Martin Truex, Jr. finishes 8th at Atlanta

Martin Truex Jr. spent 72 percent of the afternoon in the top 10 at Atlanta Motor Speedway and finished eighth in the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500.

Truex had adversity of his own. He had transmission difficulties that required him to be pushed from his pit box after each stop late in the race. Luckily, they did not affect him on restarts. He lined up eighth when the final green flag waved and maintained that position until the checkers waved. This is Truex’s 20th top-15 in his last 21 races on similarly-configured, 1.5-mile tracks.

Martin Truex Jr.: Would have won 12 segments if in place in 2016

NASCAR did not award segment points in 2016, but if they had there would have been a clear cut winner: Martin Truex Jr. would have earned 355 points and taken home 12 segment wins.

There were several races in which Truex was dominant. This new points’ structure would reward that. He would have swept both segments at Kansas Speedway and Charlotte Motor Speedway in May, as well as New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the fall. Truex would have earned points in 51 segments, but he lost some of his momentum near the end.

Truex Jr. had the 10th-best average finish in 2016 with a 13.89.

WINNER AT DOVER

Truex's victory at Dover International Speedway last fall was only his second top-five there, but he has been consistent enough to make this his best track in terms of three-year averages with a 6.7.

44 IN THE T10 COLUMN

Truex Jr. has recorded 44 top-10s in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in the past three years, which puts him 12th on the leaderboard, (behind the inactive Jeff Gordon in 11th). In this same period, he has 17 top-fives and five victories.

Martin Truex, Jr. Profile

via RotoWorld/Dan Beaver.

Martin Truex Jr. had a career year. The association with between Furniture Row and Joe Gibbs Racing bore fruit to a high degree in 2016 and Truex was a favorite on several occasions. He dominated a few races so much, in fact, that winning one’s league at Charlotte Motor Speedway or Kansas Speedway in their first races could not be accomplished without him. Truex also garnered perfect a Driver Rating at Texas Motor Speedway in the spring and was among the top five in that statistic on several occasions.

Truex more than doubled his career victories last year. Winning four times for a total of seven overall, separated 2016 from all of his previous seasons and no one is going to be surprised to see him in the Chase next year. Once in the playoffs, he is going to have to avoid mistakes because that was his Achilles Heel quite often last year. Mistakes in the pits, on the track, and occasionally simple bad luck dropped him from contention—and it always seemed to happen at a time when he could not rebound before the checkers.

A blown engine at Talladega SuperSpeedway in October was the last straw, but he rebounded to be a good value at Martinsville Speedway and Texas in the final round. Unfortunately, just as players began to trust him again, he crashed out of the final two races of the season to record a 40th at Phoenix International Raceway and 36th at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

With so much positive energy at this team, they nevertheless are ranked just outside the top 10 for 2017. The reason for that is primarily their inconsistency. Yes, Truex earned four wins and eight top-fives but he also failed to finish four times and had seven results outside the top 20. There is also the matter of the second Furniture Row team coming next this year. Erik Jones has just as much potential to help the team as to provide a distraction and fantasy players are not going to know which it will be before the green flag drops at Daytona International Speedway.

Truex swept the top 10 at Texas and Richmond International Raceway last year, but he could easily have done so on several other courses. Look for him to be at his best on similarly-configured, 1.5-mile tracks and he could be a great differentiator in early races before most fantasy players know whether he will be predictable. One has to be prepared for some heartache, however.

Victories: Charlotte (spring), Darlington, Chicagoland, and Dover (fall)
Top-fives: 8 (.222)
Top-10s: 17 (.472)
Top-15s: 25 (.694) 

Track	3-Yr Avg. Fin	Career Avg. Fin	Best Fin	Career Attempts	Career Top-10s	Race 1	Race 2
Dover Downs International	6.67	14.18	1	22	11	9	1
Las Vegas Motor Speedway	9.00	14.27	2	11	3	11
Chicagoland Speedway	9.33	14.91	1	11	3	1
Charlotte Motor Speedway	10.17	16.22	1	23	7	1	13
Texas Motor Speedway *	10.50	13.83	2	23	12	6	3
New Hampshire Motor Speedway	11.17	14.48	3	23	8	16	7
Atlanta Motor Speedway	12.00	18.89	3	18	6	7
Darlington Raceway	12.33	11.64	1	11	5	1
Kansas Speedway	12.33	16.76	2	17	5	14	11
Indianapolis Motor Speedway	12.33	18.33	4	12	3	8
Richmond International Raceway *	14.83	20.50	3	22	7	9	3
Watkins Glen International	15.00	13.09	3	11	6	7
Kentucky Speedway	15.33	13.17	7	6	3	10
Martinsville Speedway	16.00	20.59	5	22	7	18	7
Phoenix International Raceway	16.71	17.86	5	22	7	14	40
Homestead - Miami Speedway	17.25	12.33	2	12	7	36
Talladega SuperSpeedway	18.17	20.42	5	24	8	13	40
Michigan International Speedway	18.50	16.45	2	22	7	12	20
Pocono Raceway	19.67	16.50	1	22	7	19	38
Sonoma Raceway	20.67	19.55	1	11	3	5
Auto Club Speedway	21.00	20.13	6	16	4	32
Daytona International Speedway	22.50	22.52	2	23	3	2	29
Bristol Motor Speedway	25.00	20.86	2	22	2	14	23

+ Top-five sweeps
* Top-10 sweeps