Martin Truex Jr. has finished in the top 10 in four of his 12 career NASCAR Sprint Cup races at Pocono Raceway.
But none of that will matter when he races there this weekend.
The 2.5-mile tri-oval in Long Pond, Pa., recently was resurfaced. Truex will begin two days of testing there today.
“I think with the new asphalt, we can pretty much throw away all our notes from the past,” the Stafford Township, N.J., native said in quotes provided Tuesday by his team, Michael Waltrip Racing. “The only thing that is the same is the length of the track. It is going to be interesting to see what we’ve got. You never know how it is going to go.”
Pocono isn’t the only track that has been repaved recently, so Truex knows what to expect: a constant struggle.
“Typically when you go to these tracks that are repaved, it takes quite awhile to run them in,” he said. “I expect that we are going to chase the setup constantly throughout the weekend. It is probably going to be one of those deals where the track will keep getting more grip, but as it sits overnight, it will lose grip again.
“If it’s like the last repave at Phoenix, Pocono will definitely be a handful.”
Still, testing should help.
“Chad (Johnston, Truex’s crew chief) and all the guys have been doing a great job all season,” Truex said. “We’ve got some good ideas that we want to try. We’ve got extra time to play, so we’ll just go through some things and learn a little bit.”
