DAYTONA BEACH, fla. — It’s getting closer to crunchtime here at Daytona International Speedway. NASCAR’s biggest race of the year is only three days away, and there’s still a lot of work to get completed before the green flag drops for Sunday’s Daytona 500.
The good news for our Furniture Row Racing team is that we got off to a great start and everyone on the team has a little more bounce in their step. From a driver standpoint, that is really neat to see, especially after what we went through last year.
Saturday night’s Sprint Unlimited was the most fun I’ve had in a race car in a long time. It was nice to lead laps — I think we even led the most laps in the race — and be in contention right to the end. I am never happy about finishing second, but that was the kind of race we needed to kick off the season. It was a big morale lift.
But that was last week, and in this business it’s all about the next race. And the next race is not the Daytona 500, but the 150-mile qualifying races Thursday night. We’ll be in the second 150-mile race, starting from the sixth position.
The twin qualifying races will determine the starting field for the 500. And right now there are many teams, including ours, that are not yet qualified for the 500. We should be fine, but whenever there’s that possibility — no matter how slight it may be — of not qualifying, it’s only normal to feel a little on the edge.
Our mind-set heading into the qualifying race is to win. The winner will start from the second row for the Daytona 500 and get a good pit stall selection. Obviously, you don’t want to put yourself in any bad positions and take unnecessary risks. On the other hand, you don’t want to go out there and lie down and have the potential for a mistake because you’re not trying to push the envelope. You need to have a risk vs. reward balance.
After two days off, teams returned to the track Wednesday for some practice in their 500 cars. We skipped the first practice session and are happy that we did, since there was a multicar crash. I saw that Danica Patrick had to go to a backup car. Superspeedway is exciting, but it sure has its pitfalls. I’ve been there and know what it feels like. We did a few laps in the second session, and our Daytona 500 Chevy felt fine — same as the Sprint Unlimited car. But you never know until you get out there in a pack of cars under race conditions.
Furniture Row Racing’s Martin Truex Jr., driver of Denver’s No. 78 car, is keeping a daily diary for The Post through Sunday’s Daytona 500.
