No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry News and Notes
TRUEX AT BRISTOL: Martin Truex Jr. owns two top-five finishes and three top-10s in NASCAR Cup Series competition at the traditional concrete Bristol Motor Speedway layout. Last season, Truex finished 20th and 24th in two trips to the .533-mile oval.
ATLANTA RECAP: The No. 19 team earned their fourth consecutive top-10 finish last weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The team’s ninth-place finish marked Truex’s seventh straight top-10 at the 1.54-mile quad-oval.
DOUBLE DUTY: Truex will drive the No. 51 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports in Saturday night’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The Mayetta, New Jersey native has only made two career Truck Series starts – the most recent of which came at Michigan International Speedway in 2006.
BREAKTHROUGH MOMENT: In March 2004, Bristol Motor Speedway played host to Truex’s first NASCAR national series victory when he won the NASCAR Xfinity Series race. He led a race-high 134 laps that afternoon and fended off Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch for the first of six victories during his 2004 Xfinity Series championship season.
APPROACHING MILESTONE: After leading 107 laps so far this season, Truex has now led 9,963 laps in his NASCAR Cup Series career. If he leads 37 more laps, he will join an exclusive group of only 18 drivers who have led 10,000 laps at NASCAR’s highest level.
LOOP DATA LEADER: Truex has been a standout so far this season according to Loop Data provided by NASCAR. He currently leads all fulltime drivers in fastest early in a run and fastest late in a run. Additionally, Truex ranks second in fastest laps run and green flag speed and sits inside the top five in speed by segment, average running position, driver rating, laps in the top 15 and laps led.
AUTO-OWNERS: Auto-Owners Insurance will be featured as the primary sponsor of Truex’s No. 19 Camry for Sunday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The Lansing, Michigan-based company offers multiple lines of insurance, including life, home, auto and business to customers in 26 states. 2021 marks Auto-Owners’ third year with Joe Gibbs Racing as they will once again be featured for eight races on the No. 19 Camry.
JGR AT BRISTOL: Joe Gibbs Racing has earned 13 NASCAR Cup Series victories at Bristol Motor Speedway. In 146 combined starts on the .533-mile track, the organization has tallied 38 top-five finishes, 56 top-10s and 6,224 laps led. Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart have all driven JGR entries to victory lane at the World’s Fastest Half-Mile.
TUNE IN: Coverage of this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway begins Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Martin Truex Jr., Driver of the No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry
How do you prepare to run a stock car on the dirt?
“I really don’t know to be honest with you; that is why I’m racing in the trucks. James (Small, crew chief) and I talked about trying to get into a modified or something at Bristol, but at the end of the day, we felt like it was going to be so different to running a truck or a Cup car. I feel like all of the other vehicles that race on dirt are so different. We felt like this was the best way to go. Honestly, I think if you look at the field, there’s a small handful of guys that have a lot of dirt experience and are very talented on dirt, but I think for the most part, most of the field is going to be trying to figure it out. It’s going to be interesting for sure. I look forward to trying it out and doing something different. It’s always fun to learn new things.”
TIL NEXT TIME, I AM STILL WORKING ON MY REDNECK!
