Dale Jarret brands Martin Truex Jr.’s 2023 playoff campaign so far as a ‘DISASTER’

Martin Truex Jr. hasn’t scored a top-10 finish in the playoff so far this year.

Dale Jarret brands Martin Truex Jr.’s 2023 playoff campaign so far as a ‘DISASTER’

Martin Truex Jr. and Dale Jarret (Via IMAGO)

NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarret has pointed out that the 2023 Cup playoff season so far has been a disaster for the No:19 Joe Gibbs Racing driver Martin Truex Jr. The 2017 Cup champion barely made it out of the Round of 16. If not for the 15 bonus points he got by winning the regular season title, virtue of his three race wins.

While talking about the poor start to the post-season the 2017 champion had, NASCAR legend Dale Jarret pointed out that the 2023 season has been a disaster. He admitted that he expected the JGR driver to fight alongside Denny Hamlin and 2021 Cup champion Kyle Larson for the title in the season finale at Phoenix.

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“You’re being kind when you say that their playoffs have been mediocre. This has been a disaster. I realized just four races in there hasn’t been a single race when you said, ‘Oh, yeah, you know, they’re gonna be good today.’ They even when they qualified well, they went on the back slide to start with at Kansas,” Jarret told NBC.

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Dale Jarret suspects a disconnect between Martin Truex Jr. and his crew chief

The former champion pointed out that there might be a disconnect between Martin Truex Jr. and his crew chief, James Small. Small joined the No:19 team at the start of 2019 and has played a significant role in the veteran driver’s impressive Cup form with JGR.  

James Small and Martin Truex Jr. 1
James Small and Martin Truex Jr.

“I think there’s a disconnect there between James Small and the rest of the team. Not just their driver, but the rest of the team. Now, he’s got to get a handle on this and he better do it much sooner than later,” Jarret said.

Truex Jr. had just two more races left in the Round of 12 to make it to R-8. The major challenge, though, is the fact that those two events are the drum card events of the playoffs: Talladega, a superspeedway race, and ROVAL, a Road course race. The No:19 needs to sort out all the issues they had to peak again.

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