Martin Truex Jr. wins at Homestead, claims first NASCAR Cup Series championship
By Nick Tylwalk
It took a win in the final race to pull it off, but Martin Truex Jr. captured his first NASCAR Cup Series championship.
By his own admission, he didn’t think he had the best car in the Ford EcoBoost 400 on Sunday. But as he did most of the NASCAR season, Martin Truex Jr. was able to drive it to the front and keep it there when it mattered.
Despite plenty of pressure from a hard-charging Kyle Busch over the final 20 laps at Homestead, Truex held on to win both the race and the 2017 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series championship. The 37-year-old has been racing full time in the top series since 2006, but his previous best season finish was fourth in 2015.
Among the other drivers in contention for the championship, Busch finished second, closing to within half a second on several occasions but never quite able to get in position to make a pass for the win. Kevin Harvick came home fourth and Brad Keselowski finished seventh. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 25th in what is expected to be his final Cup Series race.
The victory was the eighth of the season for Truex, one more than he had collected in his entire Cup Series career prior to 2017. But he has sparkled this year on the intermediate tracks that make up a big chunk of the NASCAR schedule, so even with no prior Homestead wins, it was no surprise to see him in position to grab another checkered flag.
Even with a new level of success, Truex has been through more than his fair share of mixed emotions during the season. Girlfriend Sherry Pollex continues to battle cancer, while Furniture Row Racing owner Barney Visser suffered a recent heart attack and wasn’t able to see his lead driver seal the deal.
On Sunday, Truex said his biggest problem was not having the fastest car, but he got the most out of it, and that turned out to be just enough. Asked after he finished his triumphant burnout how much of his win was for Pollex, he gave the perfect answer while fighting through tears of joy.
“A lot of it was for her,” Truex said. “A lot of it was for me, a lot of it was for this team.”
He’s not the stereotypical stock car racing star, hailing originally from New Jersey, and his drive to the top of the sport has been anything but a straight line. There’s nothing typical about the Furniture Row Racing organization, operating far from the heart of NASCAR country and, except for this year, typically fielding just one car.
As it turns out, the ascendant driver and nontraditional team found each other at the perfect time. Truex is a deserving champion, and one who should be racing for more wins and championships into the next decade.