Back To Dover For Truex … This week’s Pocono test served as a segue to Sunday’s Best Buy 400 Benefiting Student Clubs for Autism Speaks at Dover International Speedway, of which Martin Truex Jr. is the defending champion.
Last year’s June win at Dover was Truex’s first in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition. It also took place at his “home” track – only several hours from his native Mayetta, N.J.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Truex said Wednesday. “It doesn’t seem like it’s been a year since we won our first race. Time to get back in there and win another one. We’ve been close a few times since then.
“It just hasn’t all worked out.”
On-track luck hasn’t fallen in Truex’s favor recently. After a strong start to 2008, he’s 15th in the series standings heading to Dover, 163 points out of 12th, the cut-off spot for Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup eligibility.
“We’ve had some really great race cars just about every week,” Truex said, citing an accident in last Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 while running in the top 15. “Like last week, seems like something always happens to take a good finish away from us. So hopefully we’ll be able to go to Dover, turn that around, get our season back on track. Climb back into that top 12.”
Pit Stops … Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88 AMP/National Guard Chevrolet) was fastest in Wednesday’s morning session (167.302 mph/53.795 seconds), followed by Travis Kvapil (No. 28 Yates Racing Ford) at 167.066 mph/53.871 seconds. Kvapil’s Yates Racing teammate, David Gilliland (No. 38 FreeCreditReport.com Ford), was fastest in Tuesday’s rain-shortened session, at 164.408 mph/54.72 seconds.
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