Martin Truex Jr.’s journey from the end of the regular season championship to the final race in the round of 16 eliminations was highly chaotic. He went from the top of the leaderboard all the way to the bottom four. But after a better race day performance at the iconic Bristol night race, Truex was finally able to pull himself out of the bottom four elimination spots, just in the nick of time.
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And speaking after the Bristol race, the JGR championship prospect mentioned how he was glad for barely avoiding a disaster after such a successful 2023 campaign in which he not only went to the victory lane many times but also ended up with the regular season championship.
Martin Truex Jr. was happy to have avoided being eliminated at Bristol
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver had entered the race with seven points under the cut-off. However, by the time the race was over, he managed to leave with the second position in the playoff standings.
Speaking with Sirius XM NASCAR Radio following the race, Truex mentioned, “Thank God for bonus points, right? I mean, you know it’s three horrendous races, really. So tonight’s battle it wasn’t pretty at all and I don’t know what we got to do to figure this place out. I thought we were pretty good early in the race.”
He entered -7 and left above the cut.
💭 “Thank god for bonus points, right?” – @MartinTruex_Jr
The 2023 regular season champ advances to the Round of 12.@JoeGibbsRacing | @ItsBristolBaby pic.twitter.com/ReJo9ctW30
— SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Ch. 90) (@SiriusXMNASCAR) September 17, 2023
“We qualified well and we went in a direction of qualifying. The car was really really good and then you know for the races just kind of went right back where it was in practice.”
He added, “Struggled with that all night but, the guys on pit road did a good job. We made a lot of adjustments trying to get better… So tough night but, it all resets now and we can perfectly dodge some bad luck and, get the job done going forward.”
Truex Jr. saves himself from massive embarrassment
Had Truex Jr. not been able to qualify for the next round of the playoffs, it would have been a pretty big embarrassment for him and his team. This was considering the fact that there has never been a case where the regular season champion has been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
Heading into the race at Bristol, Truex’s elimination had been a major talking point. In fact, he had also been asked about it during the same interview with Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. When asked about the speculations regarding his elimination at Bristol, the JGR driver stated that he did not read anything, therefore he didn’t know anything about the chatter.
Furthermore, Truex Jr. mentioned that he and his team went to work, did their usual routine, and gave their best effort. However, their performance was not up to par, and he expressed a desire to have done better. Now with the points being reset for the next round of the playoffs, Truex Jr. would have another shot at making sure he does things right this time around.
