Martin Truex Jr. is NASCAR’s 1.5 mile king. 15 of his 26 career Cup Series victories came on them. Out of the last 68 races on 1.5-mile tracks, 56 of them have been won by a handful of drivers. Martin Truex Jr. (12) leads them all.

But, one place that’s always eluded him was the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Truex, is winless in 21 career Atlanta starts, but does have five straight top eight finishes and seven in his last eight starts on the Georgia track overall including a runner-up last year.

“Atlanta is always a fun place to race because of the surface and how worn out it is,” Martin Truex Jr. said ahead of this weekends race. “It has been a few years since we’ve raced there when it’s really hot to bring out just how slick the track can get, so that will be a bit of a challenge going in with no practice.”

Truex, is still winless this season and has failed to score a top five at that. The speed has been there as he has a top five finish in the second stage in all but two races run. It’s just the mistakes have kept them from contending in the end.

“I feel pretty good about how we have ran on the bigger tracks where handling comes into play,” Truex continued. “We need a little bit of speed overall, but we’ve been able to run pretty well at tracks where the surface is slicker, so I feel confident about the car we’ll unload and how we’ll run on Sunday.”