Martin Truex Jr. said a couple of weeks ago of his runner-up at the Kentucky Speedway that he felt like that finish would go a long way for them. He felt that they were back. The speed was there as he started last after failing pre race inspection and on a day where everyone struggled to pass, there he was up front.

Unfortunately, he was caught up in a crash last Sunday in Texas. On Thursday night, that speed was back again though as the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was third and eighth respectively in the two stages run at the Kansas Speedway, then backed that up with bringing his No. 19 Toyota home in third place.

That’s two top three finishes in his last three starts on the year and as he notes, he had a top three car at Texas before being wrecked.

“Just executing really,” Truex said. “I mean, I feel like we’ve been fast all year long honestly on the bigger tracks. For us on the 19 car, we got off track there a little bit, tried a few things along the way. With no practicing, no qualifying, if you try a few things, you get off a little bit, you’re off all weekend until you can come back.

“Honestly just for us on the 19, we kind of went back to more stuff like we did last year. I think also the guys in the shop are working really hard to make cars faster, bring us better pieces.

“Yeah, it’s been good. The last couple weeks we’ve been really strong. It’s been promising. Hopefully we’ll start to get some wins soon.”

Truex, is starting to heat up at the right time now too. He has six top six finishes in his last seven Kansas starts overall.