Stage Points, No Problem for Truex Jr

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.— Having the most stage points of any driver does not phase Martin Truex, Jr.

Truex currently has 21 playoff points. He accumulated those points from his wins at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Kansas Speedway. The other 11 playoff points have come from running consistently up front at the end of stages during the race.

“A guy like (Martin) Truex, he can almost lollygag all the way to Homestead with as many playoff points as he’s accumulated,” said Kurt Busch yesterday.

“Thats fine. They can say that. I don’t think we are. If we sit idle, don’t get those stage wins, let the points lead slip away, we will be at a disadvantage come playoff time. We want to continue to build on that. We obviously want to lead the regular season points. That’s going to be difficult to do. That’s a focus of ours. The bigger the lead we have at the start of the playoffs the better. We are not going to stop pushing,” said Truex Jr., in a rebuttal to that logic.

Truex accredited the teams ability to run up front and being competitive to why they have accumulated the stage and playoff points. 

Truex currently sits second in points, only 13 points behind the points leader, Kyle Larson.