Ever since Joe Gibbs Racing announced the retirement of Martin Truex Jr., the driver has been searching for a win before he calls it quits on competitive racing. But for some reason or another, Truex Jr. has fallen short of that storied ending to his Cup racing career. Even when he’s had chances to win and convert races.

The story has been the same in the Xfinity 500 race at Martinsville Speedway. Starting the race from the pole, he was in a commanding position to end his time at JGR on a winning note. But he can’t seem to learn from his past mistakes and keeps shooting himself in the foot with the decisions he makes on the racetrack.

Martin Truex Jr. just can’t keep himself out of trouble

In the second stage, the #19 Toyota Camry just lost its grip while exiting the corner and slid sideways into the racetrack. There was no interference by other drivers, just Martin Truex Jr., who couldn’t help his own cause. It was a typical story of once a promising race day taking a turn for the worse all because of his mistakes.

Even the veteran driver couldn’t believe how he threw away a great opportunity to win the race. Taking to the team radio, he said, “It’s a mess; so f***ing terrible.” Well, this wasn’t exactly his first error. Prior to this incident, he dropped the ball while he made a pit stop under the green flag in the hopes of gaining an advantage. But things went south on him quickly.

This time around, the pit crew at the #19 camp were spot on with their job. However, he had a speeding penalty on the pit, and guess what? It wasn’t his first one for the season. According to Kelly Crandall from ESPN, Martin Truex Jr. has seven speeding penalties in 2024, which is the highest among the drivers.

Before the JGR driver headed to the pits, he was having a hard time trying to fend off his opponents. Having led 41 laps in the stage 1 run, he fell down to fifth. “It’s going to s-it. I can’t find grip. You spin the tires so much, it doesn’t matter if it’s straight or not.” He said this one on the radio before he was penalized by the officials for over speeding.

Not only Martin Truex Jr. but the entire Joe Gibbs Racing team had a tough outing at the half-mile oval of Martinsville.

No JGR driver will compete for the championship

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Both Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin were on a hunt for the final two spots in the final 4. Hamlin, despite having a strong run, finishing second in the stage 2 run could only secure a P5 finish for himself. This wasn’t enough for him, as he was already on the wrong side of the cutline and wasn’t able to leapfrog his rivals. Ryan Blaney’s winning the race essentially sealed Hamlin’s fate.

However, Bell’s fate for qualifying in the championship race was decided by the NASCAR officials. Unable to find any joy, the JGR driver tried to commit his all on the last lap as he almost pulled off a hail melon 2.0. But this move would come to haunt him as NASCAR deemed it a safety violation and credited him with a P22 finish. This ruling saw William Byron make it past the bug hurdle and bag himself a final 4 ticket.

“I don’t know what to say. I mean, I understand that the rule is made to prevent people from riding the wall, but my move was completely different than what Ross’ was. I got loose getting into the corner and slid right into the fence.” Bell said this after the ruling.

However, the controversial part about this whole drama was that the Joe Gibbs Racing team wasn’t allowed to appeal this decision. This is surely going to become a hot topic of discussion among the racing circles.