Dover Motor Speedway has always meant quite a bit to the Truex family.
It has always been touted as the family’s home track, the Monster Mile being the closest track to their hometown of Mayetta, N. J., and brothers Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Truex can now look back at what happened this week fondly for the rest of time.
Starting in 2008, Ryan Truex made his first NASCAR-sanctioned start in what was then the NASCAR Camping World East Series, now known as the ARCA Menards Series East. He ran for Dale Earnhardt Inc., the same team brother Martin raced for at the time in the NASCAR Cup Series. He got his start at Stafford Motor Speedway in Conn., where the young 17-year-old finished 11th.
The next two years, Truex made waves in the lower series with Michael Waltrip Racing, collecting five wins and two championships in the process. Dover was a standout track for the younger Truex, as he finished eighth there in 2009 and third in 2010.
It didn’t take long for him to move up.
Due to his success, MWR called Truex to make select starts during the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series (now Xfinity). His runs in the Nos. 00 and 99 combined for seven starts and a best finish of 12th at Michigan International Speedway.
Little did Truex know that he had caught the eye of a big-time team.
Truex hopped out of the East Series and ran half the Xfinity schedule that year with two Toyota teams, MWR and Joe Gibbs Racing. He grabbed a best finish of fourth at Richmond Raceway and made his first two series starts at Dover that year, with a best finish of eighth in Gibbs’ No. 20.
His consistent performance with the team locked him into a part-time ride with Gibbs the next year, and that spring’s Dover race looked to be the breakout performance Truex was looking for. Truex led the race’s late stages, but had to outrun another fast JGR Toyota in Joey Logano. Unfortunately for Truex, with six laps to go, his teammate passed him for the lead after the No. 20 ran into lapped traffic.
“You got to be kidding me,” Truex yelled over the radio.
Logano won while Truex had to settle for second place.
“It’s just frustrating,” Truex said in his post-race interview with ESPN. “I’ll get one eventually. It’s just tough.”
Back then, I thought that this race and his overall part-time 2012 performance…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …