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Martin Truex Jr. ready for Daytona again

Backup car is new and ready to replace first car

Edited: Jun 1, 2018, 3:13 PM

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Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet and Greg Biffle, Roush Fenway Racing Ford

A couple of days ago I made a comment about how smoothly things were going for our Furniture Row Racing team. I also added a disclaimer, saying that in superspeedway racing things can change in a blink of an eye.

Unfortunately that blink materialized in Thursday night's qualifying race on the last turn of the final lap when our Chevrolet SS got caught up in a multicar accident at Daytona International Speedway.

Martin Truex Jr., Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet and Greg Biffle, Roush Fenway Racing Ford

Photo by: Covy Moore

Our primary car suffered major damage, leaving us no choice but to take out our backup car for Sunday's Daytona 500. We also lost our front-row starting position due to the change of cars and will take the green flag from the rear of the 43-car field.

I was bummed about losing a fast race car. But after being told our backup car, which is new, is as good as our primary my spirits picked up.

I was anxiously awaiting Friday's two practice sessions to shake down the new car. But Mother Nature didn't cooperate. When our car was ready to go in the first practice session, the rains came, and to our dismay the session was canceled as was the afternoon session. So here we are with a stout looking race car sitting in the garage stall with zero miles on it. And what makes it even worse is the forecast is calling for more rain (Saturday) for our final practice session. If that happens we will enter NASCAR's biggest and most prestigious race with no practice laps on our car. That's not the scenario we want.

I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said I wasn't worried. I want to get in our backup car and have a feel for it before the big race. But if we don't, we'll accept it and remain positive and not look back. I still feel that we can be a contender on Sunday even with a backup car that has never been on the track.

While our guys are working hard fine-tuning the backup car, the mood is a little subdued due to the lack of practice time. The only crew member who had a smile was our talented lead engineer Cole Pearn, and it wasn't because of racing.

Cole is a proud Canadian and is thrilled with Canada's success at the Olympics, especially the women's gold medal hockey victory over the U.S., and the men's 1-0 win over Team USA in the semifinals. And, according to Cole, the Canadians even took home the gold in men's and women's curling. I thought for a minute that Cole was going to unleash a verse of "O Canada."

Well here's hoping that the rains will hold off on Saturday and we'll get to break in our new Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet before Sunday's Daytona 500.

Furniture Row Racing's Martin Truex Jr., is keeping a daily diary for The Post through Sunday's Daytona 500.

Furniture Row Racing

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