Martin Truex Jr Could be a Dark Horse at Daytona Road Course Cup Series Race

This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series drivers are heading to the Daytona International Speedway. However, everyone will be using the road course instead of the actual speedway.

Suffice to say, this is brand new territory for most on the grid, except for Martin Truex Jr, Matt Kenseth, and Ryan Newman.

Out of the trio, Martin Truex Jr has the best chance of a good finish. This is because he won the Daytona 500 in 2009 and he has also raced on the road course in the 24 Hours of Daytona.

Truex Jr has won three of the last seven road-course races and finished as the runner-ups in two of them. Truthfully, he should have taken one more win in 2018, before Jimmie Johnson made a mistake and took both of them out.

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Does Martin Truex Jr stand a chance?

The short answer is that he definitely can because he has qualified 3rd, behind Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin. Martin Truex Jr has been in excellent form and even bagged a win in Martinsville.

Aside from that, he has recorded twelve Top-10 finishes and six Top-5 finishes. In fact, he strung together four 3rd place finishes in a row in his last four races.

Truex Jr took 3rd in Kansas, New Hampshire, and in both Michigan races, in addition to another 3rd place at Atlanta earlier this year.

Coming to Kenseth and Newman, the two have had decent runs at Daytona. However, the latter has some bad memories from the speedway section, after he suffered a violent crash. The good news is that he has recovered and is racing once again.

Admittedly, apart from the crash, Ryan Newman has not delivered any eye-catching results. His highest finish this season is the 9th place finish at the Daytona Speedway at the beginning of the year.

Kenseth, on the other hand, has been blowing hot and cold, with a 2nd place finish at Indianapolis. However, he has only broken into the Top-10 on one occasion at Darlington.