Martin Truex Jr. appeared to be doing every little thing he needed to do to advance to Round 12, closing a good portion of the 14-point deficit he got here into Bristol with by collecting 16 stage points.
It was alleged to be a troublesome fight, but he had a probability to win.
That was until the ultimate pit stop of the night with about 170 laps remaining. Truex was running second and the team made an ideal stop, but MTJ was caught speeding and sent to the back of the pack. The former Cup champion couldn’t break through and stayed outside the highest 20 for the remaining of the race.
“It’s really tough when it’s 0.09 mph, which kind of ruins your chances of having a good season,” Truex said after the race. “I don’t know the way it happened. Honestly, I didn’t even know I used to be that close. It felt like I used to be doing the identical thing I do every other stop. Sometimes you’re only a foot to the left — it’s so tough whenever you’re going from a corner to a straightaway.
“It's my fault, of course. My mistake. They said we'd have to finish second or third to have a chance, and I don't know if we could do that, but it would be nice to see. I just feel really sorry for my guys. They work so hard. We had a really strong car today. We scored a lot of stage points, we did what we had to do there. It's a shame I messed it up. I wish we could have at least seen if we did it. It would have been nice to have a chance to fight.”
Instead, Truex finished twenty fourth at Bristol, 21 points below the cutoff, ending his latest run for a second Cup title in the primary round. He was joined by Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs, in addition to Brad Keselowski and Harrison Burton. Today's disappointing result’s the most recent chapter in two months of misfortune for Truex, who has not finished higher than twentieth in his last eight races.
“You never like to let anyone down, no matter the situation. I hate that I did it tonight,” he concluded in an interview with NBC.
