NASCAR should carefully look into its drivers’ fuel tanks. For a second time in two weeks, a top-performing driver who was in the front row failed miserably due to a gas issue. Last week in Gateway, Penske driver Ryan Blaney seemed set for a Victory Lane finish after JGR rival Christopher Bell fell back. But his gas bars dropped to zero just shy of the victory lap, and teammate Austin Cindric snatched the glory.

Almost the same fiasco played out on Sunday at Sonoma. In the final lap of the California race, Martin Truex Jr found himself jostling with Chris Buescher. That gave an opening to Kyle Larson, who found his mojo towards the end. Then an empty fuel tank crashed Truex’s chances of at least securing a podium finish, leaving his crew chief clueless.

It wasn’t the #19’s day

The starting laps of the Toyota Mart 350 race did not play out well for Joe Gibbs Racing drivers. Denny Hamlin’s engine broke down barely two laps in, and Ty Gibbs hit the wall 16 laps into the race. Similarly, Martin Truex Jr encountered trouble on lap 8 when Australian Supercars driver Will Brown spun the veteran on his Cup debut. Being relegated to the  37th spot, Truex had some colorful words to vent over the radio. But that wasn’t the end of his miseries, though.

Though the 2023 Sonoma victor after finishing 19th in the first stage, Martin Truex Jr grabbed the third spot in the second stage. In the final stage, he was vying for a potential victory. But in the pursuit of glory, Truex and his team had their minds off the fuel strategy. Thus he was barely 100 yards from securing a runner-up finish before coasting and finishing 27th. Truex wondered why they did not think of gas: “I’m not sure why we didn’t try to save a little at the end.” 

The No. 19 crew chief also posited a similar attitude, having a dearth of clues about their last-lap misery. Talking to Stephen Stumpf of Frontstretch, James Small sais, “We were at least half a lap in the good there. Obviously, we were a ninth of a lap short. Yeah, I have no idea.”

But Small went on to hail Martin Truex Jr’s remarkable progress from 37th to a potential runner-up finish. “Yeah, it was good. Considering we were back to dead last after we got turned around at the start of the race. You know, it worked out good for us the way the strategy played out and the load of cautions had a shuffle of wins.” He added, “So yeah, unfortunately, no idea, and moving on.”

After getting a double slap from Chris Buescher‘s fight and an empty fuel tank, Martin Truex Jr acknowledged his crew chief’s contributions. too. “It was a tough day. I got spun out early and had to work hard to get some track position back. James did a good job on our strategy. Our car was pretty good out front; thought we were going to have a shot to win there and just couldn’t quite get by the No. 17 quick enough,” he said.

Indeed, Martin Truex Jr’s loss comes as a drastic downfall from his Sonoma reputation. But the JGR driver expected the 2024 run to be hard for him.

Truex had his doubts prior to the race

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Boasting four glittering wins at Sonoma Raceway, Martin Truex Jr holds the most wins at this racetrack as an active driver. But the 2024 season spelled an evolved scenario for him. Speedway Motorsports LLC repaved the hilly, 12-turn, 1.99-mile road course this past winter. And Truex did not approve the repaving: “I wish they didn’t. We had something really good here working.” But as it turned out, something else sealed his fate at the race.

The newly paved asphalt and a new set of barriers made the track treacherous, drawing a staggering nine caution flags. This majorly impacted the flow of the race and team strategies, which could be a reason for the No. 19 team’s failure. But Martin Truex Jr expected this. Talking to Autoweek, he said: “This could be probably the hardest one to win of all of them because it is going to come down to track position, and being on the right strategy, having good pit stops. We could see a guy gamble on when to pit and catch a caution and win the race, kind of come from nowhere.”

And Kyle Larson did come out of nowhere, as he grabbed the race lead with eight laps to go. Thus Larson’s glory and a bad fuel plan added to Martin Truex Jr’s woes. Yet considering his solid run, a Cup victory may be just around the corner.