While happy to have broken his 218-race winless streak--and bolster his place in the Chase standings--Martin Truex Jr. was still rather dour in Victory Lane, owing to his home state.
"Crap, I'm still from New Jersey", a disappointed Truex said upon exiting his confetti-covered car. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm glad we won. REALLY glad. But still…I'm from New Jersey."
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| The New Jersey State Forest |
Truex said that, while the Michael Waltrip Racing team has made numerous changes to become more competitive, there's no changes that can be made to alter his lineage.
"This team, man--we've just improved by leaps and bounds. I'm so proud of my crew, Chad (Johnson), my crew chief, its amazing what this team has done over the past few weeks. Almost enough to make me forget that I'm from a state that's a running punchline for the rest of the nation. Almost."
Truex went on to explain that, even winning on a road course (not exactly his forte) did nothing to eliminate the sting of being from the Garden State.
"Yeah, its great to finally get one on one of these road courses", Truex glumly said, "but I'm the only guy in the field from a state where you can't make left-hand turns. We HAD to turn right all the time growing up. And hey, I didn't have to worry about fueling issues on pit road--I'm not even ALLOWED to put gas in my car in my home state!"
Truex appeared to become slightly more upbeat upon hoisting the trophy, but quickly returned to his disappointed state about his disappointing state.
"Now that we got one of 'em, we've gotta go get a bunch of 'em", Truex told a reporter. "But winning two, three, TEN races in a row won't do anything to change the fact that, on my birth certificate, I'm listed as being from New York's armpit, Pennsylvania's loser cousin, Delaware's dumpy ex-girlfriend."
"New Jersey", Truex said while sitting down on the Victory Lane steps, slowly shaking his head. "New-freaking-Jersey."