What happened to Martin Truex Jr. over the course of the last couple of races in the postseason can only be called a catastrophe. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver just recently won the regular season championship and was a championship favorite for many. But with a string of horrendous performances and being constantly marred with terrible luck, Truex Jr. found himself barely making it into the second round of the playoffs.
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Since there was a point reset for the round of 12, many had hoped that he would be able to bounce back. Instead, he faltered once again at Texas and ended the race in an abysmal 17th place.
Recently, while speaking on the NASCAR on NBC Podcast, former Cup Series driver Dale Jarrett exclaimed how he remained in disbelief witnessing the regular season champion’s post-season uncontrollably crashing down.
Dale Jarrett cannot fathom Martin Truex Jr.’s post-season downfall
Discussing the JGR driver, the Hall of Famer mentioned, “..You’re being kind when you say that their playoffs have been mediocre. This has been a disaster.”
He also shared how at one point he believed that Truex Jr. would be one of the championship four drivers along with Denny Hamin, Kyle Larson, and William Byron.
Talking further about the #19 driver, he added, “I realized just four races in there hasn’t been a single race when you said, ‘Oh, yeah, you know, they’re gonna be good today.’ They even when they qualified well, they went on the back slide to start with at Kansas.”
“As soon as they dropped the green flag and then they ran over something and punctured a tire. So it’s just your one thing after another and you talk about these pit stops, once again, put yourself and put your driver in a bad spot. And you’re not able to run the race the way that you want to.”
Additionally, he mentioned that he was not sure if the #19 team would be “able to make it through the next round.” But even if they somehow manage to make it in, what would be their clean-up process to stop the constant mistakes hurting their championship hopes?
Jarrett believes there’s a disconnect between Truex Jr. and his crew chief
Speaking further into the podcast, Jarrett mentioned, “I’m gonna be blunt, honest and this is hanging around Kyle Petty as much as I do, which I love to do, and but you learn to kind of say what’s on your mind…”
“I think there’s a disconnect there between James Small and the rest of the team. Not just their driver, but the rest of the team. Now, he’s got to get a handle on this and he better do it much sooner than later.” Interestingly, Small has been the #19 car’s crew chief since the 2020 season.
At the moment, Truex Jr. and his team still have an opportunity to make it right, considering he is currently 5th in the playoff standings. However, in case they are unable to capitalize on the next race at Talladega or worse if they wreck out, it would nearly be game over for the regular season champion.
