2009 Team Previews: #1 Martin Truex Jr.

January 12, 5:55 PMDetroit NASCAR ExaminerJosh Lobdell

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Since we are 30 some day out from the running of the Daytona 500 I guess it is time to start looking at the NASCAR field team by team. Since I cannot figure out a fairer or impartial way to set an order we shall go through by car number.

Since the #01 car seems to not have a future in 2009 that brings us to #1 Martin Truex Jr. and his Bass Pro Shops Chevy team owned by the newly merged Earnhardt-Ganassi Racing.

In what is going to become the most over used phrase of the 2009 Cup series, this is a make or break year for young Martin. After three full seasons on the Cup circuit Truex has never shown the flare he showed in his back to back championship years in the Nationwide Series.

For whatever reason this team, most of whom moved up to the cup level with Truex, have failed to perform as well as they had in NASCAR’s junior series.

Crew Chief Kevin “Bono” Manion became associated with Tommy Baldwin at a young age. It was Baldwin who brought Manion to North Carolina and ultimately got him a job at DEI, Where he was a crew chief for Cup then Cup new comer Steve Park.  This seems to prove that his lineage is as good as any other man atop a Pit Box in the Cup series. So why has none of the success these two shared followed them to Cup?

It is possible that over the past two seasons DEI has fallen behind the other teams. In that time frame only Truex has been able to win in their equipment, granted Regan Smith nearly one the fall Talladega race. However those races (Daytona and Talladega) use to be virtual locks for DEI dominance. It is clear just from that they have lost a step somewhere.

So how will the merger of DEI with Chip Ganassi racing affect Martin? Honestly I don’t know if it will. The one thing DEI has been lacking recently is a strong at the track presence and wit h the addition of Chip that role will now be filled.

The question remains if that alone will help this underperforming team perform up to the expectations we all had three years ago when Martin came to the cup series.

Martin only signed a one year extension and when we consider that Tony Stewart does a lot of business with Bass Pro Shops it is very likely that Truex ends up in a third Stewart Haas car come 2010.