Ryan Truex - No. 16 AISIN Group / AW North Carolina Toyota Tundra
Continuing the Quest … Ryan Truex and the No. 16 AISIN Group / AW North Carolina team return to action this week at Martinsville Speedway and resume their quest to break into victory lane. Truex and the HRE team have consistently been in contention for victory in the majority of the last eight races, and a return visit to “The Paperclip” provides another prime opportunity. Despite an early exit last race at Talladega Superspeedway, Truex is still riding a wave of momentum thanks to five top-five finishes in the last eight events. Truex looks to parlay that string of strong performances into a trip to victory lane and capture the Truex family’s first grandfather clock.
Paperclip Experience … Truex has more experience at “The Paperclip” than any other track on the NCWTS schedule. He has turned in four career NCWTS starts at the 0.526-mile short track, the most recent of which resulted in a 10th-place finish earlier this season. Three of Truex’s four Martinsville starts came in a HRE Toyota Tundra, including both events last season.
Short Trackin’… Over the course of his young, 38-race career in the NCWTS, Truex has made six starts on asphalt short tracks. Three of those starts came this season at Martinsville, Iowa Speedway, and Bristol Motor Speedway. Additionally, Truex has eight short track starts in the XFINITY Series and six in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. He has one NASCAR K&N Pro Series short track victory on his resume from Thompson Speedway in 2009.
Season to Date ... Through 19 of the 23 races on the 2017 campaign, Truex finds himself ninth in the drivers’ championship standings with an impressive stat line in his first full-time NCWTS season. Truex has accumulated seven top-five’s, 11 top-10’s, and 115 laps led. He reached a career milestone capturing his first career NCWTS pole position at Chicagoland Speedway and followed that up with another pole run at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Truex has also earned three stage victories at Dover International Speedway, Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, and Chicagoland.
Chassis Selection… Truex and the AISIN Group / AW North Carolina team will employ chassis No. 003 this weekend at Martinsville. Crew chief Scott Zipadelli selected this Toyota Tundra from HRE’s fleet after Truex drove it to a seventh-place finish at Gateway Motorsports Park in June.
Tune In… FOX Sports 1 will cover all the action this weekend from Martinsville. FS1’s coverage kicks off with two practice sessions at 1:00 p.m. ET and 3:00 p.m. ET on Friday afternoon. Three rounds of qualifying will kick off raceday activities at 10:00 a.m. ET on Saturday, followed by the green flag for the Texas Roadhouse 200 at 1:00 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon.
Ryan Truex Quote:
On returning to Martinsville:
“I’m glad to get back to the track this weekend. It’s hard to believe we only have four races left. I enjoy the short tracks, especially Martinsville, because the driver can make a lot bigger difference than at some of the other places we go. We were decent at Martinsville back in the spring, finished 10th. At the time, we were just getting this program up and running with Scott (Zipadelli), so we’re a lot better prepared coming back this time around. We’ve been leading laps lately, running up front and knocking down good finishes, so we’re right there. Our program is leaps and bounds above where we were back in the spring. I’d love to seal the deal this weekend and get that grandfather clock for everybody at HRE. We have a big group of people from AISIN Group and AW North Carolina, so it will be nice to have a big fan club at the track on Saturday.”
