Martin Truex Jr. is relatively stress-free as he tackles the Roval this weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
The defending Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion has already accumulated enough points to advance to Round 2 of the playoffs. So despite the unknowns of the challenging 17-turn circuit that lies ahead in Sunday’s Bank of America Roval 400, Truex Jr. is feeling optimistic about the immediate future.
“I wasn’t nervous this week,” said Truex Jr., who will start 13th on Sunday. “Pretty carefree and feeling like it’s a race that we’d like to come in here and win. Nothing to really worry about. Obviously, we want to do well. We want to get some bonus points if we can. That’s the name of the game right now.”
Bank of America Roval 400 Lineup
While there is business to take care of as Truex Jr. pointed out on the points front he is also embracing the “fun factor” of the weekend.
“It’ll be fun,” he said. “It’s definitely more fun than coming here like some of those guys – I can’t imagine what they’re thinking right now and how nervous they are about it, but once we all get there, it’s a race and you got to figure it out. From that standpoint, looking forward to the challenge.”
Truex Jr. has won four times this year and would like to put another on the board Sunday. But he also has one eye on the second round of the Playoffs knowing a win in one of the next three races that follow Charlotte – Dover, Talladega and Kansas – moves him to Round 3 and one step closer to the opportunity to compete for a second straight title.
“Definitely looking forward to it,” Truex Jr. said. “A couple of good tracks for us and Talladega, so we’ll see. Hopefully we can do what we did the first round and have two really good first races and not have to worry about it. I feel like Dover and Kansas are both places we can go and win at.
“Our team has done a really good job of being prepared and showing up to the track ready. I feel like the first two races of the playoffs we were in position to win and we were doing all of the right things. We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing and hopefully win a race in the next round.”
