HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Martin Truex Jr.’s path to the NASCAR Sprint Cup championship round at Homestead-Miami Speedway has been one of remarkable consistency. His team hauler’s path to Homestead on the other hand, has been filled with adventure, long before it ever set wheels in the Sunshine State.
The Furniture Row Racing transporter carrying Truex’s No. 78 Chevrolet to the season finale barely made it out of its blizzard-battered home base of Denver, Colorado. Winter Storm Ajax dropped a foot of snow on the Mile High City, with high winds and wintry weather bringing the city to a standstill over a 36-hour period from late Monday to early Wednesday.
For Barry Huston and Chuck Lemay, the team’s hauler drivers, the severe storm didn’t fit into their plans for a Tuesday afternoon departure.
“They left 12 hours later than they wanted to,” Truex said during media availabilities for the title-eligible drivers Thursday afternoon, just as the team transporter was setting a course to Alligator Alley. “They spent the night at Wal‑Mart Tuesday night. They started shutting down all the highways. They had to pull into Wal‑Mart, park the truck and spend the night.
“Chuck and Barry are here. They should be here by now. The last I heard they were about four or five hours out. So they should be at the track by now.”
The Barney Visser-owned team has long navigated different travel logistics as the only Sprint Cup team with headquarters west of the Mississippi River. Making the tight turn from a rain-delayed race last weekend in Phoenix to this weekend’s race in Homestead some 2,400 miles away is tricky enough, especially with a championship on the line. Throw in the threat of adverse weather conditions and the degree of difficulty goes skyward.
“It ended up not being an issue, honestly, but it was scary for a while, I can tell you,” said Joe Garone, Furniture Row Racing‘s general manager. “You get a blizzard coming in town, we all know how hard the weather is to predict anyway, so you’re just not sure what’s going to happen. It could end up the two main arteries going into Denver end up closed and you could be stuck at home or, worse yet, wrecked on the side of the road.
“It ended up playing out. Everything was fine. But it is something you have to take serious and look at, yeah.”