Denny Hamlin blames ‘absolute horrible luck’ for Martin Truex Jr.’s playoff woes
Denny Hamlin finished second behind Martin Truex Jr. in the 2023 regular championship.
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Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. (Via IMAGO)
2023 Regular season champion Martin Truex Jr. entered the post-season as the driver with the most momentum and the best shot at winning the title. After just two rounds of racing, he is now below the Round of 12 cut-off and has to produce his best-ever result at Bristol next week. Now Truex Jr.’s JGR teammate Denny Hamlin has pointed out that bad luck is the reason for the struggles.
The No:19 Toyota Camry driver saw two poor back-to-back finishes due to blown tires and is now close to missing out on the second round. He had a fast car last week at Kansas and started the race at P3, but his promising day ended on just lap four after a right rear puncture saw his car getting slammed into the wall. With significant damage to the car, he was forced to retire.
While talking about his teammate’s troubles, Denny Hamlin, in his podcast Action Detrimental, pointed out that the woes had nothing to do with the team or driver but instead because of their bad luck. He theorized that running over some debris might have been the reason behind the tire blowing up in Kansas last Sunday.
“This one’s certainly not he’s doing or his team’s doing, just absolute horrible luck to get a punctured tire, running over something that’s sitting on the racetrack that blew out his tires. So, more than likely, as early as it happened, he probably ran over something before we went green. Or when we were driving down the pit road—during our pit road speed,” Denny Hamlin said.
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Martin Truex Jr. also claimed his woes were due to bad luck
The No:19 driver pointed out that after getting released from the infield care center, it was bad luck that cost him one again, and it was a very unfortunate situation. He admitted that he hated the result, and it was an incident for his crew and partners, who deserved better considering they had a solid car capable of being contenders.
“Really unfortunate, very unlucky. It took off really tight, knew something was up then it blew a right rear. Not really sure what happened; obviously, it blew in the worst place possible. So just, man, I hate it for my guys. We had an awesome race car we were going to have a really good day. Just not real sure how to get some luck right now,” Martin Truex Jr. said after the race.
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Justin P Joy
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