for a few. Elliott managed to cling to fourth and with bonus points, he had a race-best collection of 49 when it was over. Johnson picked up 42, Keselowski had 40, the same tally Truex got for his win. So, stage points really did matter, if you wanted them. The only impact on the charts after Sonoma saw Alex Bowman extend his hold on that final Chase place to 17 points up on Stenhouse. That was pretty much it.

Coming up is Chicago, a place with its own colorful history. There was Dean O’Banion and his lovely flower shop, and that was nice. At least it was until some had it renovated and its owner ventilated. Say it with flowers, they say. Another chap said it with his little friends and ruined a perfectly good St. Valentine’s Day. I think they would have preferred flowers before the fact rather than after.

As for Chicago this Sunday, they will want those stinkin’ stage points. Even those who are out to win.

June 25, 2018
Martin Truex Jr. Drives to Victory in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma

Martin Truex Jr. gambled with risky pit strategy to win over a hard-charging Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer by 10.513 seconds. He earned his 18th career victory in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

Truex earned his third career top spot honors at road courses, which puts him second among active drivers (Kyle Busch has four wins). This was his second consecutive road course win and second career win at Sonoma.

If stage cautions did not count, this race would have had the fewest caution flags with only one yellow flag for an on-track incident when the No. 47 car of A.J. Allmendinger stalled at the top of Turn 2. This caused the majority of the race, especially throughout the final stage, to focus primarily on pit strategy. Harvick and Bowyer started to charge through the field with fresher tires but ran out of laps and time to battle for the lead.

“I really feel like I treat everyone the same as I did that day,” Truex said after reflecting back on his 2013 win in Sonoma with Michael Waltrip Racing.

“Our guys understand what it takes, what kind of cars we need to build and what kind of approach we need to take to be prepared,” he continued, talking about his team’s performance. “It’s a little stressful when you’re in those situations because you never know what’s going to happen, but it all worked out, and pretty cool to get the win here today after last year. We thought a lot about that race last year, losing it, and it hurt. We left here and thought about it for a long time. To be able to come here and get it back was nice.

“I was just hoping for no cautions because we had a big lead. It’s funny when you get in those situations, this place is so tricky and so technical. But I still ran as hard as I thought I needed to.”

Cole Pearn, crew chief of the No. 78 5-Hour Energy Toyota, reacted to the growing bond of his team with Truex.

“Yeah, a caution could have came out and we would’ve been snookered the other way,” Pearn said as he chuckled about their situation. “We got a good relationship and we get along real well. When it comes to these races to call strategy, you call what you can at the time.”

Harvick led a total of 35 laps and came close to becoming the second Cup driver to win consecutive races at Sonoma. Jeff Gordon accomplished this feat with three consecutive wins in 1998-2000.

“I think everyone did a good job. Truex just had a better car,” Harvick said after finishing in the runner-up position. “At the beginning of the race, we could outrun him just a little bit. In the second stage, we started to struggle with the brakes on our car. Just a few things added up that didn’t work out for us today.”

Bowyer almost won back to back races after his victory at the rain-shortened event in Michigan but ended in the third position.

“We never got a restart to put on a show, so that was unfortunate,” Clint said after an impressive charge from his 19th place starting position. “You work your ass off and it’s hard to showcase that. Especially when you’re racing up there against my teammate Kevin and Martin. You don’t see mistakes out of those guys.”

Chase Elliott earned his first career top-five finish at a road course with a fourth-place effort. Kyle Busch finished in the fifth position. Kurt Busch, Erik Jones, Aric Almirola, Alex Bowman and Stage 2 winner Denny Hamlin completed the top 10.

Stage 1 at Sonoma Raceway

Kyle Larson started on the pole and led the opening two laps. Heading up to Turn 2, Martin Truex Jr. got by to lead the majority of the first stage. Toward the closing laps of the first stage, roughly 15 drivers came to pit road for service early. Frontrunners, Truex and Kevin Harvick, were two that elected to come to pit road. A.J. Allmendinger inherited the lead and led the final four laps of the first stage.

A.J. Allmendinger earned his first stage win at Sonoma by electing to stay out as many leaders headed to pit road before it closed. That strategy will get them to the front of the pack as everyone else who stayed out must come to pit road for tires and fuel. However, he shared with the media his thoughts about his competition.

“We have a good short run car, but we need more to get ahead of [Kevin] Harvick and [Martin] Truex,” said Allmendinger.

Kasey Kahne and Gray Gaulding were caught speeding on pit road and had to restart the second stage at the end of the field. Only one car was off the lead lap and was the free pass for this first caution, the No. 52 of Cody Ware.

Turn of Events for Stage 2

As the green flag flew, the field went racing for only a few laps. Coming out of Turn 11, Allmendinger shifted from second to first, missing third gear and, as a result, lost the motor. Over the radio, all you could hear was a shaky voice.

“Guys, that was me.”

Allmendinger is one of few drivers who can look at Sonoma and Watkins Glen International as his best shots to qualify for the Playoffs. The No. 47 team had a short day and now sets its sights on the second road course on the schedule.

Jamie McMurray, after finishing both practice sessions and qualifying in the fourth position, mentioned over the radio during the caution that he hit the rev limiter and suddenly lost power and oil pressure. He went behind the wall as the Chip Ganassi Racing crew went to work on his Chevrolet.

With six laps to go in the second stage, Darrell Wallace Jr. tried to make a pass on Justin Marks but locked up the rear tires and lost control, spinning through Turn 11. No caution flag was waved as he was able to continue racing.

Similar to the first stage, some drivers began making their way to pit road during the closing laps. In the end, Denny Hamlin took over the race lead and won the second stage ahead of Chase Elliott and Jimmie Johnson.

Nerves Build During Final Stage

When pit stops cycled through, Harvick and Truex took over the lead once again. Bowyer fought his way up to third, followed by brothers Kurt and Kyle Busch. Drivers started going off track more often when getting more aggressive, such as Ryan Newman and Ryan Blaney. Blaney eventually started smoking, and shortly after, reported to his team that he lost power steering.

Cody Ware took his No. 52 Chevrolet behind the wall. Cole Whitt in the No. 72 TriStar Motorsports Chevrolet hit the wall while racing on the track, and dropped out of the race due to the heavy damage from the incident, but no caution was thrown for the crash as he was able to drive safely to pit road. He was evaluated and released from the infield care center.

All the drivers began to exercise their pit strategies. The entire field pitted on separate laps ranging from Lap 65 to 80. About a fourth of the field rolled the dice with planning for one pit stop during the final stage, while the rest of the field prepared for two stops during this stage. At one point after the last pit stop cycle, Truex grabbed the race lead by over a 30-second gap. Truex led the last 19 laps to seal the victory for his team.

“The last 10 laps of the race were easy,” Truex joked in the press interviews after the race.

Five Cup Series drivers raced in yesterday’s NASCAR K&N Pro Series West race. Alex Bowman, who lost a motor after 10 laps in yesterday’s race, finished in the ninth position this afternoon. Aric Almirola, William Byron and Daniel Suarez all finished in the top five, but Erik Jones topped the double-duty drivers in today’s race with a seventh-place finish.

The next race on the schedule for the Cup Series is at Chicagoland Speedway on July 1.

[pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Sonoma-MENCS-unofficial-race-results-6-24-18.pdf” title=”Sonoma MENCS unofficial race results 6-24-18″]

June 24, 2018
Martin Truex Jr. Shines Under the California Sun, Wins Auto Club 400

Martin Truex Jr. breaks Kevin Harvick’s win streak in the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series and takes the checkered flag for the Auto Club 400.

Truex started on the pole, swept both stages and had lapped up to 10th place by the conclusion of the event. This is the third time Truex has swept all stages in a race and is the only driver to do so under NASCAR’s current stage format (Vegas and Chicago in 2017, and now California).

“Winning just feels good!” With a big grin on his face, Truex addressed the media during his press conference. “To get our first California win is unbelievable. I feel like we’ve been getting better here the last couple years, just haven’t been able to put it all together. For us to get our first win of the season today, it’s definitely special. To get it here, finish off the West Coast swing with a win, feels great.”

Team owner Barney Visser, who suffered a heart attack on November 6, said he was feeling great and it was nice to be back at the track. Cole Pearn, crew chief for the No. 78 Toyota Camry, shared his thoughts after seeing the incident with Kevin Harvick, explaining how his focus was still locked in on his team’s performance.

“In this sport, you can only do what you can do to yourself,” Pearn declared confidently. “You’re focused on your own program. You know those guys are really good. Obviously, they’ve been really successful so far this year. Whether they were in the race or not, I don’t think we would have played anything any different. You just got to do the best you can for yourself. That’s the only chance you have.”

Kevin Harvick was attempting four wins in a row, a feat that had not been accomplished since 2007 with Jimmie Johnson. While he still had one of the most dominant cars of the weekend, an early race incident with Kyle Larson caused his No. 4 Ford Fusion to crash into the outside wall.

On pit road after the race, you could sense some frustration from Kevin Harvick, who finished 35th overall, but he admitted it was his fault.

“I went down to side draft and he was coming up, and we touched and it just knocked (the car) to the right and just spun out,” Harvick explained after finishing nine laps down. “I don’t know that’s (Kyle Larson’s) fault, I think that’s my fault for coming down the race track right there and trying to side draft. Then as we touched right there, it just came back up the race track, just trying to get a little too much right there knowing the stage end was coming. Just my fault back there.”

Defending race winner and recent inductee for the track’s Walk of Fame, Kyle Larson finished second after a late race charge through the field. Larson enjoyed racing Harvick in the first stage, but a slip by Harvick caused the two to collide and virtually end Harvick’s day early.

“I respect Kevin a lot, and I think he respects me a lot too,” Larson said as he shared his thoughts on the incident. “I was pretty amped up on the radio there right after just because I felt like at the time maybe he let his frustration build and kind of just ran into me down the backstretch and wrecked himself. I thought he would be mad at me or something like that, which I knew I didn’t do anything wrong at the time.

“A couple minutes later, they let me know he was taking the blame for it on the radio, which was nice. I was able to chill out some.”

Kyle Busch gets his third consecutive top-three finish with a third-place result, with Brad Keselowski finishing fourth.

“I’m not really sure why I’m here. I finished fourth,” Keselowski said smiling. “We kind of got the most we had out of it today. We had some decent short run speed that could run and keep those guys honest. But after about five laps, we were just kind of holding on, running it out, trying to hope for a late race yellow or something to have something for them.

“All in all, a decent weekend. We unloaded really not very good at all, looked like it was going to be a really long weekend. Made some good improvements through practice and qualifying and all those things, got to where we were good enough to run there back half of the top-five. Just have a solid day, and that’s what today was.”

Joey Logano, who won yesterday’s NASCAR Xfinity race, rounded out the top-five with a fifth-place finish.

“I was in front of (Truex) for about five laps and I was like, ‘Hey,’ but it was short-lived,” Logano shared with his brief experience leading the field before being overtaken by Truex. “Overall, it was a good weekend. We got a top-five here and a win yesterday is great.”

Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney, Jimmie Johnson and Austin Dillon were the only other cars on the lead lap and rounded out the top-10.

As for the race, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch primarily led laps in the first stage, with Jamie McMurray leading one lap during the green flag pit cycle. Joey Logano was the first to dive onto pit road, which ended up being a smart move. When he entered pit road, he was roughly seven seconds behind the leader. After the field cycled through their pit stops, the No. 22 Ford was less than two seconds behind the leader.

After pit stops, the major turn of events that caught many off guard took place during the second half of Stage 1. Kevin Harvick, who started in the 10th position, had battled his way into the top-five. While battling Kyle Larson for the third position, Larson drove the exit of Turn 2 aggressively and started to side draft the No. 4 car. This caused Harvick to get slightly loose, and on the backstretch, Harvick turned into Larson and bounced off his car into the outside wall. Harvick slid all the way across the track, and narrowly missed the inside wall. The heavy contact seemed to knock the toe slightly with the right front tire, but the team was able to repair the damage and Harvick did continue in the race.

Quite a few analysts stated at the time that it seemed Harvick was showing some displeasure at how Larson was racing him so early. Jeff Gordon, a broadcast analyst for FOX Sports, shared during the television, “Harvick seems to not let many people into his head, but it looks like that changed today.”

In the closing laps of the first stage, Ryan Blaney who had driven up to the eighth position got loose coming out of Turn 4 and made mild contact with the outside wall. His team addressed this during their pit stop when the stage concluded, as Truex was over Kyle Busch and Joey Logano. When the field pitted, Logano won the battle off pit road and took the green flag on the restart.

Logano, Truex and Kyle Busch led laps in the second stage. Larson was the first to pit during a green flag pit cycle. He was outside the top-five, but gained well over four seconds and was up to second after the field finished their pit stops.

With 11 laps to go in the second stage, Trevor Bayne and Ryan Newman were racing at the exit of Turn 4. Bayne attempted to pass on the outside, but Newman wasn’t able to get him enough room in time and pinched Bayne into the outside wall. A couple of laps later, that exact incident caused Bayne’s fender to cut down into the tire and blow a right front tire. His No. 6 Ford Fusion smacked the outside wall while racing through Turns 3 and 4, suffering substantial damage when he visited pit road and he was not able to continue in the race.

“That’s the hardest hit I’ve ever had in my life,” Bayne shared after he was evaluated and released from the infield medical care center.

Paul Menard also visited pit road during the same time and seemed to begin having some engine issues, but continued in the race event.

Stage 2 concluded with Truex winning back to back stages with Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Erik Jones in the top-five. Kyle Busch won the battle off pit road, but Larson felt a mishap with one of the wheels on the car, and came in a second time for additional service and restarted at the end of the lead lap.

In the final stage, a few laps after the initial restart, David Ragan slid up in the exit of Turn 4 and scraped the outside wall. A lap and a half later, the No. 38 car blew a right front tire and hit the outside wall in Turn 1, almost collecting the No. 00 car of Jeffrey Earnhardt. At this point, the leaders came to pit road and fans saw a few various strategies. William Byron’s team took only right side tires and left pit road ahead of those who took four tires. Kasey Kahne, who was announced as the new Lefty’s Kid’s Club president earlier this weekend, inherited the race lead by electing to stay out. However, none of the front two drivers was a match for Kyle Busch as he got right around the two and took the lead throughout the opening laps of the restart.

Just passed 50 laps to go, Matt DiBenedetto scrapped the wall through Turns 1 and 2 with minimal damage. He brought the car down to pit road from the 31st position and was able to return to race competition. He started in a career-best 18th spot at this track and had a fortunate and unique turn of events at ISM Raceway with a new one-race sponsor, Zynga Poker.

Green flag pit stops started with 41 laps to go. Jimmie Johnson, Kurt Busch and William Byron, who took two tires on his previous stop, were some of the first drivers to come down pit road. Kyle Busch, who led most of the final stage, was recently passed by Martin Truex Jr. when the two came to pit road for service, bumper to bumper. Kyle’s team was able to service his car quicker, and he inherited the lead at the exit of pit road. However with 32 laps to go, the No. 18 car got loose in lap traffic on the exit of Turn 2, so Truex took advantage of the situation and drove by for the race lead and never looked back, winning by a margin of 11.685 seconds, the largest of the year.

The NASCAR Monster Energy Cup series conclude their West Coast Swing and now heads back east to Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, March 25. To watch the race in person, visit the website for tickets to the STP 500.

March 18, 2018
Truex and Furniture Row Racing Deserving of Coca-Cola 600 Win

Few drivers have had as bad a run with luck as Martin Truex Jr. He’s had absolutely dismal seasons, like in 2014 when he first took over the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing entry (one top-five, five top-10s, one lap led all season long and a 24th-place points finish). He’s had good rides just collapse on him, like his No. 56 Michael Waltrip Racing ride following the 2013 season. He’s come extremely close to winning after dominating a race, like at Kansas a few weeks ago where he started on the pole and led 172 of 267 laps only to have a pit stop penalty end his run prematurely.

So to come to Charlotte, win the pole for the Coca-Cola 600, then set a race record by leading 392 of 400 on the way to victory, there’s no doubt that Truex and the No. 78 crew truly deserved a visit to Victory Lane, especially after all that they’ve gone through. To do it in such a fashion, leading roughly 98 percent of a race (588 of 600 miles, a NASCAR record), is even more fitting considering how close that No. 78 has been to winning in 2016 and how strong that team has been this year. It was a perfect way to end the perfect weekend, and hopefully, it’s a sign of more victories this year for Truex.

“I can’t believe we led that much,” said Truex. “I was just out there running and the laps were clicking off, and it’s like, dang, halfway already. Usually, in this race you get halfway, and they’re like, it’s halfway, and you’re like, oh, my goodness, like seriously, that’s it? We’ve been in here forever. The race just — I guess because we were leading and there wasn’t a lot of caution laps and went green for so long, it went by quicker than normal, and the next thing I know there was 100 laps to go, and I was like, holy crap, there’s only 100 laps to go. The next thing I knew there was only 50. The race went by really quick, and I guess that’s because we were leading and things were going well.”

So where does this leave that team? Obviously, they’re Chase bound come September, and to get a lock on a Chase spot so soon must come as a relief for that team. Not that they wouldn’t have qualified for it any other way; the No. 78 team has been consistently fast this season and wouldn’t have had any trouble making the Chase on consistence alone. Rather, they can breathe easier now and race accordingly for more wins.

On that note, with Cole Pearn sitting on top of the pit box it won’t be difficult for Truex to go after more wins. Since taking the Crew Chief spot in 2015, Pearn has been exactly what Truex needed to gain his confidence and his competitive edge back behind the wheel. In 49 races, Truex and Pearn have brought home two wins, 10 top-fives, and 28 top-10s. If he hasn’t been at the front, he’s normally been near the front week after week.

This team is championship caliber. They were in the Final Four last year at Homestead, finishing fourth in the final points. Now that they’re aligned with Toyota and Joe Gibbs Racing, they’re looking to redeem themselves in the title hunt and possibly clinch that Sprint Cup championship. Winning the Coca-Cola 600 after coming so close so many times this season was the first shot fired by Truex and his team. It’s safe to expect more from them before the year is up.

May 30, 2016
Surprising and Not Surprising: Phoenix Quicken Loans 500

From a rain delayed and a rain-shortened race in the Valley of the Sun, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 28th annual Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix International Raceway.

Surprising: Two rookie crew chiefs had to make the tough calls that saw one of their drivers win the race and the other make the Chase.

“We kind of knew that once past halfway we’d see a couple more cautions,” Dale Earnhardt, Jr.’s rookie crew chief Greg Ives said after scoring the victory. “So that rain started to pop up again and we’re on two long green-flag runs there, and we just saw it coming. We didn’t know if it was going to happen before we pitted or after, but we knew at some point it was going to happen, and we elected to kind of pit, be one of the first few to pit.”

“I think somebody got us one lap early, and our pit selection at pit stall 33 there allowed us to, when the caution came out, finish our pit stop and cross the start-finish line and allowed us to be scored the leader.”

Cole Pearn, Martin Truex Jr.’s rookie crew chief, called his driver to pit road when an unfortunate caution came out shortly thereafter. Truex was able to finish 14th, which was just good enough to secure his spot in the Championship four.

“I was real concerned until I looked at the scoreboard, and I was like, okay, we’re going to be fine. We’re going to be back on the lead lap if we get going here, and really the only guy we were racing was one car ahead of us, so we felt okay about it,” Truex said. “It’s definitely obviously an exciting day for everybody at Furniture Row Racing and me and just super proud of my team for the season we’ve been able to put together.”

Not Surprising: It was lucky 13 for Chevrolet as they secured their 13th consecutive Manufacturer’s Championship thanks to Dale Junior’s win.

“Winning the Manufacturers’ Championship is one of the goals we set at the beginning of every season,” Jim Campbell, U.S. Vice President, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports said. “This award is the result of great teamwork by the owners, drivers, crew chiefs, crews and technical partners. Special thanks to the Chevrolet powertrain team, along with the engine shops at Hendrick Motorsports and Earnhardt-Childress Racing for delivering the right combination of power, fuel economy, and reliability throughout the entire season.”

“Congratulations to everyone who has made this special achievement possible for Chevrolet.”

Surprising: The Sunoco Rookie of the Year race is surprisingly close with just one race remaining. Brett Moffitt currently has 196 points while Matt DiBenedetto sits at 192 points in the rookie battle.

DiBenedetto was the highest finishing rookie at Phoenix, finishing 28^th while Moffitt finished 36^th.

Not Surprising: Joey Logano was not the only driver who was hoping to see a restart before the rains came to end the race.

“I think it would have been pretty interesting to see what Joey did on that restart, I will say that,” four-time champion and 2015 championship contender Jeff Gordon said. “But I didn’t want to get caught up in whatever was going to happen.”

“I was going to do whatever I had to do try to win the race if I had a chance to restart,” Logano said after being bumped out of the battle for the Sprint Cup. “I guess it just wasn’t in the cards.”

Surprising: Even after finishing runner-up at a track where he has so often dominated, Kevin Harvick was still trying to figure out whether he was on the right side or the wrong side.

“We made great adjustments overnight and got that little bit of balance that we were looking for from practice. “Just the way that the caution fell, I didn’t get all my distance back on the racetrack under green and Dale (Earnhardt Jr.) was able to beat us out,” Harvick said. “But hey, you lose some and you win some like that.”

“Sometimes you’re on the right side of it, and sometimes you’re on the wrong side of it. Today we were on the wrong side of it, but in the big picture we’re on the right side because we’re racing for a championship next week.”

“So, I’m just really proud of everybody on our team.”

Not Surprising: Roush Fenway Racing had another bad day at the track in Phoenix. Greg Biffle was the highest RFR driver, finishing 25th. Both Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. struggled as well, with Bayne suffering a pit road speeding penalty to finish 34th and Stenhouse involved in an incident with Joey Gase, limping home to a 41st place run.

“That was disappointing,” Stenhouse said after the race. “We had a decent run here earlier in the spring and I think we could have had a decent finish. We will put this behind us and head to Homestead for the final race of the year. We’ve struggled this year, but my guys have never given up.”

Surprising: The Busch brothers were prime examples of making little mistakes, however, the end result was far from similar.

Kurt Busch made a little mistake, jumping the initial start, for which he was penalized and had to serve a pass-through penalty. Busch recovered to finish seventh, but it was not enough to advance him to the final four.

“I don’t even think it was a penalty,” Kurt Busch said after the race. “It’s not even a call in my mind.”

“We had a great season. We won two races, sat on three poles,” Busch continued. “We did everything possible to put polish on a season like that and get out there with elbow grease and work hard at it. There is some tarnish that is sitting there, polish and polish and that is all I kept doing this whole year.”

Brother Kyle Busch also made a little mistake, but his ended up being not so costly. Busch pitted too close to the wall and lost several positions, however, bounced back to finish fourth and advance to the final four.

“I had a little mishap on pit road, just overshot my marks a little bit, being a little bit slick and got my guys too close to the wall, but past that we had a really good race car,” Kyle Busch said. “The M&Ms Camry was fast. I felt like we had a good top-three, top-four race car and long runs seemed to be our friends and we got some of those tonight, so couldn’t be more pleased to finish where we did and be more pleased to go to Homestead.

Not Surprising: With his Chase hopes dashed, Brad Keselowski now has his hopes set on a high five.

“It was a long day for everybody and to have it end like that wasn’t surprising. We kept adjusting on it, but it’s a short race and who knows? Maybe that last run we would have had something, but that’s not the way it played out,” the driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford said. “The highest we can get is fifth in points now, so I’d like to pull that off and take advantage of that opportunity when we get to Homestead next week.”

The NASCAR season will now finish at Homestead-Miami Speedway with four surprisingly distinct storylines. Two of the contenders have already been champions, one Kevin Harvick looking to go back to back and one Jeff Gordon looking to close out his career with his fifth championship.

The other two drivers in the Sprint Cup hunt could write the surprising storylines of being first-time champs, with Kyle Busch hoping to play the role of comeback kid and Martin Truex Jr. as the little engine that could.

The 17th Annual Ford EcoBoost 400 will run on Sunday, November 22 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, in Homestead, Florida. And in less than a week, the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion will be crowned.

November 16, 2015
This Week’s Penalty Report

In case you missed it, NASCAR handed down a penalty Wednesday.

The penalty rundown is light this week with a P2 penalty issued to the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team. All that resulted from it was that crew chief Cole Pearn was placed on probation until Dec. 31 because of an illegal adjustment.

This stems from a pre-race infraction in which the team was forced to take the car off the grid and back to the garage because, according to a NASCAR inspector, the right-rear wheel well was flared.

Because of the penalty, Martin Truex Jr., who was to start ninth after qualifying was rained out Friday, was sent to the rear of the field. Truex worked his way up through the field and finished 11th.

Originally, NASCAR said that no further penalties would be assessed to the team. But further review of the case revealed additional details that led the sanctioning body to issue the penalty.

Furthermore, there was no monetary fine issued with the penalty.

October 7, 2015