Joe Gibbs Racing has produced excellent results year after year. With a combination of talented drivers, superior cars, and exceptional crew members, Joe Gibbs has perfected a race-winning team. But “The Lady in Black” has seen even the best teams crumble on its tracks.

Joe Gibbs’s exceptional crew faltered at the Darlington Raceway in the first race of the playoffs. All three of its drivers in contention suffered because of pit road failure. Consequently, Martin Truex Jr conveyed his frustration and rage during the race.

Martin Truex Jr miffed with Joe Gibbs Racing in a scathing radio exchange

Martin Truex Jr secured his playoff spot with an outstanding performance in the regular season. The 2017 Cup Series champion had registered three wins and nine Top-5 finishes before the race in Darlington. But his playoff woes began at “The Track Too Tough to Tame” with a lackluster 31st-place finish.

Truex Jr‘s unfortunate luck was compounded by the #19 team’s multiple pit failures. A delay in pit calls and erroneous tire changes hampered the driver’s progress on the leaderboard. As a result, his team left him feeling thoroughly vexed.

Around lap 150 in Stage 2, Drew Herring, the spotter of Truex Jr, asked him to drive down to the pit road. At a track where tires wear out every 35–40 laps, the #19 Toyota driver wanted to pit earlier than the pit call. He expressed his irritation in the radio exchange with his spotter. “Why do you guys always wait so long? There’s no way I was making it!” When Herring informed he was two laps away from pitting, the #19 driver retorted with, “F***ing wonderful.”

The incompetence didn’t end there for Martin Truex Jr. Toward the tail end of the race, he felt something wrong with the tire change earlier and sensed a loose wheel. He didn’t mince words while relaying that information to his team. “My God, we s*ck, still hitting the racetrack.”

Truex Jr’s crew chief James Small was equally tensed with the situation. He responded the crew fit the wrong set of wheels during an earlier round of pit stops. “Yep, copy. They went the wrong way on the rounds. So that’s why.” To that, an increasingly frustrated Truex Jr blasted, “Jesus Christ! Can’t do anything right tonight”.

Watch This story: Martin Truex Jr. Criticizes Joe Gibbs Crew in Recent Interview

Unfortunately, it isn’t the first time this season that the ace driver has paid the price for a pit stop blunder; neither is this the first heated exchange he has had with Small on the radio.

Penalties slapped on Truex Jr because of the #19 pit crew’s gaffes

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Earlier in the regular season, at the Pala Casino 400, Martin Truex Jr paid a hefty price for a botched-up pit job. A loose wheel is a serious safety hazard for the racers and bystanders. As a result, NASCAR imposed two-week suspensions for two crew members and a two-lap penalty for the racing car.

At the end of Stage 1, the #19 driver went for a pit stop, but a wheel was not screwed in properly. He realized as soon as he came back on the tracks. A few moments later, his wheel rolled off after detaching from the car.

As the commentators announced, this was the first wheel infraction of 2023. But since it rolled off on the racetrack, NASCAR took the offense seriously and Truex Jr sat on the pit road for two laps. Moreover, two members of his crew, Danny Olszowy and Kellen Mills, were barred from the next two races in Las Vegas and Phoenix. Thankfully, a series of cautions and Truex Jr’s exceptional racing skills ensured a respectable 11th-place finish for the Joe Gibbs racer.

However, Truex Jr cannot afford these mistakes or penalties at this critical juncture of the competition. He is racing to win, and he deserves as much consistency behind the scenes as he displays on the racetracks. Let us hope the next race at Kansas goes a lot smoother for this championship contender.

Read More: “11 Car Had His Issue”: Martin Truex Jr Blames Denny Hamlin for Not Letting Him Race the Way He Wanted to