Martin Truex Jr. laments his bad luck after Kansas crash, says it was ‘a real punch in the gut’
Martin Truex Jr. had some of the worst finals of the 2023 Cup playoffs so far.
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Martin Truex Jr. (Via IMAGO)
2023 Regular Champion Martin Truex Jr. is now in danger of missing out on the Round of 12 following two disappointing playoff outings. Two back-to-back tire failures have been seen, In 2017, one who came to the playoff as the driver with the most momentum is now setting below the cutoff. The 36-point cushion has now fallen to a seven-point deficit from Kevin Harvick at P12.
The No:19 Camry driver had the best start to the race, like every other Toyota team to the Kansas weekend. He secured P3 in the qualifying and was determined to forget the Darlington disappointment with a solid finish, but his day ended on lap four after he slammed into the on-turn three due to a blown right rear tire.
While talking about the incident, the TRD driver said it was a real shame his day ended this early, considering they were seriously fast the whole weekend. He said that he felt something was off since the start as he was finding it hard to turn as the car was tight on corners. Truex Jr. fell out of the top 10 in four laps before the crash.
“Just blew a tire, not real sure why. Real shame, obviously. The car was really fast in practice and in qualifying, and I knew something was up right away. I was crazy tight, but I didn’t expect the tire to blow out. Very unlucky. We were going to have an awesome day; I felt really good about it. That’s racing, as they say,” Truex said, as reported by RACER.
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Martin Truex Jr. hates how the race turned out for the team
The former champion claimed he had a shot at winning the race; hence, the result is a real gut punch. He said he hated the result for his team and sponsors while adding that they could still return to the top in the unpredictable playoff battle.
“We’ll see what we have to do when today is over. You never know where it’s going to end up. A bunch of guys could have problems, and we could be all right again. Ultimately, I just hate it for my team and everybody — all my sponsors and all our partners,” Martin Truex Jr. said.
“We’ve had a great season. We had an awesome car today. I really felt we could go out and win this race, and for that to happen, it just sucks. We don’t even get a chance. We shouldn’t even have showed up at this point, so it’s just a real punch in the gut,” Martin Truex Jr. added.
The upcoming race at Bristol Motor Speedway will be a make-or-break for the driver who should never have been in this position in the first place. He has never secured a win at the track from 32 starts and finished outside the top 10 in 28 races. Truex Jr. needs to produce a solid run next week to progress in the playoffs.
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