NASCAR Cup Series

78 days until Daytona: Can Martin Truex Jr. build on sensational season?

Published Jan. 10, 2017 2:23 p.m. ET

Tom Jensen

With just 78 days left until the 2017 Daytona 500, here’s a quick look back at some of the highlights of the 2016 NASCARR season for Martin Truex Jr. and the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team:

--After winning just three races in his first 369 NASCAR Premier Series starts, Truex won four times in 2016, setting records both for himself and the team.

--In Furniture Row’s first season with Toyota, Truex led 1,809 laps in 2016, accounting for 17.19 percent of the 10,523 laps run all season. Truex led 425 more laps than second-place Kevin Harvick.

--In the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Truex led 392 of 400 laps, setting an all-time NASCAR record by leading 588 miles in a single race.

--On Labor Day weekend at Darlington Raceway, Truex won the Bojangles’ Southern 500, which like the Coca-Cola 600 is considered one of NASCAR’s majors.

--Truex won two of the first three races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, taking the opener at Chicagoland Speedway and then winning two races later at Dover International Speedway.

--And although he didn’t win the Daytona 500, Truex finished second to Denny Hamlin in the closest finish in the event’s long history. Hamlin’s margin of victory was 0.010 seconds, less than six inches.

Yep, all things considered it was a pretty bad-ass season for Truex and the Furniture Row crew. We expect to see them in the thick of the championship hunt again in 2017.

And check out this cool video, “We are 78.” Good stuff.