No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry News and Notes
TRUEX AT ATLANTA: Martin Truex Jr. has posted five top-five finishes and 10 top-10s in 22 career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway. He has finished inside the top five in three consecutive races on the 1.54-mile quad-oval and earned top-10 results in the past six Atlanta races dating back to 2015. Last season, Truex led 65 laps and won both stages before ultimately finishing third when the Cup Series raced at Atlanta in June.
PHOENIX WIN NOTES: Truex’s victory in last weekend’s race at Phoenix Raceway was the 28th of his career and first of the 2021 season. The win ties him with Carl Edwards and NASCAR Hall of Famer Rex White for 28th on the all-time wins list. It was his first victory on the one-mile tri-oval that will host the Championship race in November. On the day, Truex led three times for 64 laps, including the final 25 circuits. This marks the seventh consecutive season that the Mayetta, New Jersey native has won at least one race and qualified for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. Truex has now won on 15 different tracks in Cup Series competition.
DOUBLE DUTY: Truex will drive Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 54 STANLEY Toyota Supra in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This marks the two-time Xfinity Series champion’s first start in the series since November 2010. For his career, Truex has 13 wins, 40 top-five finishes, 61 top-10s, 10 poles and 1,863 laps led in 103 Xfinity Series starts.
APPROACHING MILESTONE: After leading 64 laps in Sunday’s win at Phoenix Raceway, Truex has now led 9,963 laps in his NASCAR Cup Series career. If he leads 37 or more laps, he would join an exclusive group of only 18 drivers who have led 10,000 laps in NASCAR’s top series.
LOOP DATA LEADER: Truex has been a standout so far this season according to Loop Data provided by NASCAR. The former Cup Series champion currently leads all fulltime drivers in green flag speed, fastest drivers early in a run, and fastest drivers late in a run. Additionally, Truex ranks second in fastest laps run and sits inside the top 10 in driver rating, fastest on restarts, speed by segment, laps in the top 15, average running position, laps led, closers and quality passes.
550 RACES: The No. 19 team has finished third and sixth in the first two races using the 550-horsepower, high downforce aero package this season (excluding Daytona). Truex’s 84 points scored in those two races at Homestead-Miami Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway ranks fourth in the series.
BASS PRO SHOPS: A longtime supporter of Truex and NASCAR, Bass Pro Shops will be featured as the primary sponsor of the No. 19 Camry for Sunday’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Bass Pro Shops is North America’s premier outdoor and conservation company. Founded in 1972 when avid young angler Johnny Morris began selling tackle out of his father’s liquor store in Springfield, Missouri. Today the company provides customers with unmatched offerings spanning premier destination retail, outdoor equipment manufacturing, world-class resort destinations and more.
JGR AT ATLANTA: Joe Gibbs Racing has 11 NASCAR Cup Series wins at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In 111 combined starts at the 1.54-mile track, the organization has tallied 37 top-five finishes, 52 top-10s and 2,673 laps led. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin, Bobby Labonte, and Tony Stewart have all driven JGR entries to victory lane at Atlanta. Last season, Busch, Truex and Hamlin all finished inside the top five.
TUNE IN: Coverage of this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway begins Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Martin Truex Jr., Driver of the No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry
Talk about getting a win early this season and going to Atlanta where you have been strong the past few years…
“Last weekend was great for our whole team. James (Small, crew chief) and the guys are doing such an amazing job. It’s great to win one early in the season and get that out of the way. Hopefully we can turn some of those seconds and thirds we had last year into wins as we go along this year. We really need to get as many bonus points as we can because that definitely hurt us in the Playoffs last year. I’m confident we can do that this year. That could start this weekend in Atlanta. It has been one of our stronger tracks the past few years. I feel like we’ve had opportunities to win the past two years and just didn’t quite get it done. It’s a place I really enjoy racing because it’s worn out and you can move all over the track. I think we have a good idea of what we need, so I’m optimistic that we can run up front and put ourselves in contention.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
