DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Thursday night’s nightmarish finish of getting crashed on the final lap of the Daytona 500 qualifying race is history. Friday brought us a new day with a ray of sunshine, along with the same amount of enthusiasm and optimism as when we arrived in Florida for Sunday’s Daytona 500.
I keep on reverting to our motto, which is “Never Give Up.” After all the professional and personal adversities that my girlfriend Sherry (Pollex) and I have been through over the past two years, we keep things in perspective and fight through whatever challenges that confront us. We only look ahead — looking back or questioning why things happen is a complete waste of time.
Sherry recently completed her 17-month cycle of chemotherapy treatment for ovarian cancer, and her beacon of strength has been a guiding force for not only me but also for many other women who are facing similar issues.
Regarding our Furniture Row Racing team, the “Never Give Up” motto is also our battle cry. After all, we’re still in the hunt as are 39 other teams to win NASCAR’s biggest race. Yes, we will go into the Daytona 500 with our backup Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Toyota.
The word “backup” will probably carry a negative meaning to some people, but in our case it’s not as bad as it sounds. To be honest the backup car compared to the primary didn’t feel that much different during Friday’s practice.
The only drafting we did with our primary car the other day was with the Joe Gibbs Racing cars — our Toyota teammates. We drafted again with the Gibbs cars Friday and felt our backup was real similar to the primary. However, it’s really hard to tell until you get into racing conditions.
Hopefully, the backup will act similarly in the big pack as our primary did Thursday night in the qualifying race. I was real happy with the primary and felt we had a competitive car.
Once again, I appreciate all the hard work from our Furniture Row Racing road crew. They didn’t get much sleep Thursday night. They stayed late and arrived early Friday morning and did what was needed to get completed. We don’t plan to practice Saturday — our Bass Pro Shops/Tracker Boats Toyota is ready to race.
I almost forgot, the one good sign that happened Friday was in a charity fishing tournament at Daytona International Speedway. The team I was put on caught three fish in the first five minutes. Hopefully, that means the Daytona bad luck is behind us.
Furniture Row Racing’s Martin Truex Jr., driver of Denver’s No. 78 car, is keeping a daily diary for The Post through the Daytona 500 on Sunday.
