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Crew chief Cole Pearn was hard at work at Furniture Row Racing’s Denver shop immediately after guiding Martin Truex Jr. and the No. 78 Toyota to victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. There are more races to be won and a title to claim for this team.
Pearn is one of only four team members who have been with the organization for every victory. He served as a chief engineer for the team’s very first win with Regan Smith at Darlington in 2011 before being named crew chief in 2015 when Truex became the team’s driver.
Sunday’s win was a strong performance for Truex, Pearn and the No. 78 team. Truex collected points for winning both stages in addition to the big trophy for taking the checkered flag — 1.495-seconds ahead of Kyle Larson. He also led a race best 150 of the 267 laps for the his fourth win in the last 15 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular-season events.
Here’s what the Canadian native Pearn had to say about Sunday’s dramatic Vegas “sweep.”
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HOLLY CAIN: How important was it to your team to win early this season after winning in the 2016 playoffs but not advancing to the Championship 4?
COLE PEARN: To get one early on is a great feeling. It was important. It’s a whole different world now and we’re all still trying to understand it, but definitely a good feeling.
CAIN: Did you realistically expect to win this early in the season after the team took on the great task of fielding a second car (for rookie Erik Jones) in 2017?
PEARN: I didn’t really know what to expect to be honest. Having a second car and then having to switch bodies to the 2018 (Toyota) Camry was probably a bigger change, more than anything. You never really know where you’re going to be at with that big of a change. So to be able to get one early and be competitive so far is definitely comforting.
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CAIN: Last year, the team was competitive early but didn’t score that first win until the dominating performance at Charlotte in May. How important was it to run well and win right away?
PEARN: It definitely calms you. But with the change in the format, you have to push after it every week. Those bonus points will be so valuable. The win is nice — to not having that hanging over your head. But you’ve still got to get to work and try and run best you can every week.
CAIN: Was what vibe like back at shop in Denver after securing a win three weeks in? It’s the earliest the team has every won.
PEARN: It was a huge boost. Everyone, you know the shop guys, feels like they’ve worked every day since Christmas. The weekends, ridiculous hours through the week everyone just trying to get this all off the ground. We’ve got a lot of new people here too, so to get a win like that early on was huge for their spirits. So definitely lightened everybody’s step for sure.
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CAIN: You are one of only four people on the team there for every win in team history. How are your expectations different now?
PEARN: I think we push ourselves pretty hard regardless. But winning early is good. The more you win, the more fun it is. Definitely good to get one early and not walk away feeling like you let one slip away. Those are the hard ones to get over. So it’s good not to deal with that. We try to be good every week and that’s really hard to do and I think, we just keep putting effort in like we’ve been doing and hopefully that will allow us to keep being successful. We definitely want to win as many races as possible.
CAIN: Interesting end to the race with the scuffle on pit road. Were you even aware what was happening with Kyle Busch and Joey Logano during their ‘disagreement?’
PEARN: You were starting to hear whispers while in Victory Lane and then the oddest thing towards the end, we were delayed in going and doing media stuff because all the media was covering the fight. It was definitely an odd Victory Lane vibe for sure.
CAIN: Had to share headlines a bit. …
PEARN: It’s all right. People want to see passion so it’s good for the sport.
CAIN: Which of the upcoming tracks do you feel most optimistic about?
PEARN: I felt like we had a good finish at Phoenix last year. Hopefully we’ll have a good weekend this weekend and we were good at Fontana too. It’s just doing the right things each week and trying to optimize everything for the track. I’m hopeful we can win any week really.
CAIN: Talk about the shift for FRR from “Underdog” to the team everyone is looking at as a favorite every week
PEARN: This sport is all work and it’s something you have to keep pushing at. You got here by working hard and we have to continue to keep it at this level.