James: Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr. glad milestone talk over
BROOKLYN, Mich. – Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. avoided unpleasant anniversaries in the past few weeks of the Sprint Cup season. Both drivers found victory lane again just shy of the one-year anniversary since their last win.
Maybe reaching those menacing milestones would have been emotionally troubling, worrisome, annoying, especially considering how well each had raced.
They noticed them. But they’d have you believe they didn’t care about them that much. Still, they’re relieved that talk of when they may take the checkered flag again is over.
Maybe they wouldn’t have looked beyond what was directly on their horizon not halfway through the 36-race season. But after Truex Jr. dominated in winning at Charlotte Motor Speedway two weeks ago and Busch won at Pocono Raceway last week, each can forget the question and focus on the long and less-pressurized approach to the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
“I actually never thought about how long it had been,” said Truex Jr., whose previous win had come in the 2015 spring race at Pocono. “We’ve been so close and things have obviously been going well for us, so you just kind of try to focus on that and I think all of us were.
“We weren’t frustrated at all.”
Truex Jr. enters Sunday's race at Michigan International Speedway ninth in points. He will start on the outside of pole-sitter Joey Logano. Busch already was second in points and safely within the 16-driver Chase boundary before winning at Pocono – his first victory since the 2015 June race here – despite crew chief Tony Gibson serving a suspension for a lug nut violation. Some of Busch’s newer crewman had become a bit “frazzled,” he admitted, but as for the 2004 series champion, it was about the longer view.
“It’s great to have the win. But we want more wins,” Busch said. “Gene Haas is a great owner to race for. He said ‘congratulations’ and then in his normal sarcastic Gene Haas tone, he said, ‘I want more. Where are more? Why do we only have one?’ But you have to stay patient. … Last week, we’ve had such a strong season with consistency that there’s no reason to panic or to stress (the) team because we hadn’t won. Honestly, we were second in points and we had a three-race cushion on 16th in points. And so that was a cushion that I was trying to tell the guys, that’s important; because if we had any kind of mechanical failure, we’re not in any kind of jeopardy of not advancing to the Chase.”
Some other drivers currently Chase eligible because of their points standing have time before anxiety could crest. Of course, for a driver outside the top 16 in points, winning a race could change the mood.
Logano is eighth in points and will lead the field to green Sunday, but waiting until the one-year anniversary of his last win would be an anxious proposition as he attempts to win a first Cup title. The Team Penske driver won six races in 2015 - including three straight in the Chase, the most recent at Talladega Superspeedway in October. Of the other remaining drivers in the top 16 who qualified for the Chase last season, Dale Earnhardt Jr. (11th in points) last won at Phoenix International Raceway in November and Jamie McMurray (14th) and Ryan Newman (16th) haven’t won since 2013.
Truex Jr. appeared to be replicating a 2015 in which numerous opportunities for victory dissolved in ill fortune or the vagaries of pit calls. His Furniture Row Racing team spun that into a positive, as he advanced to the Cup finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway as one of four drivers with a chance to win the title. He finished fourth in the standings.
“We felt like it was kind of weird that it was almost a replay of last year how we lead all those races in a row and kind of crazy things would happen, but I think again a lot like last year we looked at all these things,” he said. “We looked at leading laps and running up front and doing the things we were doing as a positive – not a negative. Yes, we want to win. Yes, we were somewhat frustrated that we hadn’t (won) yet, but I don’t think we let it change our approach or get us frustrated enough that we forgot what we were doing or made mistakes, so glad we were able to pull through in convincing fashion obviously and hopefully we can do it again soon.”
Nearly a year was a bit too long.
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