Truex hopes test gives him California edge

The 34-year-old has rattled off four straight top-10s to open the season with the best result being a runner-up finish at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The seventh-place result in the CampingWorld.com 500 at Phoenix International Raceway gave the Furniture Row organization four straight top-10s for the first time in the team's history and placed the driver third in the point standings.



Now, the series shifts to the Auto Club 400 (March 22, 3:30 p.m. ET, FOX) at the 2-mile track in Fontana, California. Auto Club has not been the kindest track to Truex in his Sprint Cup career. In 14 starts, he has three top-10s with the last one coming in 2012; his average finish there is 20.1. He has only one top-10 in Fontana in the past nine Sprint Cup events there, but with the way he's been running this season, he has a good feeling heading into the finale of the three-race West Coast swing.

"Definitely looking forward to California," he said. "I feel like it's a place we should be strong. We did the Goodyear tire test there last fall. … Really liked what we saw there with the new package. We ran 2015 rules and learned a lot there that has helped us throughout this season. I feel really good about it. I had a good car at Atlanta and Vegas and that's a good indication that we should be good on the 1.5-mile, 2-mile tracks. I feel like that will be a good one for us."



Truex said last year's testing is an advantage for his the team, but there are other factors.

"It depends on what tire they bring back I guess," Truex said. "Any time you get track time, especially a new rules package coming in effect. We got some time on the 2015 rules, which was definitely, I think, a little bit of an advantage. I think at the end of the day we were fast out there. We felt good about what we had and we have some data to work off of for this year. It really just gave us a step up on the competition I think."

The roots of his confidence-building fast start date back to last fall, but there's another major reason for his progress -- the promotion of Cole Pearn from lead race engineer to crew chief last December.

"He's certainly a big part of turning the team around," Truex said of Pearn. "He's a big part of why we're running well, obviously. I don't want to give him all the credit because there are a lot of other people that deserve it as well.

"He has a bright future in the sport. He is a guy you are going to talk about for a long time being a good crew chief. ... I think one of the neatest things is that there were a lot of big teams after him last year and this winter. We are very proud that he stayed with us. I'm proud that he stayed with us because he knew what we were capable of."

The team struggled in Truex's first season with the organization. He came over last year from Michael Waltrip Racing, which went from three full-time teams to two due to the fallout from MWR's involvement in the Richmond race manipulation scandal that took Truex out of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoff in 2013.

With Todd Barrier atop the pit box last season, Truex recorded only five top-10s all season. His first top 10 of 2014 didn't come until the 13th race of the season — in June — at Dover International Speedway. With 30-plus races to go, Truex is just one top 10 away from matching last year's total. The synergy with his new chief couldn't be going much better.

Pearn's transition to crew chief was part of Furniture Row's offseason plan to get the one-car organization back in the Chase.



"I would say the biggest thing to start with was personnel," said Joe Garone, General Manager of Furniture Row Racing. "Advancing Cole Pearn to crew chief, which really had been planned for awhile. The last I think eight races of the season, he was a lot more heavily involved. It was just kind of a perfect fit for him. We boosted up our engineering staff around him.



"We were able to go into the offseason with a good plan, and focus on our downfalls that we learned through the season and just listen to the driver. He told us the cars weren't working and went to work on them and got them better."

The plan is looking good, but Truex said execution has been the key.

"All the guys on the team, Joe, Barney (Visser, team owner), Cole, having a good plan and executing throughout the offseason," Truex said, referring to the setup for success. "Cars have been running good. The team has been making good decisions. The team hasn't been making mistakes. Reliability's been there, so everything we needed to work on and wanted to get better at has been there. Now it's just a matter of how much better can we get."

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