A jewel from the Joe Gibbs Racing crown will dislodge itself soon. But before bidding adieu to the stellar NASCAR Cup team, this gem of a driver still has a burning desire to win. Martin Truex Jr is determined to visit victory lane again. A series of heartbreaking finishes has followed the No. 19 driver recently, and he is working hard to shake off that curse soon.

The Tricky Triangle may be his ticket to glory, given Martin Truex Jr’s spectacular finishes there. It would finally end his year-long winless streak and also the piling frustration. He hopes to capitalize on this opportunity as much as he can.

Martin Truex Jr is relying on Pocono

Holding 34 race wins and a 2017 Championship title, Martin Truex Jr is a glittering figure on the Cup grid. His last win came at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in 2023, and his hands are itching to hold a trophy again. But his year-long misery is not the only thing bothering him. This season, Truex came dangerously close to winning several times, only to get his chances shattered. For instance, an ill-timed pit stop and Denny Hamlin’s controversial restart in Richmond stole his race dominance. Then a caution with ten laps to go at a rain-delayed Kansas race also shuffled his winning chances.

So at a pre-race press conference at Pocono Raceway, Martin Truex Jr reflected on his struggles. “It’s been a tough month and a half for sure, finish-wise.” He added, “It’s been a little frustrating…You know, you name it across the board, it’s happened. I think the last three races we’ve been crashed at the end by someone. So that’s been pretty frustrating. We’ve dealt with a lot of things with rain and some crazy things like that.” 

But even then, the No. 19 team did not falter in their running efforts, grabbing four top-fives and four top-tens. Martin Truex Jr hopes to capitalize on the brilliant speed showcased so far in Pocono. “But you know, speed-wise…aside from maybe last week and in Iowa, we’ve been solid. So just need to capitalize on that and execute. You know, takes a lot of things to finish it up front, lead laps, win races other than just having a fast car. So hopefully, we can put it all together this weekend.” Truex crossed his fingers to avoid deterrents like rain or rowdy rivals. “Hopefully, this is a normal straightforward weekend and we can have a good day today and execute tomorrow. And we’ll be up front, we’ll be in good shape.”

Over 34 starts at Pocono Raceway, Martin Truex Jr has accumulated two wins (2015 and 2015), five top-five finishes, and eight top-ten finishes. He achieved his breakthrough win on the 2.5-mile oval as well. His last two years were especially solid – finishing 3rd in 2022 and then 7th last year. So this year should also be a cakewalk for the veteran. If he were to snap his year-long winless streak, it would echo his Dover win last year.

Truex felt ‘incredible’ on breaking his slumber

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With a year lost in narrowly scraping Victory Lane, Martin Truex Jr’s heart must be at unease. But he has his own precedent to fall back upon in these tough times. Last year in Dover, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver snapped a 54-race winless streak. He delivered a tough fight to Ryan Blaney, who lost the lead on the final restart. Finally, he edged Ross Chastain by 0.505 seconds at the checkered flag. As a cherry on top, Truex’s brother Ryan swept up the Xfinity race in a double family victory.

Martin Truex Jr was overjoyed to overcome a long slumber, congratulating his crew and hailing rivals. “It feels incredible,” Truex said. “Really, we’ve been close a bunch of times. When we got the late caution I said, ‘I wonder what’s going to happen here,’ but a great call by James (Small, crew chief) to take two (tires). We got a pretty good restart and got by Blaney there. He raced me hard. Just thanks to everybody that has stuck by us. We knew we could do this. We led laps, we dominated races, it just would never all come together.”

Martin Truex Jr must have been craving those blissful emotions for quite a few races now. Who knows, maybe the outgoing Cup Series driver can finally wow his fans and go out in glory at Pocono Raceway.