NASCAR: The Five Biggest Mid-Season Surprises Of 2016

#4 – No. 78, Martin Truex, Jr. – Furniture Row Racing

Clearly, the changing of alliances of Furniture Row Racing from Richard Childress Racing (RCR) to Joe Gibbs’ Racing (JGR) has proven to be a wise move.  Martin Truex, Jr., can be expected to be a contender on any given race weekend and, barring trouble, will be a front-runner in the race as well.  There have been some consistency issues, with strings of top finishes sometimes followed by poorer performances.  More often than not however, trouble is not of Martin’s own doing, so fans should be assured that all pieces to make another serious championship run are in place.

Martin’s average finish has been 12.6 so far and he has completed 99.3% of laps run in 2016, leading 820 of them.

However, the surprise for this group was the pure domination of the Coca-Cola 600 at the end of May.  It didn’t matter that the race began in late afternoon and ended at night, which frequently favors set ups and drivers who excel during one time period or the other but not both.  He dominated each of them.  Truex led 392 of the 400 laps all night, and wasn’t seriously challenged at any point.  It was evident from rolling off of the truck that FRR was the team to beat.

Many times, the driver who “deserves” to win doesn’t.  It was fitting this time, that Truex was able to close-out the weekend with a popular and well-deserved victory.

Next: #3 - Has The Passion Left Him?