Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr., the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Regular Season Champion, has been struggling through the first seven races of the Playoffs posting his first top-10 finish last weekend at Las Vegas. Now, the New Jersey native is looking to right his Playoff ship this weekend at Homestead-Miami Speedway and earn his spot in the Championship 4 Round the sixth-time in his career (2021, ’19, ’18, ’17, ’15). Truex currently ranks third in the postseason standings following the Round of 8 opener at Las Vegas and is up +2 points on the Championship 4 Round cutoff heading into this weekend. “I love South Florida and love going down there (Homestead-Miami Speedway),” said Truex Jr. “A lot of great fans. It doesn’t feel like fall when you go down there, it feels like summer, so that’s an added bonus.”

So far, Truex hasn’t had the postseason run he expected after winning the Regular Season Championship, making seven starts and putting up just one top-10 finish. His average finish during the Playoffs this season is an unrecognizable 19.4. But Homestead-Miami is one Truex’s better tracks and this weekend his postseason fortunes could turn. “Recent success is always important,” said Truex. … “Definitely have a lot of confidence going there (Homestead-Miami) with our Bass Pro Shops Camry. I feel like we have a good notebook from last year to go off of. It’s a place where I think we can make something happen.”

Truex has made 18 series starts at Homestead-Miami Speedway collecting one win (2017), seven top fives and 12 top 10s. His average finish at the 1.5-mile track is a stout 9.667 – best among Playoff contenders. “You can run all over and it’s really low-grip and it wears tires out,” said Truex when referring to Homestead-Miami. “You really have to manage your car and your tires throughout runs. Be able to move around the track and find lines that work for you. It’s a big challenge and I enjoy tracks like that.”

Martinsville winds the Round of 8 down with Truex winning 3 of the last 8 there.

“We’ve won races this year, we’ve won the regular season championship, just got to get back to things clicking,’’ Truex, who could join Busch and Logano as the only multi-time champions in the series said on Saturday. “All it takes is having a good day today (in qualifying) and a good day tomorrow and we’re right back on track. We know what we can do. …I feel good about our team and where we’re at.

At one point, Truex was a 1.5-mile master. Among his first 19 race wins, 11 of them were on these tracks. 2 more were at Pocono and 1 at Fontana. He had just 1 win on a track that’s 1-mile in size or shorter and that was his first career win at Dover. 

Over his last 14 races wins however, 10 of which were on tracks 1-mile in length or shorter. His only wins since the end of 2019 were 3 at Martinsville (2019, 2020, 2021), 2 at Richmond, 1 at Phoenix (2021), 1 at Dover (2023), 1 at Loudon (2023), 1 at Darlington and 1 at Sonoma.