Top teams not worried when NASCAR Cup Series takes only break in grinding schedule

By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer

SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — The relentless grind of the NASCAR Cup Series pauses this week, and just about everybody involved with the cars is looking to take advantage.

Martin Truex Jr. plans to go fishing after claiming his second victory of the season on Sunday at Sonoma Raceway. Aric Almirola’s wife and children were in wine country to watch his surprising Xfinity Series victory at Sonoma on Saturday because they’re all spending the next 10 days in California, surfing and hiking and going to a Dodgers game on Father’s Day.

NASCAR’s schedule in its top flight is famously busy: This is the teams’ sole weekend without a race between the Daytona 500 on Feb. 19 and the Cup Series championship at Phoenix on Nov. 5.

But for the teams and drivers doing their best work now, it’s natural to wonder whether the break could slow their momentum right before the start of the 10-race sprint to the 10-race Cup playoffs.

Kyle Busch is the hottest driver on the grid, with four straight top-10 finishes, culminating in a victory outside St. Louis and a second-place finish behind Truex in Sonoma.

“I mean, I don’t know if I want an off week,” Busch said Sunday, wearing the closest facial expression he ever makes to a smile. “Let’s go, right? We’re rolling right now.”

“It’ll be a good break for everybody to regroup and refocus and set in,” Busch added. “All in all, just real proud of the guys and the communication and the way they’re able to go to work and kind of work through some of our issues and try to improve on what I need to be able to feel in a race car to be able to put out finishes like that. If we can keep doing those things, we’ll be a force.”

In truth, Busch and his Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team are already a force.

He won at Fontana last February in only his second race for his new team after a 15-year tenure at Joe Gibbs Racing. After a few early season bumps, he has surged up to sixth in the driver standings with a playoff spot secure through his three victories — tied with William Byron for the Cup wins lead.

Truex and his team also are on a roll, with two victories and four top-five finishes in the last six races. His only finish outside the top 10 in this stretch was last month at Darlington, where he won the pole and had a dominant car that led the most laps before collisions with Ross Chastain and Joey Logano knocked him out of the race.

“I don’t know that it really matters,” Truex said of the one-week break. “We’ve got a great team. We know what we are capable of now. We have a lot of confidence back that we lacked last year in our decision-making, whether it was strategy or whatever. It seems like things are clicking right now. I don’t know that an off week will change anything. We could probably use a few more off weeks before the playoffs, if I’m being honest with you, but we don’t get those, so I’m ready whenever.”

The improvements by Truex’s JGR team and Toyota were the talk of the paddock after his dominant victory at Sonoma, with Gibbs and crew chief James Small praising their ability to learn from a disappointing 2022. They’re a clear championship contender after Truex went to the top of the overall driver standings in Sonoma.

So while Truex said he will enjoy his time away with that fishing trip or “just hanging out,” he expects to be right back in front when racing resumes at Nashville Superspeedway next weekend.

“I try to get away from racing a couple of days a week no matter what, just to keep my sanity,” the 42-year-old Truex said. “I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ll talk to James on Monday. I’ll talk to James usually on Wednesday or Thursday again. So I’ll have a few days in between there to kind of regroup and keep my sanity.”

Just don’t call too soon this week: After raising a victorious wine glass in Sonoma, Small said he was headed to Colorado for a short break to clear his own head before NASCAR’s sprint to the finish.

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