Saturday Pocono Notebook
- Chase Elliott moving closer to breakthrough victory
- Truex is a driver at the top of his game
- Short Strokes
June 4, 2016
By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service
CHASE ELLIOTT MOVING CLOSER TO BREAKTHROUGH VICTORY
LONG
POND, Pa. – If you’re looking for the next first-time winner in the
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Chase Elliott just might be your best bet.
The
numbers don’t lie. The Sunoco Rookie of the Year points leader has
recorded nine top-10 finishes in the first 13 races of the 2016 season,
matching Jimmie Johnson’s 2002
rookie performance in that statistical category.
As
Johnson did in his rookie year, Elliott won the pole for the
season-opening Daytona 500. And like Johnson, Elliott won a second pole
in the first 13 races. The difference?
By race 13, Johnson had two victories to his credit.
Driving
the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet that was the exclusive
province of four-time champion Jeff Gordon for 23 years, Elliott is
still looking for his first win,
but he feels the team is close to a breakthrough.
“Obviously,
there are so many good cars each week,” Elliott said during media
interviews in advance of Sunday's Axalta "We Paint Winners" 400 (1 p.m.
ET on FS1). “It’s not
easy anywhere you go. As I’ve said, I feel like I have a team and a
group of guys that are capable of winning if I do my part for them. I
truly believe that. When I come to the race track each weekend, I really
have the strong belief that our team can win.
I think that’s something that’s important for all of us to believe.
“And
if we didn’t believe that, we might as well stay home. That’s the
mind-set we have coming into each race weekend, regardless of where it
is. And that’s our mind-set here
(at Pocono Raceway), just as it is everywhere else. We’re working hard
at it. If I could tell the future, I’d tell you. But, we’re going to
give it our best effort to do that and if we do, great. If we don’t, it
sure won’t be for a lack of effort.”
MARTIN TRUEX JR. IS A DRIVER AT THE TOP OF HIS GAME
Before
last week’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Martin Truex
Jr.’s 2016 season could have been summed up with a lyric from the blues
standard “Born Under a Bad
Sign.”
“If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all,” could well have been Truex’s theme for the current campaign.
He
lost the Daytona 500 to Denny Hamlin by six inches. He led 141 laps at
Texas and finished sixth. He won the pole and led 172 of 267 laps at
Kansas, only to have a pit road
snafu drop him to 14th at the finish.
But
Truex’s luck changed at Charlotte, where he turned in one of the most
dominating performances in the history of NASCAR racing, leading an
event- and track-record 392 laps
and a single-race record 588 miles.
All told Truex has led a career-high 809 laps this season—18.8 percent of the 4,303 laps he’s completed.
And
though Truex is quick to credit his Furniture Row team and the
organization’s move to a factory-supported role with Toyota, the driver
of the No. 78 Camry deserves plenty
of credit, too.
“I’d
have to give most of the credit to the team,” Truex said on Friday at
Pocono Raceway, where he is the defending winner of the Axalta “We Paint
Winners” 400. “I’m different.
I’m doing things different. I feel different. I feel like I’m a better
driver than I’ve ever been, but unless you have a great team and all the
things around you it takes to be competitive at this level against
these drivers against these teams ... you’ve
got to have it all.
“We
just have to stay focused, and I think we know what it takes now. My
guys are really, really smart about focusing on the right things, the
right areas, giving me the information
I need to be a better driver, so just got to keep focused and make sure
we’re ready when the last 10 races start this year.”
Though
Truex qualified 17th on Friday, failing to advance to the final round
of knockout time trials, he was fourth fastest in race trim during final
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
practice on Saturday.
SHORT STROKES
The
Busch brothers topped the speed chart in Saturday’s final practice for
the Axalta 400. Kyle Busch posted the fastest lap of the session,
covering the 2.5-mile distance
in 50.876 seconds (176.901 mph). Kurt Busch was close behind at 176.800
mph. ... Dale Earnhardt Jr. and crew chief Greg Ives worked on their
car throughout practice but finished the session 17th on the speed chart
at 174.795 mph. Pole winner Brad Keselowski
was sixth fastest at 175.792 mph.
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