Martin Truex Jr. defines Daytona 500 as “a wide-open crapshoot”
Martin Truex Jr. is the only Cup champion in the JGR garage after Kyle Busch’s exit.
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The 75th-anniversary edition of NASCAR will officially kick off with the Daytona Speedweeks starting on Wednesday, February 15. Alongside 36 full-time drivers and 4 qualified from of 7 open charters, will compete for the title in the Great American Race. The chaos and competitiveness among drivers make Daytona 500 special compared to all the other 35 races of the season.
Joe Gibbs Racing veteran Martin Truex Jr. is among the Cup champions who never tasted a 500 victory. The close he came to a win in 2016, where he finished P2 with Furniture Row Racing. The 2009 pole winner was asked about his feelings while racing in Daytona 500. He explained it as pure chaos, where drivers go through each other for wins.
“Daytona is a wide-open crapshoot. Everyone holds it wide open. You get down to the end of the race, and we’ve seen the crashes over and over on the green-white-checkered. Everyone just holds it wide open, and, if they have any momentum at all, they just try to drive through the guy in front of them, and it spins him out and crashes him,” Truex Jr said.
He pointed out that he is not uncomfortable driving at Daytona but dislikes the experience of crashing out toward the end of the race. He said, “It’s really just a wild card, it’s kind of crazy. I wouldn’t say I’m not unconformable there, but it kind of stinks to get down to the end if you make it that far, to just get crashed at the end,”.
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Martin Truex Jr. is positive about his chances in the 2023 season
The No:19 team’s winless season in 2023 was disappointing as JGR fielded some really good cars though out the season. Truex had the perfect start to the 2023 season with the LA Clash win and hoped to ride the momentum the whole year.
“At the end of the day, we didn’t achieve what we wanted to last year. We are excited to return and get an opportunity to compete again and show what we can do. I think the Clash certainly reminded everyone what we are capable of as a team,” says Martin Truex Jr.
“We have a great team and a great opportunity this year to do some great things and hopefully get back into that championship conversation. I feel really good about things right now and where we are as a team and what we were able to learn last year,” Martin Truex Jr. added.
“It’s definitely good to get behind us a full season with the new car and all those question marks. I definitely know what we need, but if we can figure out a few more things here or there, I definitely think we can be really strong with our Bass Pro Shops Toyota,” says Martin Truex Jr.
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