The beans have spilled on Martin Truex Jr’s secret to run the Bristol Dirt race in the Trucks
In two weeks, the NASCAR Cup Series will return to the dirt for the first time since 1970. The half-mile of Bristol Motor Speedway has been covered in dirt and will host the division on March 28th.
Right now, the Bristol Dirt Nationals are underway. With 1,400 cars on the entry list for 8 classes, many of those are Cup drivers looking for experience on NASCAR’s newest track.
Other Cup drivers have elected to enter the NASCAR Truck Series race on the dirt which will the day prior to the NASCAR Cup Series race. Kevin Harvick is on that list, who’s running his first truck race since 2015 via a David Gilliland Racing truck. Chase Briscoe is also running the race with Roper Racing.
Related: Bristol Dirt Schedule for March 13-April 24 (Full track schedule / 4 events)
Martin Truex Jr running Bristol Truck race
Martin Truex Jr stated that he would “probably” do more dirt racing ahead of the Cup race. He thought the pending announcement was still being kept secret, it wasn’t.
Auto-Owners Insurance shared an image on Instagram of Martin Truex Jr. In the photo caption, they released a schedule of racers where they will appear on the machine. The Bristol Truck Race was listed.
“Damn, they spilled the beans?,” Truex replied to laughter. “Okay, yeah, we are. We’re going to run the truck race. “I’ll run Kyle’s truck. He said I could drive it for free, so I did it.”
NASCAR Cup Series drivers running Bristol Truck Race: Martin Truex Jr; Kevin Harvick; Chase Briscoe;
Truex Jr has only run two Truck races in his career, both with Billy Ballew Motorsports. The most recent came in 2006 but he didn’t grab a top-10 in either race. He doesn’t have much truck experience and he has about the same amount of dirt experience.
“I’m excited about it,” Truex added.
“I’ve only raced twice on dirt. Both of them were at (Ken) Schrader’s (track), having a charity race out in Missouri. I did that a few times in a modified. That was the only times I raced on dirt, after growing up on four-wheelers and motorcycles.”
“It’s going to be a learning curve, for sure. I look at it as Bristol has been our worst track for the past couple years. Why the heck not lay down dirt and see what we can do? I think it’s going to be fun. New challenge, something different.”
Related: Bristol Dirt Practice: March 8, 2021 (Video)
Links
Martin Truex Jr | Kyle Busch Motorsports | Bristol Motor Speedway | Bristol Dirt Nationals | NASCAR
