Martin Truex Jr. and Furniture Row Racing have been good for each other: a big-time driver with a small team that found a way to make it work seamlessly. Truex made the Final Four in the Chase last season, an unexpected rise competing against the superpowers.

Truex remains a viable Chase participant this year despite not winning a race. But things get muddled after this season because of an expiring contract. What comes next?

Asked last week if he wants to renegotiate, Truex shot back, “Right now.”

Clearly he wants to stay.

“The problem I've had with my career is it's been up and down,” he said. “And that's because of change. You get in situations where they don't go the way you thought they were going to go.”

Truex has had hard luck, competing for two teams — Dale Earnhardt Inc. and Michael Waltrip Racing — that blew up.

“You look at Jimmie Johnson. You look at Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch,” Truex said. “They get with a team and keep building on that foundation. Year in, year out, they're the guys to beat because they have that around them.”

Different formula: Formula One and NASCAR rarely intersect, but potential is brewing with Romain Grosjean.

Stewart-Haas Racing has plans to get a ride this summer for Grosjean, who currently drives in F1 under the Haas banner.

“It would be really cool,” Joe Custer, chief operating officer of Haas F1, told reporters last week. “It's definitely on our wish list. We just have to make it work, whether it be this year, next year, whenever.

“He's made it clear that he wouldn't want his debut to be on an oval, where he's never done it before.”

That stipulation would lead Grosjean to a road course — Sonoma on June?26 or Watkins Glen on Aug.?7. Those are open dates on the F1 schedule.

Bowyer's future: In his 12th Cup season, Clint Bowyer is struggling with underfunded HScott Motorsports. He finished 19th in his home state of Kansas last weekend and is now 26th in points, one notch below Danica Patrick.

“We were with one of the best teams there was for seven years ... and he decided to quit on me,” Bowyer said last week, alluding to Michael Waltrip. “We are building back up. I know I'm going to a championship-caliber team for three years after this one. You will see me back.”

Bowyer will move to Stewart-Haas Racing next year and replace Tony Stewart, who is retiring.

— George Diaz