While one Joe Gibbs driver finished in second place in the second playoff race of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series season, another perhaps had one of the most depressing days he has had this season. Denny Hamlin was one of the best drivers on track for the second race running, but his teammate Martin Truex Jr, one of the strong title contenders going into the playoffs, seems to be on the verge of elimination in the very first round.

Truex had an absolute disaster on Sunday through no fault of his own. As the drivers crossed the green flag for the first time, the 2023 Cup Series regular-season champion was being passed left and right and could not do anything at all to defend his track position. It was obvious that something was wrong with his car. After a few moments, Truex lost his right rear as the #19 car’s suspension was heavily damaged, effectively ending his race. But there was more drama at the JGR camp.

Insider Reveals Joe Gibbs Racing’s Bizarre Decision

The #19 driver was trying to drive his car into the pits, but since his suspension had been heavily damaged, the car wouldn’t turn and he was stuck near the entrance of pit road. The race went under caution as his car was towed to the JGR pit stall. The funny thing is, the team wanted to fix the issue right there in the stall.

While a lot of teams fix mechanical issues in pit stalls, something as major as the suspension cannot be fixed in a matter of minutes. But JGR took the gamble and got the car back to their stall. After realizing that they couldn’t really do anything about it, the #19 was towed away to the garage.

And that was something Brad Keselowski’s spotter TJ Majors took issue with as the car was evidently far too damaged to continue. He was shocked that Joe Gibbs Racing actually attempted to fix a broken suspension in the pit stall instead of the garage, where the car would have gone after the race, regardless.

When asked if that is a decision that should be taken by the team or NASCAR, Majors said, “They took him to a stall and then we had to ride under caution for three, four laps because of this. They unhooked him, put him in his stall. ‘Oh it won’t, we can’t fix it here’, take it to the garage, and now they gotta tow him back, hook him up again, and tow him to the garage and you could tell this car was wrecked.“

“I know they wanted to work on it but that’s like to me, that’s towing him right to the garage. Wouldn’t you want him there anyway? I mean, if your suspension’s broken, you gotta try to fix stuff like that?” Majors posed the question.

Martin Truex Jr has gotten himself into an extremely difficult situation heading into the last round of 16 race at Bristol. Despite being the regular season champion, the veteran finds himself seven points below the cutline.

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Had Truex not suffered his tire issue and finished the race, he would have been in the top 12 going into Bristol. As per his teammate Denny Hamlin, what he and his crew went through at Kansas was nothing but bad luck.

Hamlin believes that his teammate probably ran over something on the track before the green flag fell. Truex was seen struggling from the get-go as a number of cars passed him in the first lap before he lost control of his car.

“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,” Hamlin said.

The 2023 regular season champion Martin Truex Jr will have a mountain to climb at Bristol. The veteran possesses the race craft and the experience necessary to pull it off. Will he be able to make it into the last 12? What are your thoughts?

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