Martin Truex Jr. will try to defend his Busch title in 2005. Credit: Autostock

Conversation: Martin Truex Jr.

DARLINGTON, S.C -- Martin Truex Jr. is surrounded by yet another media throng, peppering him yet again with the very same questions he answered last time. He swears he's heard them a thousand times in the past two months.

TrackPass Audio Conversation Martin Truex Jr.

The attention is an all new experience for the first-year driver. But at the same time, it has recently become old hat. So it goes in the life of a championship contender.

Truex clinched the NASCAR Busch Series championship last Saturday afternoon at Darlington Raceway. Some 24 hours prior, he sat down with NASCAR.COM Senior Writer Marty Smith to lament on Jersey pride, the boss man and -- you guessed it -- his run at the title.

First things first, how tired are you of answering questions about the championship?

Truex: Pretty damn tired (laughing). It's like, everybody says, 'Do you want to lock it up this weekend?' Well what do you think?

The Yankees wanted to win that fourth in the playoffs, too, but Boston came back to beat them. I'm excited about where we're at. I'm having a blast. So whatever happens, happens.

You were talking about pressure (in a press conference at Darlington). Is there added pressure being employed by the most famous person in the sport?

Truex: I think in everybody else's eyes there is. Everybody else thinks there is, but not from him. Not from the organization. He's been incredible about this whole thing. We've had a lot of fun together. He's definitely the picture perfect car owner for me.

He's also like the richest guy in NASCAR. But the guy has a modular home and no airplane. Explain this logic to me.

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Truex: I guess...I don't know, I guess he likes to look at this bank statements (laughing). He's just a regular guy that's made a huge life for himself.

He's made everybody love him somehow. You can't knock him for that. He's just a regular guy - like me and like you. He likes to have fun, loves to race cars and that's about it.

You buy a house in Charlotte yet?

Truex: Naw, still renting a house off of him. I figure he's got enough houses, so I may as well rent one off of him.

So you're from Jersey. So is my wife. She has this t-shirt that says, 'New Jersey: Only the strong survive.' Is that a viable motto for you this year?

Truex: I think so. Yeah. It's been a tough year. It's been a great, incredible year for us, but it's been tough at the same time. We've been through a lot. Seems like it's been three years since Daytona, and it's a lot of new things for me.

Truex (left) with Teresa Earnhardt Credit: Autostock

Not just as far as racing new tracks, but learning to do with all of (the media obligations), deal with people wanting to know what you're doing all the time and what you're thinking about all the time. I'm not used to that. It's been a lot of fun working with my team.

That's the coolest thing, how great we work together and how we've come in such a short time. That makes it all worthwhile, all the learning and all the hard times.

We've had a lot of fun and worked hard all year, and there's nobody in the garage area that deserves it any more than the team I've got. So I'm just looking forward to getting this damn year over with and having a month and a half off.

There's a lot that comes with that popularity, like you said. When you came into the media center in Daytona or were walking through the garage, you may have been able to make it to your hauler without anybody bother you. Now it's a swarm. Big difference.

Truex: Yeah. Obviously I drive for Junior and it's a No. 8 car. They pull for any 8 car. But a lot his core fan base jumped on and is cheering me on and pulling for me. That means a lot to me, their support of me. They've been really great.

Every weekend at driver introductions I probably get the loudest cheers. That's kind of humbling. That's something new. I was never a big name, even when I was in the Busch North Series. I wasn't the most popular driver. It was different, so when it started happening it was kind of shocking.

I'm like, 'What the hell'd I do to deserve this?' But it's been a lot of fun. I've gotten to do a lot of fun things and meet a lot of cool people. And without the fans we wouldn't be anywhere in this sport, so it's cool they've been so supportive of me.

Couple years ago that's what you were doing - racing Busch North cars just trying to be noticed. Now that you are established and have signed the Nextel Cup deal, are "friends" coming out of the woodwork, from back home or anything?

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Truex: Every once in awhile you get somebody like that, but I know who my friends are. I've got the same friends I've always had, besides the ones I met when I moved here. I can tell a good person from a bad one.

I think I've got a pretty good idea of what's right and what's wrong. I try to be the same person I always was and seem to like the same kind of people I always did, so I don't think I'll have any problems with that.

You'll be in the No. 1 car in 2006. First, whose decision is it for you to race another year in the Busch Series, considering your success already. Ultimately, is that his decision? Your decision? Sponsor? And also, talk a bit about Atlanta and if there was anything in that race you weren't ready for.

Truex: I think it was a group decision, kind of a mutual deal. I think Dale Jr. was one of the biggest spokespeople for that idea to run two years of Busch. Obviously he did it, and he feels it helped him a lot and feels it will help me a lot next year.

Just a week or so ago he told me, 'Man, you're not going to realize how much next year you'll learn. So I'm excited about that. I obviously believe a lot in what he says, so I really take that to heart and use it for my advantage. I feel good about it.

Truex will finish the season as the Busch leader in wins, top-fives and top-10s. Credit: Autostock

Obviously, if they needed me in a Cup car they'd have stuck me in there. Who wouldn't? Everybody's doing that. But I think we did the right thing. I'm really happy with that decision to stay here another year. I think there's a lot for me to learn. I think I can do better at every track and in every race than I have this year. I look forward to that.

But man, that Cup deal's tough. You go over there, and I think it's just automatic pressure. Added pressure. The competition's so tough. If you're not on your game you're going to run 30th. We went to Atlanta and I ran with every ounce I had in every lap of that race -- just to run 40th. That's no fun. It's hard to learn that way.

You get down on yourself. Your team gets down, and it's hard to learn and get better when you're not running good. I'd hate to get pushed into that. So I'm really happy with how everything's turned out, and I'm really looking forward to running those seven Cup races next year.

We can go test and really concentrate on just having a decent run and learning as much as we can. We'll get to test for every track we go to and learn in small doses with it, not get stuck with it running bad and being discouraged and still having to do it every week.

We can keep our spirits up running the Busch car, have good runs, go after a championship and spend some time learning for 2006 at the same time. It'll be fun.

Is the transition outside the car, with everyone pulling at you, as difficult, maybe even more difficult, than what you're doing inside the car?

Truex: I think it is. Everybody out here's a racer, and they've raced before they get here. It's just a different car and it's a lot of different things you need to do. But that's still what you know. It's what you do. It's why you're here. And this other stuff isn't. I mean, it is nowadays.

Credit: Autostock

You need to be good at it, but it's not what got you here. So it's like you get here, then you have to learn how to do it. All this new stuff, all this media and having to do TV shows and TV commercials and being friendly to everybody and not showing emotions when they're bad, only when they're good.

It's hard to do that if you haven't done it before. Luckily I'm not that colorful a person that I let all this stuff fly out and get in trouble for it (laughing). So I just try to be who I am, and if they like it, they like it and if they don't, they don't.

That's my last question, actually. You're such a chilled-out guy that nothing really seems to get you that fired up. Aside from racing, what trips your trigger, man?

Truex: Besides women and racin', not really anything (laughing).

Just normal stuff. I like to hunt and fish. Haven't gotten to do much of that lately, so I've been (racing) RC cars and I like tinkering on toys and things like that. Four wheelers. Just whatever, man. Whatever's fun. Whatever my buddies are doing.

Me and Junior have our quarter-scales we've been tinkering with pretty regularly now. Racing on the computer. Playing on the computer, playing games on there. Just whatever's fun, whatever's relaxing. That's what I'm all about.