Martin Truex Jr. will start fourth Saturday at Talladega. Credit: CIA Stock Photo

Truex optimistic about Busch Series turnaround

Defending series champ also defending race winner this week

TALLADEGA, Ala. (AP) -- The confidence and levelheadedness of Martin Truex Jr. emerges when he talks about breaking out of his Busch series slump.

"I think it's going to be this weekend," Truex said Thursday after qualifying fourth behind polesitter Paul Menard for Saturday's Aaron's 312 at Talladega Superspeedway.

	Inside the Numbers Martin Truex Jr.'s 2005 Busch Series statistics Site Start Finish Daytona 23 4 Fontana 9 30 Mexico City 3 1 Las Vegas 20 16 Atlanta 16 11 Nashville 13 14 Bristol 4 31 Fort Worth 2 35 Phoenix 9 9 Avg. 11 16.7

But the driver from New Jersey knows that might not be so easy.

"There's no telling," he said. "We could go five laps and get into a crash or something. You never know."

The reigning Busch champion has some reason for optimism this weekend. Like his boss, Dale Earnhardt Jr., he's got a nice -- albeit limited -- track record in restrictor-plate races.

Truex beat out Earnhardt, who co-owns Chance 2 Motorsports with his stepmother Teresa Earnhardt, in his Talladega debut last year. Truex has a win, a pole and three top-five finishes in four races at Talladega and Daytona, where NASCAR requires horsepower-sapping carburetor restrictor plates to slow the cars.

He ran in the top 10 for much of the Daytona 500 in February before experiencing engine trouble.

"I'm confident. My car's really good this weekend and we won here last year," said Truex, who also will try to qualify for Sunday's Nextel Cup Aaron's 499. "If something happens and we don't finish, oh well. I feel pretty confident we've got a shot to win if we're around at the end.

"That's about all you can ask for, I guess."

His team plans to move Truex up to a full-time ride next year in the Nextel Cup Series. Right now, he's more concerned with resurrecting his Busch fortunes.

Truex got his first top-10 finish in seven races last week at Phoenix, moving from seventh to fifth in the standings.

The No. 8 Chevrolet has completed 97 percent of laps run in the Busch Series this season. Credit: Autostock

His bid to become the first driver to win consecutive Busch titles since Earnhardt in 1998-99 got off to a poor start. He finished 30th or worse in three of the first nine races.

"Racing's like that," Truex said. "One day, everything's going the way you want it to and even when you have bad days, you can still make something good out of them.

"We've had some bad luck this year, and even when we do run good it seems like something happens. That's the way racing is."

Truex is not about to concede the series title to leader Carl Edwards or anyone else. Edwards qualified 17th on Thursday.

"We're not out of it yet, I promise you that," Truex said. "We're too strong a team and we don't give up. We just need to get rid of the bad luck."