The winding race track of the Wine Country witnessed Martin Truex Jr drive down to the victory lane for the fourth time, one short of Jeff Gordon’s five Sonoma wins. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver led for fifty-one laps at the twelve-turn circuit. With more than half the regular season over, Truex Jr already has two wins, five top-5s, and seven top-10 finishes. After what can only be described as a disappointing 26th-position finish at Sonoma last year, Truex Jr celebrated this year’s dominating win by drinking from the Sonoma trophy cup!
The 2023 Toyota/Save Mart 350 was an interesting one, to say the least. As pole-winner Denny Hamlin’s teammate grabbed the title, Hamlin had to drop out of the race following a misstep during Lap 95. Recently the 23XI Racing co-owner spoke on Martin Truex Jr’s win.
He ran us down: Denny Hamlin reveals the common theme in Martin Truex Jr’s wins as he praises his teammate
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Speaking to co-host Jared Allen on his Actions Detrimental podcast, Hamlin delved into the happenings of the Sonoma Raceway event. Talking about why Truex Jr’s win didn’t have him psyched up, Hamlin revealed that he was run down by his teammate. The #19 driver overtook Hamlin during a pit sequence.
“Martin Truex’s wins aren’t usually exciting. He was good. But he ran us down, after stage one. He gained a little bit on us in the pit sequence, but he just kind of ran us down there. Now he didn’t leave us once he passed us, and we kinda had a miscommunication in Turn 11 there on whether he was inside or not. But we gave up the lead, nonetheless, and then just kinda sat there behind him for a while,” said Hamlin.
Touching on his teammates’ win, the 23XI Racing co-owner said, “He was good, I mean, he was really good. This is one of Martin’s best race tracks, and anytime he shows up somewhere and he is good in practice, you can bank he is gonna be good in the race. That team and him are exceptional at this race track. Even if his car is not perfect, he will find a way to be in contention cause he’s so good there.”
Though he can take solace that his teammate won, Hamlin must be utterly disappointed with the result, considering that he had won the pole and led the race for the first 33 laps.
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What caused Denny Hamlin’s DNF at the Sonoma Raceway?
The #11 Joe Gibbs Racing driver won the first stage of the Toyota/Save Mart 350. A caution during the second stage left him trailing behind, but Hamlin quickly caught up to the race leaders securing a in the top 10. Disaster struck on Lap 95 as Hamlin bumped into the inside wall of Turn 12, snapping the rear toe link on his Toyota. With just 15 laps left till the checkered flag dropped, Hamil was forced to retire from the race.
In a post-race interview, Hamlin disclosed how he ended up slamming into the wall. “I was really close behind the #24 (William Byron) and I couldn’t really see where I was going and then I went to turn left to try to peak under him, and the wall was there. Everything was beat up pretty good. It was doubtful we were going to get it fixed. It was bad as I messed it up.” said the Joe Gibbs Racing driver
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Currently sitting 63 points behind the 2023 championship leader, will Denny Hamlin finally bring home the championship this season?
Read More: Joey Logano Suggests Joe Gibbs Wouldn’t Have Fired Him if He Had “Enough God-Given Talent”