Toyota Racing – NCS Dover Quotes – Martin Truex Jr.

MARTIN TRUEX JR., No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry TRD, Joe Gibbs Racing

With your previous success, can you take anything from that to this new car?
“I don’t know yet. I think probably not a whole lot. I think it’s going to come down to who can make their car work the best around here. I think it’s going to be a big challenge. Having experience around this track brings confidence to know what you might want is important, but we only have 20 minutes to figure that out – figure out how to get that in the car and not a lot of ability to change big things. I think most of our speed was found between Monday and yesterday.”

In a couple weeks, you will make your 600th career Cup start. Is that surreal to you?

“It’s a lot of races, but pretty cool though to be around as long as we have. My career has not been easy. We have had a lot of tough years – been through a lot of stuff and to still be here battling, fighting for wins is pretty cool.”

What criteria makes you a Hall of Famer and do you think you have achieved that?

“I don’t know. I can’t really answer that. I see guys in the Hall of Fame and what they have done, and stat-wise it’s there, but I don’t know. I’ve not really given it much thought.”

Have you enjoyed the challenge of the new car?

“I’ve enjoyed it. I love racing. I love working with my team. Working with my guys has always been the most satisfying part of this job. Working with a group to try to be successful together, that’s been a lot of fun. It’s not different now. I don’t think too much about what I like better or worse about the car. It is what it is, and you’ve got to deal with it. I just try to focus on working with the team and doing the best job I can do for them. So far it has been fine. Hopefully, we can win soon. It’s been a decent year so far. We’ve been okay. We’ve had a couple tough races, but that is to be expected with this. We’ve got some good tracks coming up, so if we can do our jobs well, hopefully we can put ourselves in a good position. I don’t know that we’re the fastest car out there right now, but maybe we can find some stuff.”

TRD PR