CONCORD, N.C. – It’s been well documented over the past five years that Martin Truex Jr. and Cole Pearn make a formidable driver and crew chief combination.
However, questions were raised following the pair’s move from Furniture Row Racing to Joe Gibbs Racing during the offseason whether they would be able to continue their recent magic together.
Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway made one thing very clear: the pairing hasn’t missed a beat.
Truex and Pearn captured their third Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win of the season with a come-from-behind effort, rallying back after Truex bounced off the wall in the first quarter of the race to take the lead in the second half before powering away with a four-wide pass for the lead down the stretch.
It tied Truex with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch for the series wins lead at the midpoint of the regular season, as well as proved the point that it doesn’t matter what organization Truex and Pearn are working for, their chemistry is going to take them to the top of the scoreboard all the same.
Asked whether the transition from the now-shuttered Furniture Row Racing team over to Joe Gibbs Racing has been as seamless as it appears to have been, Truex was quick to offer an affirmative.
“The move to JGR this season has been really good for us,” said Truex. “Obviously, to be sitting here halfway through the regular season with three wins is a big deal, and I feel at home at Gibbs. I feel like I’m part of the team, and I know the way things work and I know what they expect of me, and I’m really comfortable just being myself and having a lot of fun.
“It’s a lot of work,” Truex added of racing at the Cup Series level. “It’s a big challenge to win races at this level, but I’ve definitely really enjoyed it. I look forward to hopefully just continuing to do what they brought me here to do, and that’s win a lot of races.”
Since linking up together at the start of the 2015 season with Furniture Row, Truex and Pearn have collected 20 Cup Series victories together. Many of those came with the No. 78 car, which for most of its tenure was a single-car unit that overpowered many of the multi-car juggernauts of the sport.
The last three wins have come as one piece of one of those juggernauts, which took more to get used to than many outsiders might realize, Pearn said.
“The transition and looking at it now, it’s going well, but it’s come with a lot of hard work,” noted Pearn. “It’s been a lot of adjustment. But when you land in a company like we did, you’ve just got to count your blessings and realize how fortunate you are, because we could easily have been out of a job, and yet here we are with a great organization and we’re winning races. I’m incredibly thankful for that.”
To continue reading, advance to the next page.