BOB POCKGRASS
SCENEDAILY.COM

LOUDON, N.H. – Martin Truex Jr. isn’t backing down from his vow to race Jeff Gordon more aggressively, but whether he will wreck Gordon soon in retaliation for getting spun last week at Infineon Raceway remains to be seen.

At Sonoma, Gordon accidentally spun Truex, who then fell to the back of the pack and got caught up in a chain-reaction crash that knocked him out of the race.

Truex, who fell to 19th in the Sprint cup standings after the 42nd-place finish at Infineon, said Friday that he got a voice-mail apology from Gordon, who also told Truex he figured he had a shove coming at some point.

“I’m in the same position I was in then so why would I feel different?” Truex said after practice at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “I accept his apology, yes, but things are going to change between me and him. That’s just the bottom line.

“The nice guys seems to always get pushed around. I’m tired of being the nice guy. I’m tired of getting pushed around. I’m not going to stand here and say, ‘I’m going to go out and wreck Jeff.’ That’s not me. That’s not how I do things. But things are going to change. I’m not going to take it anymore.”

While Gordon said he understands Truex’s feelings, Truex said his frustration goes deeper than just the race Sunday.

“I’ve always been very, very respectful, and I have just never gotten that back,” Truex said. “You race a guy like Mark Martin and you run him down from a straightaway, he’ll let you go. He doesn’t want to hold himself up, but at the same time, he is doing you a favor.

“If I run Jeff down from a straightaway, he races me like we’re going for a win. … There’s been times when Jeff’s caught me and never even given me a chance to get out of the way and started running into me. And then he’s the first guy to hang his middle finger out the window when he goes by you. Things are going to change, that’s all I’m saying.”

Gordon again was apologetic Friday at New Hampshire.

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By Marty Smith ESPN.com

Martin Truex Jr. is northbound and down, headed home from a television appearance in Charlotte, N.C. He is giddy. You can hear it. His voice is louder, his wit quicker, than it’s been in a while. The giddiness is in fact a month old, since he truly set sail at Michael Waltrip Racing.

For a race car driver like him, happiness is measured in miles per hour and wheel input. For the first time in a long time, Truex considers that balance limitless.

“I know everybody’s a champion in the offseason,” he said facetiously of the optimism teams feel during preseason, “but I feel really good about this. This is the best position I’ve ever been in in the Cup series.”

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