BUY TICKETS: See the Daytona 500 live! | 2016 Daytona race recap
TAMPA — Maybe it was appropriate that Martin Truex Jr. made a preseason appearance to promote the upcoming Daytona 500 at a National Hockey League game this week between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Los Angeles Kings.
The oh-so-slight 0.010-second margin of victory between Truex and the 2016 Daytona 500 trophy is kind of like losing a hockey game on a final-second slap shot. That fast. That close.
But when Truex arrived in Florida on Tuesday night he said he is more energized than ever about his chances to hoist NASCAR’s most famous race trophy in the Feb. 26 Daytona 500 (2 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.) Truth be told, the Furniture Row Racing driver has been thinking about the Daytona green flag since October of last year, when an engine failure at Talladega cost him a shot at the 2016 championship.
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"I always look forward to coming down here," Truex said. "When you get to Florida, you’re like, ‘This is nice.’ "
As for the Daytona 500, Truex remains as much encouraged as disappointed about last year’s near-miss.
Truex has collected two of his three top-10 Daytona 500 showings in just the last two years while driving for Furniture Row.
Last year’s runner-up finish to fellow Toyota driver Denny Hamlin was the closest margin of victory since the race began using electronic timing and scoring — and it came in Truex’s Furniture Row Racing team’s debut with Toyota and its first year of a technical alliance with Joe Gibbs Racing.
"I don’t think I’ve raced it any differently, really," Truex said." Two years ago I would say, I probably raced it like I had in the past, but this past year I definitely had more teammates than I’ve had before.
"That made things a lot different. It’s something I’ll have to get used to, but we really worked together well in that race.
"It’s just one of those things where everything — all the cards — fell in our favor in last year’s Daytona 500. We raced well together, made good decisions to help each other. It just all worked out for us. It’ll be hard to repeat that for sure."
Any growing pains or natural concerns about the manufacturer shift were quickly shelved following Truex’s impressive Daytona showing. What learning curve?
He was driving and succeeding as if he and the team had been competing with Toyota horsepower for years. Truex reeled off a top 10 the next week at Atlanta (seventh) and an 11th at Phoenix the week after that. The team established itself as a frontrunner at the start of the 2016 season. And it ultimately proved to be a legitimate championship contender.
"I think we weren’t real sure and thought it might take a while for the transition and to get everything running smoothly," Truex said of the 2016 manufacturer change. "And then right out of the box we were strong and that really continued as we went to Atlanta, Phoenix, Vegas all those places. It was definitely an eye-opener for me, just to see the job the team did and how awesome it was working out already.
"It definitely got me fired up for the season and feeling good about what we were going to have for the rest of the year."
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With good reason.
Truex scored his first victory of the year in a historic performance in the longest race of the season, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in late May. After winning the pole position, Truex led 392 of the 400 laps – the most dominant showing in the storied history of the Memorial Day weekend event.
He answered that with victory in another of the sport’s most tradition-rich races, the Bojangles Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway during Labor Day weekend. He won two more times (at Chicago and Dover) in the next four races – playoff events, no less.
"Daytona does set the tone for the season," Truex said. "You can obviously overcome a bad Daytona but you know, just to have that confidence in what you did and what you worked on all winter long as a group and have it pay off right out of the gate was very rewarding and a template we can continue to use."
An engine problem at Talladega –- after winning the pole position –- came three weeks after Truex’s Dover victory, however. It ultimately ended the team’s robust championship hopes and eliminated him from further Chase contention.
As the No. 78 Toyota sat in the Talladega garage that sunny afternoon — parked only 41 laps into the 192-lap race — Truex made peace with the misfortune. It had been the winningest season in his 11-year Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career and gave him and the sport’s only Colorado-based team great confidence going forward.
But Truex did concede this week that since that disappointing October afternoon, he has thought often about taking the first green flag of the 2017 season.
"We knew our season was over at that point," Truex said. "We had a chance to win some races after that but didn’t, so that was disappointing. Since then, it’s been like, ‘All right, didn’t happen that year, so we’ll have to get after it the next year.’ And here we are, just a couple weeks away and everyone’s ready to go."
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For Truex and his team, that first Daytona 500 win feels a mere photo-finish away.
"Daytona is just a tough place," Truex said. "It’s one of those races where anything can happen, as a restrictor plate race. I’ve had some unfortunate things happen over the years. The last two years we’ve really had fast race cars and that’s helped us stay out of trouble and stay up towards the front. And that’s really where you want to be.
"It’s kind of right place, right time and having fast race cars and hopefully we’ll be able to do that again this year.
"We’ll see if we can improve one spot from last year; that’s the plan."
