True test

The rookie class: Seven after six

Have a conversation with Martin Truex Jr. and there's a good chance he'll end up talking about fishing and playing computer games like Spider Solitaire, a game he readily admits he's addicted to.

But sooner or later the talk will get around to his rookie season in the Nextel Cup Series, and that's when he'll begin to mutter the word "frustrating" more than any other.

There is glamour and excitement in racing at the Cup level, but transitioning to a full-time Nextel Cup team has been tough for the two-time Busch Series champion.

"We've had a couple of good runs that didn't turn out so good," said Truex Jr., who is piloting the No. 1 DEI Chevy. Truex gives his team a "C" grade thus far.

"C is kind of mid-pack and that's kind of what we've been," said Truex, who sits 20th in points after six races with a best finish of 15th at California.

Truex's Bass Pro Shops-sponsored team had great success in the Busch Series but is new to Nextel Cup, and every race so far this season has been a challenge for everyone on the team.

At Bristol, for example, they had a good car in practice and at the start of the race. But as the race progressed, the handling on the car got worse.

"The stuff that we put in it, when the rubber got built up on the track – it just wouldn't run," Truex said. "Then we did the same exact thing this past weekend in Martinsville. It ran good for about 30 to 40 laps and then the rubber built up on the track and we were junk."

Theirs is not an unusual situation for a new team.

An essential tool for success in Nextel Cup is the notebook – that bible of knowledge about race tracks and how they change, and the setups necessary to win. Usually, the notebook writes itself over time.

And all new teams have is time – time to gain experience, that is. Truex and crew chief Kevin "Bono" Manion would love to have more completed pages in their notebook to help them do battle on a weekly basis so that they might better be able to keep up with the race track.

"There are guys out there that know how to do that and you can see it," Truex said. "They're out there running 25th- or 30th-place speeds in times in practice and then in the race they go to the front."

No one knows better the problems Truex and his team face better than teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose own Cup team also started out as a Busch team. He's confident that over time, they'll figure it out.

"I think it'll just take for them to understand what they're doing with the cars where Martin can drive fast all day long," Earnhardt Jr. said. "He had a couple of times where he was progressively moving forward in the race in Atlanta and then they dialed him right out with a couple of decisions they shouldn't have made. They know what they did."

Kicking it up a notch

Car setups aren't the only concern at the Cup level. There also is the competition, as every weekend Truex and Co. are battling with the best stock car racers out there.

"The coolest thing about doing it is that you know there are only 43 guys in the world that can race in the greatest, most competitive motorsport there is," Truex said. "It's not like football where you've got nearly 50 guys on every team."

That's not to say that the level of competition in the Busch Series isn't tough, but racing on Sundays means going up against drivers like Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch on a weekly basis.

Although he already had run a handful of Cup races heading into this season, Truex admits his team might have misjudged how tough racing in Cup really is.

"I knew how competitive it was but I really thought we could have come out of the box and done a better job," Truex said. "I guess I kind of underestimated the competition a little bit. Or maybe I was just too confident in what we could do. I don't know."

For a rookie, it seems like everything happens faster over a longer period of time in Cup races. Then there's the endurance factor, as Cup races are longer. And unlike in the Busch Series, the intensity level is higher with drivers literally running qualifying speeds on every lap during the race.

Of course, there also are the egos. Sometimes it seems that there isn't enough room on the track for everyone. Truex found this out the hard way at Bristol a few weeks ago when he became the pinball in a 100-mph pinball machine being played by Gordon and Stewart.

"Sometimes they do things that don't make much sense," Truex said. "I guess they feel like it's their series – they're the guys that have been there, they're the guys who have been champions and the guys that everybody needs to respect."

"I try to do that with everybody, regardless of who they are or what they've done. But I think that they need to give it back also."

Added pressure

Before the start of the season, Truex topped nearly everyone's list as the favorite to win the Rookie of the Year title. Unfair perhaps, according to Truex, who points out that most of the other drivers in contention are driving for teams already established on the Cup level, unlike his own.

Despite the pressure, Truex is confident that once his team gets experience running at each track on the schedule, the second time around will be much easier.

Although he isn't leading the rookie standings, Truex enjoys seeing friends Clint Bowyer and Denny Hamlin sharing the spotlight in the rookie battle. Bowyer and Truex fought down to the wire for the '05 Busch Series title and maintain a competitive relationship that Truex likens to the friendly rivalry between Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth.

"I remember Junior and Kenseth did the same deal when they came in and they're still doing it," Truex said. "You spend a lot of time during the year at the race track and around those people and it's good to have relationships with them."

Looking ahead

Winning a race or two, securing the rookie title and getting into the Chase aren't out of the reach for this team, but Truex admits that they need to start having better results, beginning this weekend in Texas.

"We can't be making these mistakes like we've done the past few weeks," Truex said. "We've got potential. We just need to do everything right and just try and get better each week."

Earnhardt Jr. believes they will.

"He knows exactly how tough this series is," Earnhardt said. "I'm not too worried about it because I've seen the bright spots being that close to it. I've seen when they've gotten it right."

Truex does find himself enjoying his new life in the spotlight as a Cup driver. He still finds some time to relax, although the demands on his time can become a bit annoying.

"There's always somebody who wants a piece of you, a piece of your time or talk to you or bother you when you sometimes don't want to be bothered," Truex said. "But that's a small price to pay, I guess."