Toyota Media Day at Daytona - Martin Truex, Jr.

MARTIN  TRUEX JR, No.19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry, Joe Gibbs Racing

Did you feel comfortable with James Small being named your new crew chief?

"For sure. I felt real comfortable with it. It felt like Cole (Pearn) just stayed home for the weekend, which he did, I guess. Yeah, everything seems cool. He seems comfortable with his new role and all the decisions that are on his shoulders now, and so far he's done a good job."

Could you talk about your relationship with Joe Gibbs and kind of what you came to expect about him in just talking to the other drivers.

"Well, it's been exciting to work for him, and certainly I've learned a lot about him and about the company in a little over the year that I've been there. But it's amazing to see the way he leads the place and how everybody looks up to him and the amount of work he puts in is amazing. I think he eats, breathes and sleeps racing, and if he's not meeting with a sponsor, he's at the shop. It doesn't matter what time of day it is. I feel like he's always there. He does a great job of motivating people and a great job of making sure everybody has what they need to perform."

Do you remember what your first thoughts were when you first learned that this Super Bowl winning coach is going into racing?

"Oh, I was pretty young then, so I don't know ‑‑ I remember that I thought it was really cool, but other than that, I was young. I didn't really understand just how big of a deal it really was and what racing was all about at this level back then. Obviously he came in at a good time when the teams were smaller and you could kind of get your foot in the door and start a team. It would be much more difficult to do that today, I believe."

How is the communication with you and James Small so far?

"So far it's been good. I think James has been right there on the front lines with us the past few seasons, and obviously he wasn't out in the spotlight because he was an engineer and not a crew chief, but I feel like he's really doing the same things as before, and our communication really hasn't changed a whole lot. I just feel like it's business as usual. From that standpoint, it feels comfortable, and he's done a good job of just keeping things the way we've always done them. Not trying to change, not trying to be somebody ‑‑ change the team up to be the way he wants it. He knows what we have works, and his approach is so similar to Cole's that it's really been seamless so far. Hopefully that continues to be the case."

Did you like the fact that he even embraced the tee shirt?

"Yeah, and I'm not surprised because he always has worn a tee shirt. Like I said, him and Cole are kind of like twins. One is from Canada, one is from Australia, but I'm pretty sure in some way they're related. They're very, very similar, and from that standpoint, I think that's a good thing."

Kind of an oddball question, but is there a best and the worst thing to eat before a race?

"There's a lot of things that you probably shouldn't. Anything spicy is probably a bad idea. I keep it simple: chicken, rice, maybe steak, rice, something like that, a little salad or something. But yeah, nothing too heavy or nothing that's going to upset your stomach, obviously."

What's considered fair when it comes to blocking here?

"Well, I think lately anything is fair. It tends to cause a lot of crashes, too, but it seems like that's par for the course in speedway racing these days is just block until you crash and go to the next one."

Ron Fleshman

RIS NASCAR Editor.  Has been with RIS since the middle 90's. Writes on each of the three main series of NASCAR.

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Volume 2020, Issue 2, Posted 6:29 PM, 02.12.2020