Martin Truex Jr. green-flagged into last season staring ahead only at a wide-open track. He started the Daytona 500 on the front row after running the field’s second-fastest qualifying time.
In his first season driving the No. 78 car, Truex looked forward to a new start with the Denver-based Furniture Row Racing team, coming off its first NASCAR playoff berth. Just 30 laps later, an engine oil pump exploded and Truex’s race was over. His trouble, though, was just beginning.
Truex’s season fell apart. He struggled through the worst run in his 11-year career. And the clunker of a year was made more difficult as he watched his girlfriend confront a sudden, aggressive cancer diagnosis.
“I was lost,” Truex said last week at the FRR garage in the Park Hill neighborhood. “It was like, I don’t want to leave her. But I can’t stand not being at the track. It was horrible. I told her, ‘I don’t want to leave you alone.’ But she said, ‘You need to get to the track and practice.’ “
Truex returns to the track this week for the start of Daytona 500 preparation with the weight of a grueling year behind him. His girlfriend, Sherry Pollex, finished a primary round of chemotheraphy for Stage III ovarian cancer two weeks ago. She’s in the clear. And Truex is ready, again, to race.
“When you’re searching and you’re not running well and nothing is going your way, that’s what racing is,” Truex said. “You have to imagine all the buttons you can push to change a race car. There are so many different things. And if one part of the car is screwed up, nothing works.
“But racing is all I’ve ever done. When I’m at the track, I feel at home.”
Truex, 34, was hired in October 2013 to replace Kurt Busch at the helm of Denver’s No. 78. There was a lot of promise. FRR was coming off its first Sprint Cup Chase berth. And Truex was coming off a playoff berth in 2012 and a near miss in 2013.
But after a flameout to open the season at Daytona, the 78’s season went into tailspin. He earned just one top-10 finish in the first 12 races, 10th at Richmond. A sixth-place finish at Dover and a ninth at Pocono in consecutive weeks in June were followed by a 37th-place finish at Michigan.
Truex never cracked the top 20 in season standings, finishing 24th. It was the first time in the team’s 10-year history that FRR regressed.
“It was all part of an emotionally tough season,” said FRR general manager Joe Garone. “It might have been easier for him, and for her, if the car had been doing really well. Maybe it would have been uplifting. But we had the opposite.”
Truex’s early-season struggles came before Pollex was diagnosed with cancer. She suddenly faced a much more serious challenge than his troubles at the track.
Pollex, who owns and runs a boutique in North Carolina, had surgery to remove her ovaries, appendix, spleen, fallopian tubes and part of her stomach. Then she underwent aggressive chemotherapy.
Truex missed practice and qualifying before a race at Michigan in August. And FRR’s owner, Barney Visser, offered Truex a leave to be with Pollex.
“Barney called me when he first heard about it. He said: ‘I want to tell you right now, if you want to take off the next 10 races, the car will be here for you when you’re done. All that matters for you right now is to be there for her,’ ” Truex said.
“I couldn’t believe it. That was personal. That made me want to come to work even more. It made me want to be successful here even more, for him.”
Truex returned only after he got a go-ahead from Pollex, he said.
“When she first got sick, she said, ‘This isn’t fair to you.’ She’s selfless. She’s the one who always put others before her, always worried about how other people are doing,” Truex said. “She told me right away, ‘You come home Sunday night and we’ll do what we have to do.’ “
So Truex spent Mondays through Thursdays helping Pollex recover, then raced on the weekends.
“I’ll admit, the first time was hard. It was really, really hard,” Truex said about leaving his girlfriend. “I can talk to Sherry and make sure everything is going the way she needs it to, then in five minutes put my fire suit on and walk into the garage and I’m in race mode. Then on Sundays, after they drop the checkered flag, the first thing on my mind is, ‘OK, what do I have to do this week to help Sherry? How’s she doing? What’s next?’ “
During her recovery and chemo, Pollex attended two races, at Martinsville and the season finale at Homestead. And Truex, as the season wound down, found his groove, including a season-best fourth-place finish at Kansas in October.
“She constantly pushed herself. It was amazing. Her doctors couldn’t believe it. She’s a freak of nature,” Truex said. “We’re closer now than we’ve ever been. Just gotta pray she can live the rest of her life without it coming back.”
Truex, about to start his second year in the 78, said he’s ready to excel with FRR.
“Things will be different,” he said. “The important thing is, are we built to adapt? I think we are. But until things change, you don’t know. Hopefully our eyes are wide open and our cars are fast.”
Nick Groke: ngroke@denverpost.com or
Martin Truex Jr. opens his NASCAR season later this month at the Daytona 500 behind the wheel of the No. 78 car for Denver’s Furniture Row Racing team
Last season at Daytona: Qualified second at the 500 before finishing 43rd; finished 15th in the midseason Daytona race.
Last season overall: Finished 24th,
Career best finish: 11th, 2012
Daytona 500: Feb. 22 (Fox TV)
Speedweeks: Feb. 14-22
Preseason Sprint Unlimited, Feb. 14
Qualifying races: Feb. 19
