Truex Jr.: ‘Not trying to pull something over’ on NASCAR – Nascar

RELATED: Pearn suspended, team appeals

LAS VEGAS — Martin Truex Jr. faced the media for the first time on Friday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway since the suspension announcement of his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing crew chief Cole Pearn.

Pearn’s suspension comes after a P3 rules violation from last weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Pearn was also fined $50,000, while Truex Jr. was penalized 15 championship driver points and team owner Barney Visser was docked 15 championship owner points.

“I think from Cole’s side he’s a little frustrated about how it all went down, which is understandable,” Truex said. “People in the garage area talk and he feels like, ‘Do people really think I’m stupid enough after what happened at Daytona to try to pull something over on NASCAR in the same area?’

“Being that it’s a safety issue, it’s really a big deal to us to figure out exactly how it all happened. He’ll figure exactly how to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again and he’ll go through the appeal process and see what comes of it.”

Because the team is appealing the penalty, Pearn’s suspension and fine are temporarily deferred until the matter is heard. According to a NASCAR spokesperson, as of Friday, no date has been set for the appeal.

Pearn was placed on probation through Dec. 31, 2016 following last month’s Daytona 500 for an infraction regarding the roof flap(s) on the No. 78 Toyota before qualifying. The team was unable to make the necessary corrections in time to allow Truex to make a qualifying attempt.

“In our case, this situation is kind of an odd one,” Truex said. “It’s not like we were trying to pull something over on somebody. This was a case where something happened that we don’t really understand. I’ll let the team go through the appeal process, but at the end of the day, we raced Atlanta without any issues. We had obviously a fast car and a very competitive day on the race track and I’m just looking forward to continuing that here today. So, I’ll let the team figure out that side of things and I’ll go out and do my job this weekend.”

Truex finished seventh at Atlanta and second at Daytona despite the No. 78’s issues. The New Jersey native’s best finish at Las Vegas came last season when he finished second to 2014 Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick.