“Just a little bit frustrated with how things have gone lately. No matter what we do, it is wrong,” Martin Truex Jr. had said ahead of the Watkins Glen race. And the frustration continued after the race as he was denied a good finish. The 2017 NASCAR Cup Series champion is in his final season before he retires from the top tier.

However, his last season is not going as he’d hoped. MTJ was winless in the entire regular season. Then he barely qualified for the playoffs. Hoping for a comeback in the first playoff race at Atlanta, he again crashed out. And now, when he was in desperate need of points, he could not finish in the top 15, thanks to the “best driver in the world.”

Martin Truex Jr.’s frustration becomes evident

The Watkins Glen race ended in a dramatic showdown between Shane van Gisbergen and Chris Buescher, with Buescher taking the win and SVG finishing second. But for Martin Truex Jr., the day was disappointing. After a tough 35th-place finish in Atlanta, Truex needed a strong performance. He started well from P2 and led the final two laps of Stage 1. However, by the end of Stage 2, he had dropped to 23rd. In the final stage, Truex fought his way back to 16th but was ultimately kept out of the top 15 by Kyle Larson.

What exactly happened?

With three laps to go, Kyle Larson was trying to protect his top 15 spot against Todd Gilliland. However, the aggressive move had Gilliland crash into Chase Elliott and Josh Berry, who were right behind them. Sadly, Martin Truex Jr. was pushed into the outside wall too. After the final restart of the race, the #19 driver finished P20, whereas Larson laddered up to 12th. Naturally, Truex Jr. was frustrated after the disappointing finish and hit out at Larson.

In the post-race interview, he said, “I just don’t really understand how guys call themselves the best in the world when they just drive through everyone on restarts at the end of these races. So it’s very frustrating, but it is what it is these days so I am out of here.” 

The gibe by MTJ was a reference to Larson previously calling himself the best all-round driver in the world. This claim was made by the #5 when he was asked who was better between him and Formula One’s Max Verstappen.

MTJ’s frustration is understood.

• He entered the race in the 15th position in the playoff standings and remained in the 15th position. The only positive is that his -19 points were reduced to -14 below the cutline. The Bristol race would now be a must-win for the veteran if he wishes to continue his last Cup Series campaign.
• On the other hand, Kyle Larson’s aggression also played in the No. 5’s favor. Starting from the 10th position in the playoff standings, he bettered it to 9th post-race. And also increased his cushion from +15 to +25 points.

In the race, Truex Jr. was not the only victim of the #5’s aggression. Even his teammate, Denny Hamlin, faced the brunt, making his playoff chances uncertain.

Aggressive Larson catches Denny Hamlin too

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Denny Hamlin started 22nd after a poor qualifying effort. Shortly after the green flag, he was caught up in a spin involving Christopher Bell and Kyle Busch, putting him a lap down, though he later received a free pass. In Stage 2, further trouble came when a three-wide battle with Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson resulted in Keselowski pushing Hamlin into the wall, causing significant nose damage to Hamlin’s car.

The #11 faction called it Larson’s and NASCAR’s fault. As they were heard saying on the radio. “Who spun us? Three wide with the 5 and 6. 5 squeezed us with the 6, ran us out of room you know?” 

Eventually, Hamlin ended his race in the 23rd position. Post the race, Hamlin said Keselowski could have done things differently, “We were three-wide and [Keselowski], I thought, could have let off there because we were so far ahead. He kept it three-wide, and I wrecked.” Further, when asked about the reason for his playoff slump, the JGR driver unhesitatingly told the press, “We haven’t had tracks like this in the playoffs for the most part. Usually, we got road courses and superspeedways and a lot of them, but you don’t have this many in the playoffs as what we have this year. It’s just making for a lot of attrition and some good cars below the cutline that are likely to get eliminated.”

Hamlin is now pushed into the elimination zone in the playoff standings. He entered the race with a +2 cushion at 11th position; however, he ended his race in the 13th, -6 points below the cutoff line.

For both Hamlin and MTJ, the last chance for redemption is the upcoming Bristol race. And Bristol is a stronghold of the #11 driver, who’s won the race the last two times. Same for MTJ; in the last Bristol race, he finished in the second position behind his JGR teammate.

With elimination nearing, which four do you think won’t progress?