Cole Pearn has NASCAR’s best name since Cole Trickle, the character Tom Cruise played in the 1990 movie “Days of Thunder.”
But Pearn is Canadian, a hockey player and an authentic racer producing a real-life script for Denver-based Furniture Row Racing. He fits right in with the sport’s only western-based team, which is rolling like never before.
Pearn, 32, serves as crew chief for driver Martin Truex Jr., who has had the dominant car in the past three Sprint Cup races. Truex led a race-high 131 laps in each of the past two races — Sunday at Dover, Del., and Memorial Day in Concord, N.C. — plus a race-high 95 laps in the previous event May 9 in Kansas City, Kan.
Truex is second in the driver standings, just 44 points behind defending champion Kevin Harvick. Truex and Harvick are the only drivers this year to produce 12 top-10 results.
“We made a lot of gains over the winter, and three weeks ago was the start of our next stage of development,” Pearn said this week from FRR’s north Denver race shop. “It seems to have boosted our performance from where we were at. Obviously, we weren’t in a bad spot before. But we feel we made a significant upgrade, and it shows out on the racetrack.”
Truex has led 389 laps this year — 388 more than last year, his first year with the team.
“It’s been a team effort all around,” Truex said in a news release. “From our crew chief Cole Pearn, to his engineering staff to the road crew and to all the guys back at the Denver shop. They keep bringing me fast race cars week in and week out, and that’s why we’ve been on a competitive roll.”
In looking for his elusive first victory with FRR, Truex will drive a new car Sunday at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. Winning one of the 26 regular-season races guarantees a full-time driver a spot in the Chase playoffs, but at this pace Truex would easily qualify for the 16-car, 10-race playoff field.
FRR made its Chase debut in 2013 with driver Kurt Busch, who finished 10th. Regan Smith produced FRR’s only victory in 2011 at Darlington, S.C.
The team has never run as consistently well as it has this season.
“It’s amazing. We’re 15, 16 weeks (overall) into the season now and sitting as well as we are,” said Pearn, who grew up in London, Ontario, and plays beer-league hockey in Littleton. “You’re happy with how it’s gone, for sure, but it’s funny: Everybody is super happy about 12 top-10s and now everyone just wants to win a race. It’s just amazing how expectations increase as you go. We’re certainly pushing for a win and hopefully we can get one soon.”
Mike Chambers: mchambers@denverpost.com or
