Truex puts bad luck in rearview mirror

Perhaps the only person who doesn't believe Martin Truex Jr. is the favorite for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup is Truex himself.

Many of the Furniture Row Racing driver's peers have pointed to the No. 78 as the title favorite. Of course, Truex did win the regular-season championship and does lead the series in laps led (1,646), top 10s (17), and tied for the most wins (four). Toyota teammate Kyle Busch even went as far as to say during NASCAR Playoffs media day that Truex & Co. are a "scary team" without a bad racetrack on the schedule.

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"I don't know. With the way the system is set up, I don't know that you can have a favorite, honestly," Truex said Wednesday. "This has got to be the toughest championship in sports to win, without question. With the eliminations, with one race for the championship at the end especially.

"You're not out there one‑on‑one. There are 39 other cars, and you're racing against three of them. It's got to be the toughest one there is. I don't really know if you can have a favorite."

Ironically enough, Truex goes into Sunday's race at Chicagoland Speedway as the defending race winner. This time around, he's bringing 53 playoff points with him, which he can build upon and take with him should he advance into each of the rounds leading to Homestead-Miami Speedway. However, it's the bonus points Truex doesn't have that gnaw at him.

In the last two weeks, Truex has been leading the race inside five laps to go when an unfortunate set of circumstances took away the victory. At Darlington, it was a flat tire. Last weekend at Richmond it was a caution followed by losing the lead off pit road and getting wrecked on the final lap.

The caution at Richmond was the most difficult situation to swallow. But Truex revealed it only took until he reached the airport to get over it. The attention has shifted to the Playoffs and the next 10 weeks.

"You got to figure out a way to put it behind you. You have the conversations with the people you feel like you need to have the conversations with, then you turn around and focus on next week," he said. "Obviously, a big week coming up, the next 10 races are very important. Just got to turn your focus. We talked about what we needed to and moved on."

Going into the postseason as a favorite isn't new for Truex. In 2016, Truex was also one of the fastest cars on the circuit and breezed through the first round with two wins in three races. Then came the engine failure in the cutoff race in the second round (Talladega) that eliminated Truex from the title fight.

The hope is, should trouble arise this year, the bonus points he's accumulated will be enough to fall back on. Trouble like what's happened in the last two weeks, which has been the only thing to slow Truex down all year. Except, that's behind him, and Truex isn't worried things are suddenly going to go wrong at the most important time of the year.

"Certainly, the last four laps of the last two races have been tough. But at the same time, I think we've had just a really, really strong season," he said. "Would love to have 10 extra points on top of what we have already, but I'm proud of what we've done. The stage wins especially; it's amazing to see the laps we led and the stages we won [18]. Certainly, a few races that got away. The last two stick out most. But I think we'll be okay.

"I think it's not going to hurt our momentum or confidence the way the last two finished out. Sometimes circumstances in racing you can't control [what happens]. That's just the way it goes. So, I think we're in good shape. We'll just have to see how it all plays out."