SPARTA – Martin Truex Jr. posted a grand total of three wins over his first 10 full-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series seasons.

Truex now owns 19 career victories, 16 of which have come since May 2016. That includes Saturday night’s Quaker State 400 where he started from the pole, led 174 of 267 laps and swept every stage.

The wins have seemingly come easy the last 2½ years for Truex and his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team. But the 38-year-old avoids taking any of them for granted because of how long it took him to get to this point.

“They all still feel like the first,” Truex said. “I’m going to keep treating them that way, because you never know when it’s going to stop.”

Furniture Row Racing owner Barney Visser hired Truex before the 2014 season as the driver for his single-car team. The owner paired his driver with crew chief Cole Pearn one season later.

The team has taken off ever since. Truex grabbed his third career win in 2015, made the playoffs’ final four and finished fourth in the season standings.

Truex won four more races in 2016 before having the season of his life last year. He claimed eight checkered flags, including in the season finale at Homestead. That win clinched the Mayetta, N.J., native his first NASCAR Cup Series championship.

The defending champ looks a strong contender to repeat in 2018. The Kentucky victory was Truex’s fourth through the season’s first 19 races.

“Five years ago, you’d never heard of these guys and you didn’t think that much of Martin,” Visser said. “But the truth is, he’s that good and they’re showing it. … If you just keep working, it can happen.”

Truex was an also-ran in his pre-Furniture Row Racing years. He raced full-time for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. (later Earnhardt Ganassi Racing) from 2006-09 and for Michael Waltrip Racing from 2010-13.

The driver won his first career race in 2007 at Dover, then had to wait six years before his second win came in 2013 at Sonoma. Truex never finished any higher than 11th in the final point standings over his first nine full-time Cup seasons.

Truex said he felt “jinxed” at times during his DEI and MWR years. He brought up races from earlier in his career where he was in position to win, but an ill-timed caution flag or bad pit stop would spoil his chances.

Jimmie Johnson dominated the sport in those days while Truex sat in the background, plugging away for his chance.

“I would say I always felt like I could get the job done,” Truex said. “I had enough glimpses of really good days or glimpses of greatness that it kept me alive, kept me hungry enough to keep me fighting for it.”

Now Truex is one of the sport’s biggest stars. Not only is he a consistent winner on the track, but his No. 78 was one of the most well-represented numbers Saturday in the stands among fans’ hats and T-shirts.

Truex’s victory at Kentucky didn’t include much drama, but spectators still gave him a loud ovation as he took the checkered flag and then came around to perform a long burnout at the start-finish line.

Saturday’s win further solidified the domination of this year’s NASCAR Cup schedule by the “Big Three” of Truex, Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick. Busch (five wins), Harvick (five) and Truex (four) have won a whopping 14 of 19 races so far this season – including 14 of 16 non-restrictor-plate events.

Busch and Harvick had the edge earlier this season, but Truex has come on strong this summer. He’s won three of the series’ last six races and those victories have come at markedly different tracks – the 2½-mile, three-turned Pocono, the winding road course at Sonoma and the 1½-mile Kentucky Speedway.

“I just think for us we’ve been trying to push forward, trying to catch the guys that have been a little better than us,” Pearn said. “In our own little world, trying to catch the 4 (Harvick) and 18 (Busch) has been a challenge.

“We’ve been plugging away at it and to get over that hump tonight was a good feeling.”

Seven regular-season races remain before the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs begin Sept. 16 at Las Vegas. Busch, Harvick and Truex, all former champions, are heavy favorites to once again compete for the title.

Whatever Truex accomplishes the rest of the 2018 season, he’ll appreciate every bit of it.

“To think that I’m one of those guys this year and I guess last year too, it’s amazing to me,” Truex said. “I still pinch myself. I still enjoy every win like it’s the first and I realize just how lucky I am to be in this position.”{&end}