While the series has been dominated by Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin in the 2020 season, Martin Truex Jr.’s crew chief James Small believes that Truex is one of the main contenders for the Championship.

Martin Truex might not have the number of wins as the two main championship contenders. Harvick has six and Hamlin has five. But, Truex has already done enough to book his spot in the 2020 playoffs courtesy of his win at Martinsville.

But, when it comes to playoffs, Truex has made it to the final four in the last three seasons. So, Small is confident about the prospect of N0. 19 driver making it to the final four in the 2020 season too.

“It’s pretty common, from the (Furniture Row) time to the 19 time – over the years, people forget we even exist,” said Small. “The same thing happened leading into the playoffs last year. We were really fast, and I think we’ve been as fast this year if not better at a lot of these tracks of late; but things just haven’t gone our way. We’ve made small mistakes across the road; I’ve made some, Martin’s made some, the mechanics have made some, the pit crew – little things that have to be perfect to win a race.

“Michigan and Pocono, they’re typically really, really good tracks for the 4 and the 11. Same with Indy. (But) I feel like now we’re getting into our strong part of the season, and I think we’ll be perfectly fine, to be honest. I think it’s going to be out of us three, (though) the 2 [Brad Keselowski] has been running well; (so has) the 12 [Ryan Blaney]. Maybe the 9 [Chase Elliott] will get back up there. We’ll see.”

Truex Jr. has eight top-five and 14 top-ten finishes this season and is still fighting for the opportunity to be NASCAR Cup Series once again.

Martin Truex Jr. and Ross Chastain became a running meme throughout much of the Fox Sports NASCAR broadcast from Dover Speedway due to each time the cameras showed one car, they obviously showed the next.

When the 2017 NASCAR Series winner and Ross Chastain got plenty of airtime because they ran up front for most of the over 400 laps around the one-mile track, including the main final stage when they changed the positions.

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