Furniture Row Racing shows support for driver's girlfriend battling cancer
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MORE: Pearn prepared to be Truex Jr.'s crew chief
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- For all the de rigueur optimism that comes with preseason media sessions, Martin Truex Jr. had all the reason to truly say -- without cliché -- that he was excited.
Truex said Thursday on the Charlotte Media Tour presented by Technocom that longtime girlfriend Sherry Pollex underwent her last rigorous chemotherapy treatment Monday for ovarian cancer. He described her recovery as the next step in "a long journey," and expressed his hope that a return to normalcy wasn't far away.
The news was just a small portion of the Furniture Row Racing presentation Thursday in the Charlotte Convention Center, but it was an important one. Truex said that even as he battled through a rocky first year with the Colorado-based team, one in which he finished a career-worst 24th place in the final 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points, standing beside Pollex through her treatment gave him a dose of perspective.
"I was glad last year when it was over because I knew what we had to battle through throughout this winter," Truex said. "Racing's tough, but when racing is as tough as it was last year, all you can do is continue to work hard and look forward. There were days where it sucked to be at the race track, especially at the end of the season when she was going through her thing, but there was never a time when I didn't want to be there or didn't feel I should be there.
"Honestly, there were times last year when I felt like when Thursday came around and it was time to go to the race track, I really enjoyed that. I needed that getaway; I needed to get to the race track and take out some frustration and get with the guys and be a part of the team, even though it wasn't going good. At times, it was still therapeutic for me just to be there and be doing my thing and getting in the zone and trying to forget about everything else that was going on."
Pollex announced Aug. 13 her diagnosis with ovarian cancer, two days before she underwent surgery to battle the disease. Though Truex said he found a sort of refuge in competing, he skipped that Friday of practice and qualifying at Michigan International Speedway to be with Pollex through the procedure.
Truex called the outpouring of support "special -- there's no other way to say it," and thanked the tight-knit community of drivers, teams and fans for the thoughts and prayers throughout the extended fight. But the support also came from even closer to home, with his car owner, Barney Visser.
"When Sherry got diagnosed, he called me and said, 'You don't have to race. You can take off the next 10 races and the car will be there for you next year,'" Truex said. "That's the kind of guy he is, and to have somebody like that stand behind you and say, 'Hey, we're here for you and we'll do whatever it takes,' it means the world to me, and I'm going to do my best this year to make that up to him."
Finding redemption on the track will involve making strides past a season that produced just one top-five and one lap led in the entire 36-race schedule for the No. 78 Chevrolet. The team intends to combat that in part through the promotion of lead engineer Cole Pearn to the role of crew chief, but also in getting Truex more acclimated in his second Furniture Row season.
But racing aside, Truex said he's found more to focus on through his journey with Pollex.
"She's really inspired me to be a better person to see the things she's been through, to appreciate things more," Truex said. "We all get inspired by people at some point, but when you see somebody go through that and it's the person you love more than anything in the world, it takes it to a new level. For me, it's been a crazy, wild ride, but I don't think I would change it for anything."