Martin Truex Jr. had one of his worst races this season at Kansas after retiring barely three laps in. This was a significant loss for him and the JGR driver now needs a really good result at Bristol to avoid going out in the first round itself.
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Meanwhile, the social media landscape erupted into an argument after Truex was towed straight into the garage instead of being taken to pit road for an attempt to repair the car. Clearing the air surrounding this, NASCAR veteran Kenny Wallace recently shared his thoughts on the matter.
Kenny Wallace shares his perspective of Martin Truex Jr. drama
While speaking on his podcast, Wallace mentioned, “Three laps into the race, this was a bummer. This was like ugh. This was hard to swallow because, Martin Truex definitely a championship contender, Martin Truex has to win at Bristol next week. But listen, this is the playoffs, man. You cannot make any mistakes.”
“You run three races you spit some drivers out, you’re on another three races, you spit some more drivers out. So, Martin Truex, they show the picture on Twitter. He runs three laps and there was a little drama on Twitter. Oh, my God! The tow truck took Martin Truex back to the garage area.”
The veteran thought fans were blowing it out of proportion when in fact, even if the car was taken to the pit road, the result would have been the same.
“Once you do that, you’re out a race well, that was just a little of little, little too much hoopla. Really amounted to nothing because his right from A-frame was sheared off. They could have took him to pit road that couldn’t have fixed it. So let it go. It was a, it was a nothing deal,” Wallace concluded.
What caused Truex’s early wreck at Kansas?
The main culprit behind the #19 driver slamming the wall at turn 3 was a tire blowout. Hours after the race, Joe Gibbs Racing put up a picture on their social media handle showcasing the tire and the damage that led to the unfortunate incident.
Here is the tire that shortened @MartinTruex_Jr‘s day at Kansas Speedway yesterday. pic.twitter.com/awhXOv8zg4
— Joe Gibbs Racing (@JoeGibbsRacing) September 11, 2023
Just a couple of weeks ago, Truex was on top of the leaderboards, gunning for his second championship at the end of this year. Looking at him now, he’s languishing in the bottom four, with just one race to go before an eventual elimination. First, he had a poor race at Darlington and now he’s had a complete disaster at Kansas.
Hence, the only way for the 2017 Cup Series champion to get out of this debacle would be to get an incredible result at Bristol or hope other drivers in the bubble get unlucky this weekend.
