INDIANAPOLIS — Martin Truex Jr. has 34 career NASCAR Cup Series victories to his credit. He’s a former champion (2017) and sits in a great spot entering Sunday’s Verizon 200 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS Radio Network) to win a second.

However, while the 43-year-old driver has won the Coca-Cola 600 twice, the Southern 500 and the Clash once, he’s never won at what you could consider a couple of NASCAR’s premiere tracks.

He’s 0-for-36 at Daytona including winless in 19 Daytona 500 starts. He has just three top five finishes there at that. For Indy, he’s 0-for-18 and that includes 16 Brickyard 400’s. He has one top five finish (2015).

In two starts on the 2.439-mile road course, Truex has no top 10 finishes with a best result of 15th in 2021. He’s never led a lap.

Maybe that changes this weekend.

“We’re excited,” Truex said after a runner-up on Monday in Michigan. “Every week we feel like we have a shot to win. That’s all I can ask for. Exciting coming to the track every weekend knowing what these guys are going to bring me.

“Hopefully we can keep it up.”

Truex has amassed 13 top 10 finishes on the season including scoring eight Top-7 finishes in the last 10 weeks Over the last four weeks, he’s placed 1st, 3rd, 7th, 2nd.

That has shifted the New Jersey native into high gear late in the regular season and is leaving his competitors in the dust. The current NASCAR Cup Series driver standings point leader, Truex, holds a 57 point advantage over his teammate Denny Hamlin in second, and 96 points up on Hendrick Motorsport’s William Byron in third.

Truex is a good road racer. 5 of his 34 career wins have come on them including four in Sonoma. 1 of those 4 came this past June.