“They Are Really Like a Married Couple”: Denny Hamlin Takes Sarcastic Dig at Outspoken Martin Truex Jr & Reserved Crew Chief

Winning is a collaborative effort. When 40 cars run 3 or even 4 wide at blazing speed, not a single driver can emerge as a standout and dominate the rest by means of overkill; indeed, the margin between the first-place finish and the runner-up is quite minimal. The point of difference oftentimes is the team crew, especially the spotter and crew chief.

While one keeps the driver away from on-track trouble, the other lays out the strategy throughout the race. Unfortunately, Martin Truex Jr and the number 19 team’s crew chief James Small share a love-and-hate relationship which Truex’s teammate Denny Hamlin finds hilarious.

Denny Hamlin’s insider shed light on the nature of the Truex-Small bond

Sunday’s South Point 400 witnessed a radio banter between Martin Truex Jr and James Small regarding their controversial pit strategy. During the caution break between Stage 1 and 2, while other drivers committed to the pit lane, Small instructed Truex to stay on the track. Truex, however, was a bit skeptical at first but ultimately followed the instructions.

However, it didn’t quite work out. The tricky part of this strategy is that one really needs to stay up front while playing it out. Otherwise, there are high chances that one could get sucked in the traffic on the restarts. And that’s exactly what happened. By the end of Stage 2, Martin Truex Jr fell back to the 16th spot.

It seemed like Truex Jr had difficulties following Small’s instructions due to the latter’s soft-spoken nature. Moreover, his Australian accent sometimes comes out unclear on the in-car radio. And the driver doesn’t hold back from expressing his frustration at times like these.

In a recent Actions Detrimental episode, co-host and Denny Hamlin’s longtime friend Jared Allen exclaimed, “They sound like a married couple that are just sick of each other. But that’s just how they operate. Truex’s like I shouldn’t have listened to you, but I’m not good at that.”

Denny Hamlin roared out in laughter. He recalled having seen an update about the duo’s antics on Twitter. The 23XI owner said, “James is a pretty soft-spoken individual. Truex is not shy about saying, “I can’t f***ing hear you, I can’t understand you.” For him to have an accent and to be soft-spoken, and Truex is not shy about calling out both, it’s laughable, it’s funny.”

“It’s funny because it’s not my situation. But they are a married couple for sure. It’s just banter amongst teammates,” he added controlling his laughter.

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Needless to say, that was not the first time the “married couple” had an argument. Back in this year’s Cup Series at Richmond Raceway, the racing community saw an even funnier exchange between the two. Let’s wind the clock back just a little.

The banter might have sounded funny, but it wasn’t so for the JGR speedster

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Truex Jr’s Toyota was fast enough to get him his fourth win of the season. After all, the way he led 50 of the last 100 laps of the race clearly spoke of his chances of winning. However, when NASCAR brought out a yellow flag with just 28 laps to go, the day ended miserably for the team.

Owing to a miscalculated pit strategy call, the number 19 Toyota had only seven lap scuffs left in the pits, while the rest of the field had sticker tires. To make things worse, Truex didn’t realize that he was running on older tires. But when he did, he expressed his frustration over the radio. Alas, it was too late. The chain of conversation was something like this:

“What a f**king nightmare,” said Truex.
“I know it. Let’s survive here,” his spotter told him.
“My tires are flat,” retorted sharply.
No sooner had Truex finished the race 11th, Small radioed, “Sorry. We f**g hosed ourselves,” he told the driver. “We’re f**k out of tires. We had seven-lap scuffs there. So we were f**king.”

“I don’t understand what you just said, But that was pitiful.” the driver replied.
A dejected Small repeated, “Had f**king scuff tires on there because we hurt ourselves taking our set in Stage 1. So we were f**ked regardless. Sorry. We f**ked up.”
“You didn’t tell me you put scuffs on,” Truex added “I didn’t know what the f**k was wrong, OK? Jesus.”
“There’s no point in telling you. We were f****g either way,” came the reply.

What do you think of their bittersweet relationship? Share in the comments section.

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