In pursuit of his first Harley J. Earl Trophy, Martin Truex, the former NASCAR Cup Series champion, will make a comeback to racing this weekend for a one-off run in the Daytona 500. Truex resigned from full-time racing at the end of the 2024 season. Kevin Harvick is very excited to watch him drive. With TRICON Garage managing the entry in the No. 40 Toyota and former championship-winning crew chief Cole Pearn atop his pit box, Truex Jr. will try to accomplish the feat. Harvick was somewhat worried about Truex Jr. before the race, ahead of the chaos that is the Daytona 500 weekend. Although he is thrilled to watch him participate, he is unsure if his Toyota will have the required speed to get it done, especially in qualifying.“I love the pairing.
As far as I’m concerned, Cole Pearn is just an extremely smart man. His personality is quite entertaining. You can’t help but enjoy this cool guy, and he’s clever enough to match it. To tell the truth, I’m worried about this car given its speed. Through his Happy Hour, Kevin Harvick said, “The Toyotas have just not qualified as well as they need to.” “I believe that when you look at this field, it’s different because there are more cars than simply two or three that might miss. You’re looking at four or five now, after all. Even though it doesn’t seem like much, it is. Additionally, we’ve noticed we’ve seen so many things happen, and that’s just — when you don’t have that speed to lean back on, and maybe Toyota fixed it.
All of those things are unknown to us. At this stage, we are speculating. The motor shop is not where we are. We simply haven’t witnessed those Toyotas’ speed from a qualifying standpoint. If you don’t lock yourself in, it simply adds another factor because there will be some rapid cars. You know that, from a speed perspective, that No. 40 car is most likely going to be transporting the mail. In their situation, some of those men who lock in will put a lot of pressure on guys like Martin. Although Kevin Harvick has some valid worries, we have discovered one thing during Martin Truex’s NASCAR Cup Series tenure is to never count him out. He’s returning for one reason only, to get the win, and it’s a fool’s errand to bet against him, no matter how long the odds are.
