By Caleb Whisler, Staff Writer
As the second half of the regular season begins at Pocono Raceway, Martin Truex Jr. and Cole Pearn have found their stride being fully integrated with Joe Gibbs Racing.
Through the first 13 races, the team has collected three wins, five top-five and eight top-10 finishes.
For Truex, the transition from Furniture Row Racing to Joe Gibbs Racing appears to be seamless and has found a sense of belonging within the organization.
“It’s been really good,” Truex said. “I feel at home there. I feel like I’m part of the team, and I know the way things work and I know what they expect of me, and I’m really comfortable being myself. Just really have been having fun. It’s a lot of work. It’s a big challenge to win races at this level, but I’ve definitely really enjoyed it, and looking forward to hopefully just continuing to do what they brought me there to do.”
For Pearn, the transition is going well, but it has come with some adjustment from what he was doing with Furniture Row Racing. With Furniture Row Racing shutting its doors at the end of 2018, the veteran crew chief finds himself lucky to have a job.
“The transition, looking at it now, it’s going well, but it’s come with a lot of hard work,” Pearn said. “It’s been a lot of adjustment. But when you land in a company like we did, you’ve just got to thank your blessings and realize how fortunate you are that we could easily have been out of a job and here we are with a great organization and we’re winning races. So just incredibly thankful for that.”
Bringing Pearn and Truex over was an exciting time for Gibbs. With Toyota having a strategic vision, losing Pearn and Truex to another manufacturing because of how talented they were.
With the established relationship between driver, crew chief, Gibbs was worried if working in a small group for so long and coming into a larger organization would provide trouble for the pairing; however, it was not the case.
“It was a big deal for us,” Gibbs said. “But you never know when you make a move like that, it’s a big deal, and I think particularly for them, Cole and Martin working in a small group in a small environment, I was kind of worried when they came over with us, is that going to bother them. But certainly, I think you can kind of see they’ve hit their stride, and it’s obviously great for us.
“ I think in our technical meetings, I’ll say this, all four of our teams sharing everything, drivers, crew chiefs, and nobody holds anything back, and I think it’s — the thrill of really this sport, which I really love, it’s very unusual. You’ve got four teams, and four teams that have to work together. That’s real teamwork. And it’s hard to get done. Our guys, I’ve got to tell you, I think they really respect each other, the drivers do, the crew chiefs do, and of course that makes a big difference, and we’ve got a great support group there that just works their guts out.”
As the second half of the regular season begins, the goal is to continue to garner race wins and playoff points.