Learning curve flattening out

Dale Earnhardt Inc. is careful in developing Busch Series champion Martin Truex.

By BRANT JAMES
Published February 19, 2005

DAYTONA BEACH - It would appear as if Martin Truex Jr. were repeating his senior year after graduating valedictorian.

The push-'em-rush-'em-now nature of NASCAR's driver development only sharpens the perception. Nextel Cup teams give 20-somethings rides in well-funded Nextel Cup teams on merit earned in sprint cars and the hope they will win enough to be marketable to sponsors. So why is Truex, 24, about to begin his second full season in the No. 8 Chevrolet in the Busch Series tonight, a season after winning the championship in his first full season at Dale Earnhardt Inc.?

Simple, Truex said. He belongs there.

"I had to learn so much last year," said Truex, who ran a part-time Busch schedule with DEI's Chance 2 Motorsports in 2003. "I think a lot of things kind of passed me by. We went through everything so fast, I think there were some things we missed."

Still, Truex led the series in wins (six), poles (seven), top-five finishes (17), top-10s (26 in 34 starts) and clinched the title with one race left, beating Kyle Busch by 230 points. The 19-year-old Busch, by the way, begins his full-time Cup career on Sunday, replacing Terry Labonte in Hendrick Motorsports No. 5 Chevy.

Busch ruefully considers the Busch Series "unfinished business," but Truex reminds himself of his two humbling attempts in Nextel Cup last season. He started 33rd and finished 37th in Atlanta because of engine failure; started 35th and finished 32nd at Homestead when a tire gave.

"The drivers and the teams over there are so much better, better prepared, their cars are better," Truex said. "You have to be so meticulous on everything."

Truex will attempt seven Cup races this season, starting with the Daytona 500 on Sunday, where he lines up 10th. He sees those races as on-the-job training.

"I think we can go in there, we can learn," he said. "We don't have to go there and run 35th every week and have everyone down and mad, just not running good. I think we can run good in the Busch car, have fun, keep everybody's spirits up and learn what it takes to go Cup racing, and I think that's the best way to approach it."

More important, the boss thinks that's the best way. From the beginning of their relationship in 2003, Earnhardt Jr. laid out for Truex a timetable that mirrored his progression to Cup: two full Busch seasons. Earnhardt won 13 races and two titles in 1998-99 before moving up full-time in 2000. He has at least two wins every season since and finished in the top 10 in points three times.

"I didn't have anybody telling me how to win it or what to do to win it," Earnhardt said. "I was wrecking a lot and putting myself into a couple of holes to dig myself out of. I knew if he just listened to what I was telling him, that maybe 25 percent into the season he would understand how the equation worked. And man, he just managed himself in and out of the race car all year long."

Now he just needs to do it all over again. And then maybe he'll be ready.

[Last modified February 19, 2005, 00:57:17]