Its been 29 races since Martin Truex Jr. had last reached victory lane in the NASCAR Cup Series. That came last June at the Martinsville (VA) Speedway. While the frustrations could have boiled over, Truex stayed the course.

He had a new crew chief in 2020 in James Small. Gone was the great combo between Truex Jr. and his former crew chief in Cole Pearn. It was time for Truex and Small to learn each other in a different perspective. The learning curve, especially without any practice or qualifying, was steep.

But, five races into 2021, the combo is gaining steam. The biggest proof came via how Sunday’s race at the Phoenix Raceway played out.

Truex Jr. started off Sunday’s Instacart 500 not in a very good position. He was losing spots quickly and even got into the wall at one point in his No. 19 Toyota. The team elected to make major changes between his car last year and this since they weren’t a top five car a year ago. It didn’t start off on the right footing which a year ago, would have sent them spiraling.

But, they were able to get it all dialed in as the race went on though. The communication improved over the last 12 months between the two and it showed.

Truex, faded to 17th in Stage 1 and they came around during the second stage. He came all the way up to finish second in that segment. He’d in fact take over the lead on Lap 223 and lead all but 25 laps the rest of the way en route to his 28th career Cup Series victory including his first in 31 starts at Phoenix.

“Well, that run right after that, it still wasn’t great,” Truex said after the first round of changes on Sunday. “It was the next pit stop, more adjustments on the car, that it felt like now we’ve got something. I didn’t really know it was that good until I got up. We got deep into that long run, I think I got up to about fifth, and I could see the next couple guys in front of me, I’m like, Dang, we came from like 17th or 18th on that restart. That’s when I knew it was pretty good.”

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Truex, passed race leader Joey Logano for the lead on the final restart and never looked back to cruise to his fifth top six in his last eight starts on the 1-mile Arizona oval to end a 29 race winless streak.

“I think he got tight or something,” Truex said on how he got by Logano in the end. “He ran way up the racetrack. I was turning kind of to the right, letting my car go up the hill as well, to keep him from running into the left side of me.

“I’m guessing he just drove in, got tight. We both ended up pretty high on the track. When that happened, I was able to grab the PJ1 with my right sides and get the thing turned, get on the gas pretty early. That’s really what made the difference.

“I think if he wrapped the bottom, he might have been able to clear me. I’m not sure what happened, if he just got tight or overdrove the entry.”

Logano, said that even if he held Truex off on that restart, he didn’t feel like his No. 22 Ford would remain in the lead for much longer anyways.

“They just had a fast car all the way through,” said Logano of Truex. “They had a fast car from the get-go. Once they tuned it in the end of the second stage, they were lights out.

“To be honest with you, I’m not sure even if we got in front of him in that last restart, I’m not sure I’d have been able to hold him off or not. Would have been a hell of a battle. He probably would have gotten me eventually.”

Truex would lead the final 25 laps en route to the win as he crossed the finish line by 1.698 seconds ahead of Logano.

“Just got a good jump, was able to stay side-by-side with him getting into turn one,” Truex said of that final restart. “That’s really the key. Then he drove into one and kind of slid up, slid us both up the hill. Once that happened, I was able to grab the PJ1, get a good run off.

“If he would have drove in, maybe wrapped the bottom better, maybe he would have cleared me. Like I said, he drove in deep, I drove in deeper. We both slid up the track. That’s usually the way it goes. Luckily I drove in deeper than he did.”

Truex, led 64 of the final 89 laps, so his car came around as the race went on while Logano’s fell off a bit due to a weird vibration that came and went.

While it has been those long 29 races since he last won, Truex noted that it wasn’t necessarily a win that he needed, it was just that they were very hungry for it.

“We really wanted it, obviously,” he said. “We worked really hard. We’ve got a great team. It seemed like for whatever reason, it was always little things that were biting us. We were always so close, always second or third. I don’t know how many times we’ve been second, third, fourth, top five since we won last year at Martinsville. It’s been a bunch.

“It’s like, Man, what do we have to do to turn it around so it’s our day? I think that’s probably what you see, a little bit of relief and excitement for how hard the guys have really worked to put together all the details and make it happen.

“We’ve got a great bunch. I’ve said that from day one. James is doing a great job. Hopefully we can use this momentum and just continue to do what we need to do.”

Truex, said that he never doubted himself nor this team during this winless drought.

“I’ve been a whole lot longer than that in my career,” he noted on winless streaks. “I don’t look at those numbers. I don’t really pay attention to it.”

He said the reason for that was that while they’ve not won since last June they’ve also been running strong too though.

“Towards the end of last year, the Playoffs came around, we really performed well, did a lot of good things,” Truex continued. “Had a lot of tough breaks, didn’t have a lot to show for it. That’s just fuel, fuel for the fire in the off-season to work harder and make sure we can do what we need to do.

“Yeah, 29 is nothing. I never even thought about it, to be honest. We’ve been capable of winning a lot of races between the last one and the one today. These races are really hard to win. That’s really all I can say about it.

“Thankful for today. We’ll celebrate and enjoy this one, get back to work tomorrow for next weekend.

“You never know when your last one is going to be, you’ve got to enjoy them all. I’m certainly really proud of this one.”