Sunday’s Cup Series race in Richmond was a frustrating one for Martin Truex Jr. Though the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was dominant throughout the event, late misfortunes rendered him to give up his winning spot to teammate Denny Hamlin. Infuriated by Hamlin’s late-race moves, he repeatedly drove into the back of his car after the checkered flag.
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Talking to the press post-race, team owner Joe Gibbs provided his take on how he viewed the aggression between his drivers. He said that Truex Jr. had fought extremely hard for the win and that his actions were understandable. He said, as reported by Speedway Digest, “You’re happy for Denny certainly and everything that happened tonight for him, but then you see Martin, how hard he fought for this, how much he wanted it.”
“That’s part of our sport. It’s really hard. You see these guys when it gets down towards the end of these races, they’re going for it because they are really hard to win,” he continued. “You can’t have that happen, particularly if you got good cars, good drivers. They all want it… You really feel for them when they go through a night like Martin went through this night. You just feel for them.”
Truex Jr. led 228 of the 407 laps in Sunday’s race. He finished in fourth place behind Hamlin, Joey Logano, and Kyle Larson. The finish marks his fifth consecutive top-10 finish in 2024. While he doesn’t have a victory yet, he continues topping the points table.
What Truex Jr. and Hamlin said of the late-race disturbances between them
Truex Jr. was the most disappointed driver on pit road after the checkered flag flew. He told reporters that Hamlin had jumped the restart and used him up going to Turn 1. He also noted that it was pretty disappointing to have a teammate race against him that way. “I didn’t appreciate a teammate racing me like that,” he said. “I wish he would have given me a chance. That’s the way it is.”
Hamlin, on the other hand, maintained in his post-race interview that the restart just looked close to a jumped one. He quipped, “Certainly, made sure I went to my nose, got there. But I took off right away. Still, we were side by side down the water into turn one.” NASCAR cleared him of any wrongdoing, but things will certainly be awkward for a while with Truex Jr. when the duo meet at the JGR quarters.
