Truex Makes It Three in a Row at Talladega

TALLADEGA, Ala. (2006 April 29) - In three NASCAR Busch Series starts at Talladega Superspeedway, Martin Truex, Jr. still has a perfect winning record. Today fans witnessed Truex, Jr. held off hard-charging Kevin Harvick and the Hendrick duo of Kyle Busch and Brian Vickers to take his third straight Aaron's 312 victory. Harvick, Busch and Vickers ended up second, third and fourth, followed by Harvick's Richard Childress Racing teammate Clint Bowyer.

The results of the Aaron's 312 couldn't have been much more fitting for today's observance of Dale Earnhardt Day, with one of two special paint schemes being run in his honor ending up in Victory Lane with Truex, Jr., the other DEI entry bearing the black paint scheme driven by Paul Menard also finishing in the top 10 (9th), and the best career finish yet (7th) for highest-finishing rookie Mark McFarland, who drives for Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s new JR Motorsports team. That's in addition to the Richard Childress connection as represented by drivers Bowyer and Harvick in the second and fifth positions.

"It's an honor to be associated with this whole thing," Truex, Jr. said of Earnhardt's legacy. "To be part of the company he started. To carry it on for more race wins. Working with people that worked with him in the past like Tony Sr. here. Carrying the paint scheme here this weekend. All this stuff to me is like a bonus. It's the coolest thing that I've ever been a part of. He was my favorite driver before I raced a car. Just to be a part of this is really cool. Everything about this day has been really special for everybody at DEI."

Truex's crew chief today, Tony Eury, commented on how Earnhardt may have felt about today and the organization's program as a whole.

"He would be happy as long as you're winning. He liked to put a lot of effort into our restrictor plate program. That's why everybody else has picked up their programs in the Cup garage. I think he would be proud. There's no doubt. The place would be different if he'd still be there. But he's gone. Richie, Teresa, myself and Steve and everybody, we know how he wanted to run it. We try to do our best to run it like he would run it. That's the way we operate," Eury said. "Restrictor plate car, you just have to finesse them. I tell my guys, talk to them when you walk by. Make them love you or something. If you go home and cover it up, you're going to get beat when you go back to the next race. You got to work on it, you got to rub on them, you got to make them better. That's what we did. We got beat at Daytona and felt like we needed to be better. That's what you got to do. I think all the other guys have figured that out. It's gotten harder. We're not the best. I don't think we were the best today but we beat them. It comes from a good pit crew and a good driver and a lot of guys that put a lot of effort into that car, especially the engine shop."

Talladega fans were also treated to the close, edge-of-your-seat competition for which the legendary 2.66-mile track is known. The top 20 cars finished within one second of Truex, Jr. and there were 28 lead changes - the most so far this season and a near record for Talladega (the most being 30 in 1994.)

Unofficial race results here.

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