Top Stories of 2017, #15: Truex's remarkable title run

Yes, Truex had flirted with success throughout his career. But his climb to the pinnacle of the sport over the last two seasons is the sort of Cinderella story few athletes will ever have the opportunity to duplicate.

His inspirations were many: watching his long-time girlfriend Sherry Pollex and her ongoing battle with ovarian cancer; visits to various pediatric oncology wings at local hospitals on the NASCAR tour; daily life challenges endured by his teammates at Furniture Row Racing.

Working hard

Along the way, Truex got a text that helped put things into perspective.

“Somebody sent me a message saying, ‘The harder I worked, the luckier I got.’ I looked at that and I said, ‘That really is something special,’” Truex told motorsport.com. “I always felt like I had bad luck in my career. But this team, they work so hard. I fell like they make good luck and that’s where I think we are right now.

“I don’t know how to explain what happened. I know I’m blessed. I love this team and I really hope we can continue what we’re doing.”

Truex believed he had found a home with Michael Waltrip Racing—until 2013, when his sponsor NAPA left amid controversy and he was jobless for the next season. Furniture Row Racing stepped in, and while Truex was uncertain about the Denver-based race team at first, their belief in and commitment to the driver never waned.

The transition in 2014 was rocky at best. The chassis were ill-fitting to Truex’s style. Off the track, Pollex was diagnosed with cancer in August. Truex led just one lap and finished 24th in the Cup standings after the No. 78 team had earned its first Playoff berth with driver Kurt Busch the previous year.

Cole Pearn's impact

Although veteran crew chief Todd Berrier had helped the team develop into playoff contenders, his move home to North Carolina opened the door for team engineer Cole Pearn to take the reins.

“It’s what led us to this point. It changed the way we looked at everything,” Truex said. “It changed the way I looked at racing. It changed the way that I drove the race car. It changed the way I approach every single weekend.

“He made me a champion and that’s the truth. He did. He made me a champion and we couldn’t have done it without him.”

Pearn was promoted to crew chief in 2015. The progression for Truex over the last three seasons of his 12-year career is staggering. No doubt, he credits Pearn with the team’s turnaround. Thirteen of his 15 wins, eight of his 15 poles and 35 of his 67 top-five finishes have come under Pearn’s direction. Truex has posted 71 percent of his career laps led (4,629) in the last 108 races.

Taking on JGR with equal equipment

The true test came in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway last month when Truex topped Joe Gibbs Racing’s Kyle Busch in equal equipment. Pearn described Truex’s run in the closing laps to hold off Busch as “one of the best drives I’ve ever seen."

“A lot of times we get a lot of credit as a team because maybe in his career he didn't have the success he's had since we've been together,” Pearn said after Homestead. “I think that bodes for us getting a lot of the praise. He's a champion. One of the most clutch wins for the year was Charlotte when we were able to win and pull that off when maybe we weren't our best, either, and I didn't know that we had another performance like that in the bag, and somehow we found it.

“This (Homestead) is by no means our strongest track by any means... This was not an easy one for us, and really he put it on his shoulders there because we were out of ideas. We were doing everything we could, and we made the best calls we could. I can't take away from that. But at the same time, he put it on his shoulders and made it happen.”

At 37, Truex might just be getting started. Last year, Truex extended his contract through the 2018 season. His sponsors Bass Pro Shop and 5-hour Energy renewed their partnerships in October and Auto Owners Insurance followed suit in November.

Truex has all the necessary support to make another title run in 2018, but he knows the team will have to up the ante if they plan to repeat this year’s performance.

“In 70-some days we'll be at Daytona again,” Truex said. “Everybody wants to be where we are so you have to work hard at it. You have to want it bad. You have to give it everything you’ve got every single day. And we plan on doing that.”