“Sorry, Denver. But we gave it our best shot to have NASCAR’s most prestigious trophy join the Broncos’ Super Bowl trophy in the Mile High City,” Denver’s in his diary for The Post after his race Sunday.
A mere . But there’s nothing to apologize about. For one day, Denver made a big splash in the world of NASCAR.
Truex jumped out to a narrow lead 10 feet from the finish line of the “Super Bowl of stock car racing.” But in exciting fashion, Denny Hamlin bolted forward, edging him by 4 inches at the finish line — the closest finish in the event’s history.
“I felt like I had enough momentum to keep him behind me,” Truex said of Hamlin after the race. “And I did until those last couple feet. He just shot out front in those last couple inches.”
, “I’m fine. Two years ago, I would have been sitting here with a sourpuss look on my face.”
But things have changed for the 34-year-old racer. His priorities changed. His perspective on life is different.
On Aug. 7, 2014, his girlfriend Sherry Pollex was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, turning both their lives upside down. For more than a year, he spent his Mondays through Thursdays helping her recover and then raced on the weekends, .
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“Our race days were never big or flashy, but not having Sherry there those months she was getting treatment was really difficult,” . “Just sitting in the motor home didn’t feel right without her being there.”
He struggled in the 2014 season, finishing 24th in the Sprint Cup Series, his worst showing since 2005. But he bounced back the next year. In 2015, he finished a career-best fourth in the Sprint Cup Series — he had never cracked the top 10 prior.
The best part of this story: Pollax fought through the cancer, finishing her chemotherapy treatments earlier this year.
“After everything we’ve gone through, we look at everything a lot differently now, and certainly racing is one of those things,” Truex wrote. “When I drive through that tunnel at Daytona this week, I’ll think about Sherry. I’ll think about the good days and not take them for granted. But now I also know what to think about when the bad days come around.
“Go fast and fight like hell,” he wrote in his piece. Certainly a good mantra to live by.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Crikey! Steve Irwin would have been 54 today.
Joe Nguyen: jnguyen@denverpost.com or @joenguyen
