Truex's win rewards perseverance

— -- LONG POND, Pa. -- Fans couldn't see just how the Martin Truex Jr. win Sunday swept through the NASCAR community at Pocono Raceway.

Sure, fans could get an inkling if they saw highlights from the Axalta "We Paint Winners" 400 celebration in Victory Lane. Dale Earnhardt Jr., one of his best buds and a business partner in some real estate deals, poured a soda over his head. Six-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson stopped by for a fist bump. NASCAR vice chairman Mike Helton strolled in and shook Truex's hand.

That doesn't come close to giving a visual of what the Truex win meant.

To get that, one would need to go back a month ago, when the Martin Truex Jr. Foundation "Catwalk For A Cause" charity fashion show attracted 600 people, mostly members of the racing community to watch kids battling cancer model outfits in a converted home furnishing warehouse.

This year, several drivers -- including Earnhardt and Danica Patrick -- walked down the catwalk with the young cancer patients to raise, with the help of sales of a song by Edwin McCain, approximately $350,000. The most amazing part? Truex and girlfriend Sherry Pollex, who organizes the event, did no promotion beyond a little bit of social media. No barrage of news releases, no begging media for coverage to help raise the funds.

They didn't need a media blitz. The NASCAR community embraced Pollex and Truex for what they symbolized -- perseverance, heart, courage and selflessness -- and supported the event, because, how can you know Truex and Pollex, see them spend time with the children at the cancer treatment units, know their story and not buy a ticket?

This year, Pollex herself became a cancer patient. She has spent the past 10 months battling ovarian cancer. Barely a word of her battle was mentioned throughout that night -- the focus remained on the kids -- but everyone knew that Pollex and Truex, fighters for the children, had spent much of the past year knowing the pain and the fear all too well.

"It was an amazing night," Pollex said Sunday in Victory Lane. "It was incredible. [The drivers] want to walk because they want to show those kids that they can fight for them, too, and I do, too.

"I think this year, a lot of them came because of my diagnosis, which totally melted my heart. We're just lucky to be blessed with great friends and an awesome community to be a part of."

Many in the NASCAR garage think of it the other way around, seeing someone battle on the track and off the track the way Pollex and Truex have over the past two years.

"He's not a guy that he really shares his true feelings or talk much about it," said Earnhardt, who co-owned the car that Truex won Xfinity Series championships with in 2004 and 2005. "But I can imagine that was a very serious scare with Sherry and her health. That's going to change them for the rest of their lives.

"She has to live with that for the rest of her life and continue to fight that battle. Even though she's in good shape today, the battle is never over. That is something they have to deal with every day."

Truex would have plenty of people rooting for him if all they knew was his racing story. If all they could remember was that NASCAR kicked him out of the Chase for the Sprint Cup for the actions of his Michael Waltrip Racing teammates at Richmond in September 2013. Although he benefited from the Clint Bowyer spin and the Brian Vickers green-flag pit stop, many considered him an innocent victim in the whole affair.

When his sponsor, NAPA Auto Parts, announced a couple weeks later it would leave MWR, Truex found himself looking for a ride in late September. Furniture Row Racing had recently learned that Kurt Busch would leave for Stewart-Haas Racing and had the opening that Truex would land, looking to build on Busch's leading the organization to the first Chase for the Sprint Cup appearance for a single-car team.

Then things really fell apart. Truex couldn't match Busch's success. The team had re-engineered the cars into a terrible mess. Truex had his worst year since his rookie season with just five top-10s and finished 24th in the standings. When Pollex received her diagnosis in August, Truex could have taken a leave of absence, and team owner Barney Visser pledged he would have his ride when he could come back.

Truex didn't miss a race, instead relishing the therapeutic nature of driving the race car, even a mediocre race car. It helped take his mind off the scary world around him.

"When you go back to the Richmond race and the challenges that he has had, he's had more to overcome personally and professionally than probably anybody sitting in a seat right now," Johnson said.

"For him to still walk in the garage every week with a smile on his face, climb in the car, put in the effort, be the great guy he is I think speaks volumes."

This year, success has accompanied the smiles. Truex opened the season with seven consecutive top-10 finishes. In the three races leading into Pocono, Truex had led the most laps only to come up parking his car on pit road after the race and watching someone else leave with the glory.

At times, he tried to laugh off the frustration. Having a fast car and not winning doesn't come close to being as frustrating as having a bad car for 400 miles.

So when he led with 10 laps remaining Sunday, Pollex refused to get excited. She had seen this story plenty of times this year. That is why the tears flowed in Victory Lane as he led 66 of the final 67 laps to snap a 69-race winless streak.

And it was a big boost for the team, too.

"It would be easy the last three weeks to get down and to hang your head and to make excuses and honestly just be disappointed, but they weren't," Truex said. "They were excited.

"They knew we were going to get this win, and they knew we were going to get it soon, and they worked hard. They didn't lose focus of how we got to where we're at, and honestly, that's what pushed us over the edge and was able to make the difference today."

Pollex, admittedly tired, soaked in the entire Victory Lane celebration. She has attended most races this year while still going through chemotherapy. She had a treatment Monday and has monthly treatments through next February.

"I function pretty well on it," said Pollex, who had three chemotherapy sessions a month during her initial treatment. "I live a normal life, so it's fine. It is what it is. It is the best chance I have at long-term survival, so I'm going to do it and do it with a smile on my face."

Seeing Pollex on pit road brings smiles to faces of many in the garage. She just isn't a driver's girlfriend. She owns a small boutique nestled in the area where many drivers live and their families shop. She is the daughter of a former Xfinity Series team owner, a garage fixture for well more than a decade.

"There's going to come a time when racing and where you finish in races doesn't matter," Truex said. "What's going to matter is kind of the legacy you leave and how people look at the person that you are.  So that means a ton to me to have that respect [of my peers], and honestly, it's kind of humbling.

"It's really cool, especially after the way the last year and a half or so has gone for me, up until this year, I think that people kind of got a little bit of an insight into what I'm made of and what kind of person I am, which is cool. Sucks I had to show it sometimes."

The celebration culminated a 21-month journey since, what seemed to be then, the worst thing that could happen in losing his ride. Truex won for the third time in his 347-race Cup career and will make the Chase for the third time in his career (he says it's the fourth time he has qualified for the Chase). The way he has raced the past month shows he can challenge for the 2015 Sprint Cup title.

"I told Martin when that whole NAPA deal fell apart and he got kicked out of that ride that God has mysterious ways and he must just have another plan for us," Pollex said. "He was so depressed. And then I got diagnosed and everything started going downhill and I kept telling him that everything will work out in the end, you will end up where you're supposed to be and for a team that is going to run good. I have faith that we're going to end up somewhere happy.

"And we did."

Pollex had faith. Did Truex?

"I kind of believed her," said Truex, who then turned his head and looked at Pollex. "I tried my hardest to, didn't I?

"You know, I did believe in her, but I just knew it was going to take a lot of work. I knew it was going to be a tough road to get back."

He didn't know how tough at the time.

"Sherry's situation happened, and it was like, 'All right, this is when you show people what you're made of,' " Truex said. "She showed me what she was made of, and I was like, 'Wow, if she can do that, I can do this. This is easy.' Honestly, I just learned a lot from her and worked hard, never gave up, believed in myself the whole time, and that's what it takes."

And that's how he got to Victory Lane on Sunday.

"It was definitely the hardest thing I've ever been through, but when you get through something like that, it makes you pretty damn proud of what you've accomplished," Truex said about the past 21 months. "And this is easily the biggest win of my career."