A year ago, Joe Gibbs Racing star Martin Truex Jr had broken into the top 10 of the 2022 regular season driver standings. But he was also winless in all 26 races and could not qualify for the playoffs. In 2023, his perseverance bore results and he won the regular season championship. But things turned on lap 4 in Kansas. and now, despite qualifying for the playoffs from the helm of the standings as regular season champion, the #19 driver stands on the brink of elimination.

Stumbling out the gates of the Kansas Speedway at P36, Martin could become the first regular season winner to get eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. The trouble on Sunday that put him in this hostile spot should have ideally been caught by his crew before anyone else at Kansas. But it was the expert eyes of Dale Earnhardt Jr that noticed it first.

Dale Earnhardt Jr called out the issue with the #19 JGR car before the crew does

Another step into the playoffs and Sunday at Kansas saw 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick see the victory lane. As all the other drivers who started the race alongside him eventually found the checkered flag, Martin Truex Jr got back out of the track as quickly as he’d got in. The driver’s Toyota Camry had qualified P3 and was one of the fastest cars on the track. But as soon the flag waved and the cars shot forward on race day, he began falling back because of a problem with his rear tire. He crashed after just three laps and left the field with an impact-less single point in his pocket.

Hendrick Motorsports legend and former crew chief Steve Letarte appeared on the “Motorsports On NBC” show alongside reporter Nate Ryan and disclosed his former driver, Dale Jr’s precise live analysis of Martin’s car. Speaking of the incident, he said, “First corner, Dale Jr said this. ‘Something’s wrong with the #19. He’s sinking through the field’. The director put the camera on him and corner after corner, he is 6 or 7 miles an hour off in the middle of a corner.”

The pit crews at Joe Gibbs Racing have had their share of troubles with the team’s star driver Denny Hamlin in recent years. But an issue this early in what was perhaps a race with the highest stakes this year is not light. While Dale Jr identifying the issue is a showcase of his mastery, the fact that he did it before the JGR crew could prevent the crash has devastated Martin’s chances at a championship.

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When Martin came into the playoffs, he was above the cutoff line with 36 points. And he now sits 7 points below the cutline going to the final race of the first playoff round at Bristol. An 18th-placed finish at Darlington and the disaster at Kansas have squandered the dominance that he’d shown throughout the regular season with 3 wins and 9 top-5 finishes. Talking about the same Steve Letarte expressed his views on the issues with the No. 19 car and team.

He mentioned the Darlington Race and commented on how the driver had to pit twice in stage 2 because of loose wheels. While he did acknowledge the issues faced courtesy of the crew, he also said that they couldn’t have possibly prevented the Kansas mishap. He said, “Going to turn 3, the right wheel goes flat. Into the fence, day over! Goodyear examines the tire, a puncture in the center of the tire. There is nothing that the #19 car team crew chief could’ve done. Assuming the part didn’t fall off toward the rightward tire, which I don’t believe is what happened. There’s nothing they could have done to prevent what happened at Kansas.”

The one final chance that Martin and his crew will get will be at Bristol next Saturday. Unfortunately, the Motor Speedway isn’t a strong track of his. He finished last in the track in 2022 and has just 3 top-10 finishes in 20 attempts.  With Bristol experts like Christopher Bell and Chris Buescher contending him for a final spot above the cut-off line, he’ll be scrambling to keep his shot at a championship alive.

Read More: After Kansas Disaster, How Can Martin Truex Jr Bounce Back in the Playoff Battle?