HOMESTEAD, Fla. – Martin Truex Jr. and his single-car Furniture Row Racing operation came into Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway as an underdog in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
On Sunday afternoon, the ultimate comeback story didn’t materialize into a championship, but instead a 12th place finish. And while the team was obviously disappointed with their performance on Sunday, there’s still a lot to embrace.
“Yeah, obviously a little disappointed in the way we ran this weekend, just never could ‑‑ really never could quite hit on anything to get the car to do the things we needed it to,” said Truex. “Not from a lack of effort. The guys really put a lot of effort into bringing this car here and really throughout the weekend. We tried a lot, and we worked really hard on it.
“We weren’t ‑‑ we didn’t have much speed in practice, and we changed a lot last night on it trying to kind of go a different direction. Just never could quite hit on it. You know, that’s about it. Just a little disappointed in the way we ran here. This used to be a really good track for me, and the past two races it’s just been a struggle. Hopefully we can figure it out and be back in this position next year and try to figure out a way to battle for this thing.”
But what a difference a year makes.
Last year leaving Homestead, Truex and the Denver, Colorado-based team left the Sunshine state with a 17th-place finish and 24th overall in the championship standings with just one top-five and five top-10 finishes overall.
Added Truex, “Super proud of our season and really proud to come this far. To come from 24th in points last year, to 4th this year is a pretty big step, and I don’t think most people realize just how big of a deal it is and how hard it was for us to get that far.”
How did they get there?
The appointment of Cole Pearn as crew chief proved to be the glue that fused the missing pieces together.
The No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet unloaded strong with seven straight top-10 finishes. A 29th place finish at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway ended their streak and tried to thwart a strong start, but in typical Truex fashion – they battled back.
A popular win at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway in June thrusted Barney Visser’s team into the championship playoffs.
And yes – two weeks after their win on the Tricky Triangle, Truex battled some hiccups during the summer stretch, but the team persevered – even through a rough 32nd place finish in the final round of the regular season.
In the Chase, Truex faired no worse than 15th which came in the second event of the Contender round at Kansas Speedway.
Finishes of sixth at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway, eighth at Texas Motor Speedway and 14th at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Speedway stacked up enough points, — by just three to edge Carl Edwards for the final transfer spot into the Championship Round at Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway.
And despite their best effort, which included a mid-race call to take two tires, while everyone took four giving Truex the lead for three laps, the balance of the car proved to be too much to overcome.
No regrets though.
“Really proud of Joe and Barney and just everybody at our team, everybody back in Denver,” added Truex. “You know, got to thank everybody obviously at ECR for great engines, and everybody at RCR for the past two years. The alliance we had with those guys worked really well, and really want to say “thank you” to them for treating us like one of their own.”
It was only fitting for Truex to acknowledge their partnership with ECR, and their RCR technical alliance. Sunday marked FRR final time as a Chevrolet team – announcing earlier this fall they’ll switch to Toyota beginning with the 2016 season.
And as Truex pointed out, there’s little time to relax.
“I think this is great motivation for us for next year,” he said. “I think that with the things we have coming and going to Toyota and teaming up with JGR and all that stuff, I think the future is bright for this team, and we’re keeping all our guys together, and hopefully this is our first season battling for a championship but not our last. I really feel strong that this is a special group of guys, and if we can keep that together for hopefully the rest of my career, I’d love to drive for them.
We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. You never know what the future holds, but excited already about next year, and I think we’ll be back here in mid‑December testing already for next year. Not a whole lot of rest, and looking forward to spending a week or so down here relaxing and having a few beers, catching a few fish, and really just let it all soak in what we’ve been able to accomplish, and really proud of everybody on our team.”
