NASCAR Cup Series

Martin Truex Jr. crew chief Cole Pearn ignored driver radio rant

Published Sep. 5, 2016 12:01 p.m. ET

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How diabolical is Darlington Raceway? It's about as evil as a race track gets.

Well past the halfway mark in Sunday's Bojangles' Southern 500, Martin Truex Jr. was on the radio, screaming about how bad the handling was on his Furniture Row Racing Toyota.

Truex, of course, won the race. Imagine how the other guys felt.

Afterward, I asked his Furniture Row Racing crew chief, Cole Pearn, about Truex's mini-rant over the radio.

"I don't know, you just shake your head," said Pearn. "That was the oddest thing ever because the run he was screaming like that, it was five laps later we were the fastest car on the track, so I don't really know. We had planned overhaul changes, and then we threw them out the window and didn't really touch it after that."

The crew chief said the minimal downforce these cars run make them especially difficult at Darlington, which has earned its nickname as "The Track Too Tough To Tame."

"I think it's just a product of these rules," said Pearn. "The cars are on edge, and this track is just really difficult to get a hold of. It's low grip. So all of a sudden you find a groove that suits your car better and then you get to running good again.

"It's really fun. I mean, all weekend you're having to think outside the box, maybe more so than the typical intermediates because you've got asymmetric corners and low grip and bumps. It's got really all the elements that really make you work on the race car."