NASCAR driver Martin Truex Jr. stands out among fast fiends

When he recently won for the first time since his 2013 victory at Sonoma Raceway, maybe the scales of justice were finally tipping in his favor.

When he beat Jeff Gordon by eight seconds at Sonoma two years ago, it was just the second win of a Sprint Cup career that began in 2004.

Truex was with Michael Waltrip Racing then.

[...] he drives the No. 78 Chevrolet for Furniture Row Racing and will try to win at the raceway again Sunday in the Toyota/Save Mart 350.

“It was really one of those places where for a long time there, I was just kind of snakebit: running up front, getting spun out, or things like that seemed to happen to me quite often there,” Truex said in a teleconference.

Truex, 34, has not finished higher than 11th in the season standings (he has been 11th twice, in 2007 and ’12), but is riding high this season.

In the final Chase-qualifying race of 2013 at Richmond, Va., he seemed to grab the last wild-card spot by a whisker over Ryan Newman.

[...] through no fault of his own, he was dumped out of the Chase field because of a cheating scandal.

NASCAR officials ruled that that Michael Waltrip Racing teammates Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers manipulated the finish of the race to ensure that Truex made the Chase.

While she underwent chemotherapy, he struggled through a rough year on the track with Furniture Row, which was coming off a Chase berth with Kurt Busch in 2013.

It’s made me understand life a lot more, made me appreciate the things I do have more.

[...] you know, honestly, as long as Sherry stays healthy from here on out, I think it’s kind of weird to say, but it’s almost a blessing in disguise.

Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

Circuit: 10-turn, 1.99-mile road course

Friday — Sprint Cup practice, noon-1:55 p.m.; NASCAR Pro Series West practice, 2 p.m.-3 p.m.; Sprint Cup practice, 3:30 p.m.-4:55 p.m.; Saturday — Pro Series West Qualifying, 9:45 a.m.; Sprint Cup qualifying, 11:15 a.m.; Carneros 200 NASCAR Pro Series West Race (64 laps), 2 p.m.; Sunday — Toyota/Save Mart 350, noon