CONCORD, N.C. -- After the first four races of the season, Martin Truex Jr. arrived at Bristol Motor Speedway insisting that his next Cup Series win wasn't that far away -- and he went on to praise his new pit crew for their strong performance early in the season.

Truex called his pit crew incredible but admitted he didn't exactly know what the Michael Waltrip Racing organization had done to make them so good. Truex is in his first season with MWR after spending his entire career with what is now Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing.

“

For us, it's just about getting that experience, building up the notebook together.

”

-- MARTIN TRUEX JR.

Fast forward seven races and the No. 56 team arrives at Charlotte Motor Speedway with one top-five and four top-10 finishes heading into Saturday's All-Star events -- not to mention being 12th in the points standings and earning first-quarter honors in the Mechanix Wear most valuable pit crew award competition.

Truex joins a small stable of drivers in the top 12 with strong performances over the first third of the Cup season, but lacking a win to guarantee a spot in the All-Star Race. Truex has said before he had no desire to watch the main event on TV but admits it won't be easy racing his way to a win in the Showdown.

"There's going to be a lot of competition," Truex said. "It's going to be a lot harder to win than it has been in the past, I think. It should make for a really exciting race."

The driver is covering all of his bases and making no bones about an all-out effort to ramp up the Fan Vote in his favor. Truex recently recorded a video posted to YouTube asking fans to vote early and often and ended with a picture of his smiling face wedged between the words: "Vote for Martin -- Tried and Truex."

Truex said he is appreciative of the Fan Vote, but would love nothing more than to earn his way into the All-Star Race by putting his pedal to the metal when the green flag drops for Saturday's Showdown.

"I won the Fan Vote before [in 2005] and it was a different kind of feeling than when I won the Showdown [in 2007]. It's cool to have the support of the fans, but obviously, we'd rather race our way in," Truex said.

"It's [the All-Star Race] different than any other race. No points and you don't have to worry about anything. You just go out there and have fun. It's like when you used to race on Saturday nights. I really, really enjoy it and that's why I want to race in it so bad."

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Regardless of Saturday's outcome, Truex and the No. 56 team are sitting in a favorable position in the standings -- but that doesn't mean that driver and team can sit back and rest on their laurels. Just 112 points separate Truex from Juan Montoya in 19th -- leaving plenty of room to shuffle spots as the season progresses.

To stay in contention, Truex knows a win wouldn't hurt, but having led just 6 laps all season, he and the team realize there is still plenty of learning to do. Truex knows winning means racing up front. His first and only win came at Dover in 2007, the year he led 581 laps on the season.

"Really as a whole, our program has been solid. We've been strong, " Truex said. " We haven't really been a win-contending team yet, but we've been solid. We've been steady. We've turned bad days into 11th- and 12th-place finishes, which is what it takes to have a good points position. We've had some strong runs too."

Before he can lead a race, Truex and team must do better at qualifying. They certainly accomplished that at Dover last week when Truex won his first pole of the season.

"I think we're getting close. I think for the first ... really up until last week, one of the biggest things we struggled with was qualifying," said Truex, who earned three poles in 2009 while running for EGR. "That hurt our [chances]. Obviously you get a bad pit stall and when you qualify bad and it takes you half to three-quarters of the race to get your track position. That's been a big struggle for us as far as running up front.

"For us, it's just about getting that experience, building up the notebook together. Obviously Pat [Tryson, crew chief] and I are still learning the cars together at MWR and we're starting, I feel like, to zero in on what it's going to take for us not only to qualify well, but run up front all day."