2017 Cup Series Champion and crew chief, Martin Truex Jr. and Cole Pearn reunite for the Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma

Martin Truex Jr. who drives the No.19 Toyota Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing as a full-time competitor in the NASCAR Cup Series will be joined by his 2017 Monster Energy Cup Series Championship crew chief, Cole Pearn as his race engineer for the upcoming Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway which will mark this season’s second road course race after the Echopark Automotive Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas where fans witnessed Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain take his car to the Victory Lane.

Cole Pearn and Martin Truex Jr., however, have spent five NASCAR seasons together from 2015 to 2019 and have won the 2017 Championship together and they also have won as many as 24 Cup Series races which include one at Watkins Glen in 2017 and two at Sonoma Raceway in 2018 and 2019, Cole Pearn will be replacing current race engineer, Nick Burton who will have to attend a wedding and the tenure of the replacement will be only for this week.

James Small, the current crew chief of the No.19 since 2020 with whom Truex Jr. earned five victories has approached Pearn with the offer and he accepted it since this isn’t the first time he’s replacing someone on the crew, Pearn returned as the spotter of the No.19 for the race at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the 2021 Bank of America 400 which is also a road course race where he finished 19^th that year.

Also read: “You go to pass somebody and all your rear tires want to do is spin,” Kyle Busch speaks about the potential threats of Sonoma Raceway

How has 2022 panned out for Martin Truex Jr. so far?

Martin Truex Jr. has had a pretty decent season so far with a 5th place position in the points table trailing with 37 points behind the table topper Chase Elliott of Hendrick Motorsports, Truex Jr., has managed to acquire a P13 in the season opener Daytona 500 at the Daytona International Speedway followed with the same position finish in the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway and then his first top 10 finish coming from the Pennzoil 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

He then went on to disqualify for the first time this year after going through a hard crash into the outside wall in the Ruoff Mortgage 500 at Phoenix Raceway and he came back with another top 10 finish next week at Atlanta Motor Speedway succeeded by a P7 at this season’s first road course track, COTA followed with his first top 5 finish coming from Richmond Raceway and then he finished 22^nd at Martinsville Speedway with a 21^st place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway and a comeback at Talladega Superspeedway with a P5.

Martin Truex Jr. then acquired a 12^th place finish in the DuraMAX Drydene 400 at Dover Motor Speedway followed by a crash in the final stage of the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway with another DNF and he made a comeback yet again at Kansas Speedway with a P6 followed by a P14 in the iconic Texas All-Star Race and a P12 in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and he placed 6^th in the inaugural Cup Series event, Enjoy Illinois 300 at World Wide Technology Raceway.

With just 11 more races to go and 5 playoff spots left, Martin Truex Jr., will he acquire a win to secure a playoff spot?

Also read: “It’s definitely leaning more toward handling well,” Kevin Harvick lists out the pros and cons of Next-Gen cars in the road courses ahead of Sonoma

Also read: “I think that NASCAR is working on getting rid of the rear diffuser,” Corey LaJoie speculates what changes NASCAR will bring to the car in 2023

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