Kevin Harvick was well ahead of the pack and cruising toward a checkered flag last weekend at Las Vegas — just as Martin Truex Jr., steady as he goes, cut the gap.
“I noticed he was getting a lot bigger,” Truex said.
The second-year pilot of the No. 78 car is now focused on what’s ahead instead of keeping his eyes on the rearview mirror.
Truex has sprinted to a terrific start to the NASCAR season for Denver’s Furniture Row Racing. He didn’t catch Harvick at Las Vegas, but he finished second.
Through three Sprint Cup races, Truex ranks fourth in the driver standings. It’s the highest perch of his career and the highest in the 11 years of racing for the single-car FRR team, the only Sprint Cup team based west of the Carolinas.
“The guys are making good decisions, and we’re not having any terrible luck,” Truex told reporters at Las Vegas. “We just have to keep doing what we’re doing and find a little bit more speed, and we’ll be able to challenge guys.”
Friday, Truex qualified 15th for Sunday’s 312-mile race on the 1-mile oval at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Ariz. Before qualifying, Truex had the fifth-fastest practice speed (137.799 mph). Harvick earned the pole position.
Last year, Truex endured a series of professional and personal problems and finished a career-worst 24th in the driver standings. He finished in a race’s top five only once. His girlfriend, Sherry Pollex, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
This year, with Pollex back to good health and the No. 78 car now under the guidance of first-year FRR crew chief Cole Pearn, Truex is excelling.
“I honestly would say there’s very little that’s the same on the car from last year,” Pearn said by phone from Phoenix. FRR completely revamped the No. 78 in the offseason, he said. “It was timed well, to go the whole route changing the car front to back.”
Truex opened the season with an eighth-place finish in the Daytona 500. He then ran sixth at Atlanta and second at Las Vegas.
Now he’s at Phoenix in fourth place in the driver standings. He has a comfortable 33-point lead on 10th place Matt Kenseth and a 41-point advantage (nearly the maximum points from one race) over Brad Keselow- ski, who is 16th.
Truex is racing his best and fastest toward the end of races. He ranks fifth with 453 quality passes, according to NASCAR, and has the third-fastest speed among drivers in the last quarter of races.
“He’s been very aggressive making moves on the track,” Pearn said. “And we’ve just been calm and methodical in our approach. We haven’t been ‘hair on fire’ running around. That’s made it a lot more fun.”
Nick Groke: ngroke@denverpost.com or twitter.com/nickgroke
NASCAR at Phoenix
Next race: Phoenix International Raceway, 1-mile oval, 312 laps; 1:30 p.m. Sunday, KDVR-31
Last winner at Phoenix: Kevin Har- vick (started third) in November.
Polesitter: Harvick.
Denver’s FRR: Martin Truex Jr. qualified 15th.
SEASON STANDINGS
Kevin Harvick 134
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 125
Joey Logano 123
Martin Truex Jr. 118
AJ Allmendinger 100
