When looking back at Martin Truex Jr.'s year so far, the word that comes to mind is dominance. He is in a comfortable first place in the points and, with seven total, has three more wins than his closest competitor.
It's all coming up aces for the Toyota driver this year. So what keeps him grounded in reality? Kyle Larson. Not Larson personally, but what happened to the former second place driver in last week's race.
"There's no guarantee we'll get to Homestead [as a finalist]," said Truex via MileHighSports. "One race at a time. You look at me like I am crazy, but [Kyle] Larson was second in points [going into Kansas] and he didn't make it. They all say I'm a lock because I have so many playoff bonus points. I am telling you it's not that simple. We have to go out and perform, can't have an engine failure, can't get caught up in a crash five laps into Martinsville. We have to focus on one race at a time."
That one race at a time approach has been working so far, with Truex piling up points and wins to ensure he can survive a mistake or a freak accident down the line. And true to his "one race at a time" philosophy, he only wanted to talk about the next race and how he was going to try to dominate there as well.
"Having the first pit stall at Martinsville is huge," he said. "I would say it's probably the biggest advantage of any track we go to. Martinsville is challenging. It's been one of the tracks that I feel we've been chipping away at. Our short track program has gotten a lot better this season. I am looking forward to Martinsville and hopefully will have the best race we've ever had there."
If anything is going to slow Truex down, complacency won't be what does it.