The most dominant nature of stock car racing is perhaps its element of unpredictability. One day, you might be the leader of the pack and on another, you might find yourself behind everyone else. As unfair as it sounds, it is true. After the second playoff race at Kansas Speedway, a Joe Gibbs Racing driver found himself in such a situation.

You’ve guessed it right, the driver in discussion is none other than Martin Truex Jr. The 43-year-old Cup Series driver had entered the playoff rumble after winning the regular season championship. After Darlington, he was still a plus 25, which is quite good. But after an early mishap running on the 1.5-mile-long track of Kansas City, Martin Truex Jr. found himself below the cutline for the next round. Following his misery, Bubba Wallace‘s insider further disparaged the #19 Toyota Camry driver.

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All Cup drivers out there would unanimously agree on the importance of the regular season championship. After all, it gives you a total bonus of 15 points, equivalent to three race wins. With the playoffs being an active battle of points, every driver would perhaps aim at gathering as many points as possible before moving on to the round of 16s. Needless to say, Martin Truex Jr had held that coveted position before NASCAR reached Darlington.

However, he finished 18th at Darlington, failing to make a difference for the number 19 team. Fast forward to this past weekend, Martin Truex Jr flunked the penultimate race of round one quite early. He lost control of his ride just on the 4th of the 268 lap-long race and crunched the outside wall, tail first. As a result, he fell back to the 13th spot in the driver standings, 7 points below Stewart-Haas Racing speedster Kevin Harvick.

In a recent episode of Door Bumper Clear, Freddie Kraft revealed his thoughts about Martin’s misery. He said, “People are like well maybe we need to just give the regular season champ a pass into (round 2)”

“No,” he continued, “He’s the reason why he’s only seven [points] out is because he got bonus, he should be more out.”

Crew member TJ Majors asked, “How many are you [Bubba Wallace] out?”

Freddie replied that he was 19 points below the cutline. He retorted sharply, “I would be ahead of him [Martin Truex Jr] if you didn’t have all those bonus points.”

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Indeed, the last few races have been gloomy for Martin Truex Jr. Besides Freddie Kraft, Truex’s misfortune also stirred up veteran NASCAR Stalwart and Hall of Fame Dale Jarrett.

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HMS icon William Byron and Martin Truex Jr were in a tie moving on to the opening race of the round of 16. As of now, Byron sits at 4th while Martin Truex Jr seems out of contention.

Quite unexpected, don’t you think? The feeling was mutual for NBC analyst Jeff Burton and Dale Jarrett. In a three-way conversation with them, NBC reporter Rick Allen asked, “Did you expect the guy who wins the regular season, has the most playoff points entering these playoffs, to be in jeopardy of not making the next round after two races?”

Jeff Burton admitted that he did not. The speed of Martin’s Toyota has always been top-tier. Nothing had ever pointed towards the situation that they are in right now. “I certainly did not,”?Burton said, “They did not have a good run the week before at Darlington, then they go here and have a problem’ a puncture in the tires. Nothing you can do about that but now here they are.”

“They are out of the playoffs, out of moving on to the next round as we sit today…they’ve got to go to Bristol and they’ve got to perform,” he added.

Dale Jarrett, however, revealed how Bristol might be a challenge for the New Jersey native. “Darlington’s a tough track, Kansas; you never know what’s gonna happen. But you knew that looming there was Bristol,” said Jarrett, “We know, a half-mile short track where things happen in a hurry. You can get caught up in someone else’s problems. Now, they have to think about that. They should not be in this situation at all with the amount of points that they started with but they have now put themselves in that.”

Indeed, a lot of unthinkable things are happening in the current season’s playoffs. Bubba Wallace is in the playoffs for the first time in his career, Chase Elliott’s playoff appearance streak is broken and most recently, the regular season champion is at the risk of missing the round of 12s. Moving forward, we are as excited as you are to know the names of the drivers who will be in the top 12 at Texas Motor Speedway on September 24.

Read More: Kansas Speedway-Latest News, Winners, Qualifying, Track