The upstart little racing team from Colorado can no longer be looked at as a second-tier operation. Truex has taken the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team to the next level, and the move to Toyota appears to have been a good decision after one season. The veteran driver has combined to win five races in the last two seasons, with four of those coming in 2016 alone. Now with two Chase appearances in tow, Truex is racing alongside the elite in the sport each weekend and rubbing fenders for wins. Crew Chief Cole Pearn may be one of the more gifted and up-and-coming chiefs in the Monster Energy Cup Series garage. Truex, Pearn and this entire team returns intact for the upcoming season, so we expect big things. We wouldn't even rule out a run at the championship in 2017.

Given the disastrous season that Truex had in his debut at Furniture Row Racing, it was hard to see last season's performance coming. The veteran driver was winless and had only five top-10 finishes in 2014. He would return to the No. 78 Chevrolet in 2015 and win his first race in two seasons, grab a career-best 22 top-10 finishes and make a very deep run in last season's Chase for the Cup. Nothing about the rebound makes sense, short of the crew chief position. That is the one factor that did turnover between 2014-15. Cole Pearn replaced Todd Berrier, and he formed great chemistry with Truex right out of the gate. Truex posted top 10s in the first seven races of last season and never looked back. Furniture Row Racing will change from Chevrolet to Toyota in 2016, so there could be some growing pains, but optimism is running very high with this team at present.

Coming off the best season of his nine-year Sprint Cup Series career, Truex enters an uncertain 2013. He posted a career-best 19 Top-10 finishes and tied a career-best with an 11th-place finish in the driver standings last season. With all those accomplishments the driver of the No. 56 Toyota still came up winless even though he had a couple close brushes with victory lane. We don’t expect a complete collapse from Truex in the upcoming season, but the last campaign is probably the high water mark for this driver. Instead we expect to see a performance similar to 2011 for the Michael Waltrip Racing veteran. A season of 12 to 14 Top-10 finishes is most likely in store.

Truex is the two-time defending Busch Series champion and most hyped rookie in the 2006 class. Don't expect a sequel to Kyle Busch's 2005 rookie campaign, but there will be a few good races for Truex this season.